Breaking scandal in japan

A recent post of mine was all about how the Red Bull BC One increased the mainstream visibility and legitimacy of breakdancing as a sport by treating it like other major sporting events. And while that has helped elevate breaking to Olympic heights, becoming a recognized sport also brings downsides of equal depth. There’s still the toxic masculinity bullshit I mentioned previously, and there are a few competitive b-boys already collecting sexual misconduct allegations like pro athletes. Of course those are both very bad things that need to be addressed sooner rather than later, but there is one threat that could cripple the fledgling sport just as it steps onto the world stage—match fixing. 

A cancer that corrupts the spirit of fair competition at the heart of every beloved sport, even rumors of match fixing could undermine the confidence of both the athletes and the audience in the authenticity of the game. If either of those groups don’t believe they are witnessing a legitimate contest, the sport can’t survive. Skilled athletes don’t join competitions known for match fixing, and if a competition can’t attract skilled athletes, it won’t attract an audience, either. This is especially important in more subjective forms of competition like breaking, where the winner isn’t decided simply by calculating points. The judges for such a contest must be competent and trustworthy, otherwise no one will care about their results. To that end, the judges must avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Sadly, that has not been the case in Japan as of late. 

Let me open this next section with the caveat that my sources for the following are a lot of YouTube videos and comments, as well as Google translations of interviews in Japanese. It is entirely possible that I have misinterpreted things, but this is just my admittedly incomplete understanding of what seems to be breakdancing’s first match fixing scandal. 

Watching the Japan cypher was a puzzling experience for myself and many others, judging by the sheer volume of commentary. The engagement on most b-boy content is just declarations of who is awesome or not, occasionally interrupted by requests for the name of the song playing. But the results of the 2023 cypher whipped up a storm of indignant questions that was soon followed by a wave of disappointingly predictable answers. It’s the first time I can remember hearing the entire crowd vociferously reject the judges’ decision. Everyone wanted to know: just how the hell did B-boy Nicolas win?

Nicolas’ questionable victory

As I noted in my previous post, Japanese b-boys tend to put more emphasis on footwork than their counterparts in other countries. So much so that last year they had a competitor in their top sixteen who didn’t have any power moves, just fancy footwork and freezes. And he was eliminated in the first round, which makes sense as he completely lacked one of the major pillars of breaking. This year, Japan’s top sixteen contained no less than three competitors with finely detailed toprock, but no power moves. Not only did they all survive the first round, one of them—Nicolas—somehow defeated four obviously superior b-boys and won it all to a chorus of head scratches. Nicolas was clearly, demonstrably not on the same level as his opponents. He did not have the quick and clean execution of Hiro10, nor a vast vocabulary of moves like Shosei, and he lacked Gen Roc’s mastery of all the fundamentals of breaking. That includes power moves, of which Nicolas had none. In the final battle, Gen Roc was still pulling out new moves while Nicolas fumbled and repeated himself, utterly failing to impress. Quite simply, Nicolas is a long way from being a world-class b-boy. Yet, to the surprise of everyone including Nicolas himself, he won. And the internet said “Um, what?”

What I was able to glean from all the angry chatter that resulted was that one of the judges belonged to the same dance crew as B-boy Nicolas: the Floorriorz, which is a portmanteau of “floor” and “warriors.” It is a really stupid name. But that’s not all! A second judge is the girlfriend of that first judge with a glaring conflict of interest, and she followed his lead on every vote, pushing his under-qualified crewmate all the way to final circle, where they robbed Gen Roc of the chance to compete against the best b-boys in the world and possibly bring a third championship belt to Japan. Instead, Nicolas is going all the way to Paris to get hilariously trounced in the first round when none of his friends are in the judge’s chair. An embarrassing loss of face for Japanese b-boys, but at least the Floorriorz get to claim another world final contender on their roster! 

Apparently this isn’t the first final the Floorriorz have fixed. Back in 2017, the Japan cypher had one of its most underwhelming final battles ever as two b-boys with no power moves just traded footwork until the crowd fell asleep. Even with the bar set so low, b-boy Steez managed to turn in a particularly pathetic performance that was painfully slow, unoriginal, unimpressive, unable to hit a beat, and of course, completely lacking power moves. Despite doing nothing we hadn’t seen before and doing it poorly to boot, Steez was named Japan’s 2017 champion. And the internet said “Um, what?” 

The underwhelming Ryo vs. Steez final battle from 2017

Well, I’m sure you will be shocked to hear that b-boy Steez and two of the judges at that 2017 cypher were all members of the Floorriorz dance crew at the time. Even better, Steez never made it to the finals that year because he got knocked out during the Last Chance Cypher that decides who the sixteen world finalists will be. So the Floorriorz have compromised the integrity of the competition in Japan at least twice (that we know of) for their own gain, and have only gotten more flagrant about it. Back in 2017, they at least tried to set up Steez against a weak opponent so he would look better by comparison. This year, they pitted Nicolas against an actual world-class b-boy, making it obvious to even the most casual observer that the fix was in. It’s an insult and an injustice to all the b-boys who entered that cypher and danced their best to be denied and disregarded because of some sleazy backstage politics. The best b-boys in Japan aren’t going to keep giving their all at the Red Bull BC One if they know their skill, talent and style can be beaten by a secret handshake. At the very least, the Floorriorz should be banned from judging or participating in any events for five years, and Red Bull needs to seriously examine their recruitment criteria for judges. Allowing teammates to judge each other seems like the most obvious conflict of interest that should be avoided in an athletic competition, and it’s weird that nobody in the organization seems to think that might be a problem. As of this writing, I have not seen any comment from Red Bull on this controversy. 

