Red Bull BC One Recap

This was the first bboy battle that has ever been streamed live on the internet, so that in itself is a bit of a milestone. Paris was a perfect venue for the event because Bboy culture is alive there more than it ever was in the US. Parisian culture mixed with the poor immigrant presence in France is a perfect environment for an art like Breakin.



On a production note, the segments that were produced to air before the battles were cool but really awkward. The directing of the extra segments are downright poor. The only portion of the pre battle footage that felt natural was the underground battle in Paris and Lilou playing soccer with kids in a park. The production of the battles were great but had some faulty directing choices in the early battles.

The battles themselves were dope and looked great in the high quality flash player on the site. The bboys this year were probably the best of any of the previous BC Ones. I went into it looking forward to seeing Just Do it, Taisuke, and Kid David.


I had seen Just Do it (Germany) from a couple clips on the internet and was really impressed by his dynamic flow and creative blow ups. I think the judges should have given him the win in the first round over Cico because even though Cico's power is incredible, all of his enders were either flopped or he just quit early. His presentation was quite low and his tops were non existent. In the judges defense, Just Do It was holding back a lot. A newcomer to the BC One should know that if you're battling someone like Cico you have to come 100%. If he would have came as hard as he did during his German qualifier he could have taken it to the finals.


Kid David has only been around as a newcomer to the big scene for about a year. I met Kid David when he was much younger in 2005 when he came to Tucson for a 2 on 2 battle.
Jesus and I showed up to this battle with some ridiculous outfits which Jesus still claims to this day messed up his performance. We lost to them in the finals after running into the crowd while flopping a double team we came up with called the 2 man coin. Kid David is the protege of Roxrite, who is one of the smartest battlers and one of the original stack style bboys. Kid David has developed his style and has more character than most. I wanted to see Kid David go further but Lil Ceng's execution of some of the most difficult power tricks I have ever seen knocked David out early in the event.


I favored Taisuke from Japan to win the whole thing this year after I saw him at Freestyle Session 11. His beat rocking skills and character in addition to being well rounded with power and tricks make him the model for an amazing bboy. He showed a lot of great battle strategy in the early rounds but eventually fell flat in the finals where it seemed like he was running low on juice and moves. The final battle was a bit disappointing overall because of the fatigue of both competitors. 1 on 1 battles are incredibly difficult and can only be won by bboys with endurance and a full arsenal of moves. Wing of South Korea definitely showed that he had those ingredients.


My dream for next year, is to have a bboy from Iran in the BC One but it's going to take a lot of training to get there. If I go back within the next year, I will train the someone to be the next BC One competitor, God Willing.

*all photos courtesy of Red Bull BC One