The event opened to the sound of a dozen booming drums, as Indian drummers, dressed in orange and white, marched onto the Red Bull BC One stage and got the eager crowd ready for the night. And with DJ Smirnoff on music duties, the fight to be crowned champion began.
In the B-Boy contest, everyone came to win with wild battles like Phil Wizard vs Kazuki Rock, unpredictable freeze combos vs unorthodox flexible footwork blows up, with Kazuki Rock coming out on top.
Kazuki Rock gets creative with his moves© LITTLE SHAO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
With the B-Girls youth battled experience, as defending champion, Ami, went against B-Girl Ayumi in the semi-finals. With both girls being all-round super clean, breaking machines, Ayumi’s unique footwork variations seemed to be the edge that helped her defeat the 2018 champion, Ami.But the stories of the night belonged to B-Boy’s Menno, Killa Kolya and B-Girl Kastet.
Kastet sticks the freeze in the final against Ayumi© DEAN TREML/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
In 2018 B-Girl Kastet, from Russia, lost in the first round of the top 16 B-Girl battle. This year she came back mentally stronger and still rocking her funky, original, music-inspired style, which she used to beat the also musical and stylish MiMz, in the semi-finals.Even though Ayumi had experience over the fresh-faced Kastet, having won multiple competitions all over the world already, she couldn’t overcome the funky, musical, freedom with which Kastet loves to break. And when the judge’s cards were raised Kastet was left smiling wide with sudden shock and joy when she saw that she was the 2019 Red Bull BC One B-Girl World Champion, making history as the only Russian breaker to ever win a Red Bull BC One world title. Exiting the Red Bull BC One stage by jumping off of it and clicking her heels in the air, with her new Red Bull BC One World title belt over her shoulder, a few hours later she was still in shock, saying:
“I don’t believe this, I’m here, now, but I don’t yet really understand what has happened.”Kastet
Kastet is the Red Bull BC One 2019 B-Girl world champion© DEAN TREML
Then it was the story of two warriors on a mission. Everyone knew by now that Menno was laser-focused on becoming the only B-Boy to win a Red Bull BC One title 3 times, but no one was seemingly ready for the mission that last chance cypher winner, Killa Kolya, was on.Menno defeated Nori in the first round. Then in the second round, he took on the young, hungry Bumblebee. Neither wanted to go first so host, Amjad, had to come back onto the stage and ask the two to do a game of ‘Rock, Paper and Scissors’ to see who would begin. Even though Menno lost that game, his original flow and style won the battle against the high flying Olympic gold medallist, and from there he went on to beat the wild Kazuki Rock.On the other side of the battle bracket, Killa Kolya, pulled off the biggest upset of the night, defeating the 2018 defending champion, Lil Zoo, in their first-round matchup, and showing everyone that he had come to India ready to take home the belt. Killa Kolya then used his arsenal of seemingly endless intricate freeze combos to defeat B-Boy Robin in the second round, and the Brazil power mover, B-Boy Bart in the semi-finals, making history of his own by becoming the first LCC winner to ever advance all the way to the finals.The Indian crowd were also treated to two special performances that kept them hyped and cheering in between the battles. The first was by renowned Mumbai-based dance group V.Unbeatable, who’s 15-plus strong troop came out dressed in black and white, flight attendant themed outfits, and kept the energy alive by punctuating their tight routines by throwing members somersaulting and spinning high up into the air.
The Indian dance crew V.Unbeatable showed choreography and acrobatics© LITTLE SHAO
The crowd were also pumped up for the performance of acclaimed Mumbai rapper, Divine. Sporting all gold trainers, he got everyone on their feet, waving their hands in the air, chanting ‘BC One’ in unison.
The final between Killa Kolya and Menno was intense© DEAN TREML/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
And then, when Menno and Killa Kolya met in the finals neither B-Boy seemed to run out of moves or stamina, as they battled for 3 rounds with zen personas. But the crowd were brought to even more excited hype when the 3 round final spontaneously turned into 5 rounds. When the battle ended DJ Smirnoff stopped the music and Amjad stepped back onto the stage to get ready to find out the winner, but Menno wasn’t done and went out again, seemingly taken by the moment, and continued to battle. Seeing the fury with which Menno hit the floor again, DJ Smirnoff dropped the beat back in, Amjad stepped out the way, the crowd jumped to their feet cheering, and many ran to get as close as possible, surrounding the stage. Fired up by Menno’s wordless challenge to keep going, Killa Kolya went out again for another round, and the two warriors treated the thrilled crowd to two extra rounds of fire.With everyone already on their feet, when the battle finally ended, it went traditionally to the judges, and after an epic final Menno was the one who made history, winning the Red Bull BC One championship for the third time, becoming the only one ever to do it, and dedicating his momentous win to his soon-to-be-born son, his daughter, wife and family, and giving props to the Indian crowd, saying:”The India crown is crazy. When your fuel is done, they re-fuel you with their energy. You could see that the crowd were really in the moment, and it was like time was standing still in the middle, with everyone cheering and super hype.”India’s first-ever wildcard entry into the Red Bull BC One World Final, B-Boy Flying Machine, was eliminated in the round of 16 battle against Robin.
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