But wait! It gets worse! After watching translated post-battle interviews with both questionable winners, I discovered an unsettling similarity. Both Steez and Nicolas espoused more than a few talking points of a toxic false philosophy that seeks to undermine the very foundations of breaking to serve a selfish desire to make it “easier” for less skilled dancers to compete at the highest levels. They proclaim themselves the pioneers of a “new, abstract style” that’s somehow “more artistic” because it doesn’t rely on “flashy power moves.” As if this were some kind of aesthetic choice on their part, and not just a lame excuse for why they can’t do power moves. They insinuate that breakdancing has been dumbed down by an unfair emphasis on the moves they are personally unable to do. That breaking is being dominated by jocks performing feats of strength rather than artists expressing themselves. And I can only assume the Floorriorz hold this view as well, since they’ve gone to such lengths to force it into the spotlight.

All of that is complete and utter nonsense, and I’ll tell you why. They are not inventing a “new style.” Below-average b-boys have been telling themselves this since the late 1990s. The simple fact is that power moves are one of the pillars of breaking, and if you can’t do any, then you aren’t the best breakdancer in the world. There’s a world of difference between not depending on power moves and not having any at all. The first one is an artistic choice, while the second is a personal shortcoming. To put in perspective just how absurd their assertions are, it would be like a figure skater that refuses to do any spinning moves. That might be interesting to watch, but it definitely wouldn’t win her any Olympic medals, because the best figure skaters in the world can spin. If you can’t spin, you are not one of the best in the world, and the same is true of breaking. The difference is that these insecure subpar b-boys refused to accept that they might need to work harder to become world class contenders, so instead they started a disinformation campaign trying to convince everyone that power moves don’t matter and aren’t even that cool anyway, but are somehow also unfairly favored and exclusionary. A bad faith argument and a victim complex wrapped up in one toxic package that could poison the core of breakdancing.

Power moves are not this dominating force in competitive breaking. Sure, there will always be “b-bros” that try to brute force their way to the finals by just cramming as many moves as they can into 90 seconds, but the important thing to note is that those guys don’t win. Contrary to the Floorriorz position, the world finals is not even remotely saturated with powerhouses that win despite ignoring footwork and style. In fact, “too much spinning, not enough dancing” has become a common critique leveled by judges and commentators at b-boys who forget to listen to the beat. There are plenty of very successful b-boys out there that use few traditional power moves, or replace them with their own creations. Two-time world champ B-boy Lilou’s abstract style used absurd acrobatics to break up his bouts of brilliant downrocking, while former Japanese champ Issei won the big belt in 2016 by saving his few power moves as punctuation in a performance of impeccable footwork. His reserved approach actually defeated an impressive onslaught of combos by former champ Hong10, proof that power alone doesn’t win the world title. One thing all three of those former world champs have in common—they can all spin on their heads, but it’s not even close to their most impressive trick.

Hong10 vs. Issei in the world final battle of 2016

Ultimately, every proponent of this fake philosophy is a hypocrite. They falsely accuse their betters of under-appreciating footwork while they completely ignore power moves and whine about not getting the recognition they don’t deserve. You don’t get to be the best at any art or sport by refusing to engage with parts of it. Just like a figure skater refusing to twirl, or a gymnast that won’t jump, a b-boy that can’t spin on his head has no place in the world championships. It is the height of entitlement for these power-free dancers to insist they belong there, especially since there is an entirely separate category that caters exclusively to them! That’s right—the Red Bull BC One, along with most of the other big breaking tournaments in the world, host footwork-only competitions alongside the main event. These guys literally have their own tournaments where power moves aren’t allowed, but that isn’t enough. They want to be able to beat the best b-boys in the world without putting in the hard work to actually become better dancers, so they want to win by changing the rules instead. And that idea is completely antithetical to the spirit of breakdancing. You try to top your opponent, not drag them down. You win by doing better. In competitive breaking, dancers are scored on several metrics: number of moves, complexity/difficulty of moves, footwork, execution, style, and musicality. If your opponent combos a flare into a headspin, and you reply with two minutes of downrock, you already know you didn’t top him. To insist otherwise is either dishonest or delusional.

The Red Bull BC One’s footwork-only competition in 2023

If this corruption is allowed to continue, it will irreparably damage the integrity of the sport. When a match is so flagrantly fixed that the entire audience can tell, it undermines everybody’s confidence that the competition will be judged in good faith, free of outside influence. The Red Bull BC One risks earning a reputation for running rigged games, and when that happens the world’s best b-boys won’t be battling in their circle anymore—it won’t be worth their sweat if the belt always goes to the judge’s friend. And the audience will go with them. Nobody wants to tune into three hours of mediocre b-boys practicing the six-step. The Red Bull BC One would become the worst thing an international athletic competition can be: boring.

Not related to this article, but I wanted to leave you with an actually good battle: Quake vs. Mighty Jake