The Red Bull BC One Final, kicked off in Las Vegas, Nevada this weekend transforming the new Brooklyn Bowl into a B Boy brawl, with Florida B-Boy Vicious Victor taking the title as the Red Bull BC One North America Champion. MTV and SIRIUS XM personality, Sway Calloway, hosted the spin fest as 16 of North America’s greatest B-Boys went toe to toe in four rounds of one-on-one battles that had the crowd mystified by some of the most aerodynamically skilled moves performed.
The North America Final is one of six global qualifiers, which include Brazil, Algeria, Finland, Croatia and Taiwan. Victor will join the winners of these qualifiers to compete alongside 15 of the world’s best B-Boys on the global stage in Paris,France on November 29 at the Red Bull BC One France World Final 2014.
According to “The Art of Battle” written by the original B-Boy Alien Ness “Every aspect of the dance was created for competition and every move is judged according to its effectiveness as a weapon.” Coupled with individual style, athletic ability and bravado, each B-Boy demonstrated their best skills, rhythm and creative style to impress the panel of judges, which included RoxRite (Red Bull BC One All-Star and 2011 Red Bull BC One World Champion), Neguin (Red Bull BC One All-Star and 2010 Red Bull BC One World Champion) and Marlon (Havikoro Crew, Texas).
August 30th: Latin America Final in Belém, Brazil
September 13th: Eastern Europe Final in Zagreb, Croatia
September 26th: Middle East Africa Final in Algiers, Algeria
October 11th: Western Europe Final in Helsinki, Finland
October 25th: Asia Pacific Final in Taipei, Taiwan
Although, crowd favorite Gravity, windmilled his way through each round, the judges were more impressed with Vicious Victor in the end. “The battles were really intense tonight” says Roxrite (Judge): What usually happens in the first round is that everyone is going off for the first time so everything is fresh and the level of difficulty is really high. But down the line you see who has more variety with movements, different types of patterns and technical moves. In the end, those are the guys that started to shine more. Vicious Victor and Gravity’s final battle was really intense, but Vicious Victor was dropping a bit more of everything to win.”
Since its inception in 2004, Red Bull BC One has become the premier competition in the world of B-Boying, consistently attracting the best individual breakers in the world. Originally designed as an “invitation-only” event, the series has now opened to give any B-Boy the chance to compete through a multi-layered global qualification phase. Red Bull BC One celebrates breaking culture by using its original one-on-one, knockout battle format, as opposed to the crew-battle style more prevalent today.
“It feels really good to win.” Says Victor, “Last year I lost in the first round and felt horrible and I didn’t want that to happen this year. I trained so hard and I’m so happy because all of that training was worth it. I feel really good about the competition tonight, there were some crazy battles and I feel great about representing North America in Paris! Shout out to my family, especially my dad because he believed in me and told me I was going to win. I’m proud and I hope he’s proud too.”
Dont miss the finals before the World Competition in Paris November 29, 2014. For more info visit www.redbullbcone.com Check out highlights from the North American Finals.
Latin America, Belém, Brazil, August 30 Eastern Europe, Zagreb, Croatia, September 13 Middle East Africa, Algiers, Algeria, September 26 Asia Pacific, Taipei, Taiwan, October 25.