Pokémon, power moves and prizes: SLO Breakers host jam battle
This is a cross-published piece with Mustang News, more information can be found here.
SLO Breakers hosted a Pokémon themed jam session on Oct. 26. Winners of the competition received $1,000 as well as a top 16 spot at the “I Need a Break” competition. The jam session attracted spectators and competitors from all over the world, from Algeria to Arizona.
Sponsored by Red Bull, these qualification battles helped determine who can compete in the “Last Chance Cypher Battle” before going onto the World Final. In the cypher battles, competitors from all over the country fight for an open spot at the Red Bull BC One World Final.
According to Red Bull, this competition is a global breaking competition where 16 of the best B-Boys and B-Girls compete against each other to be crowned the Red Bull OC One Champions and win the BC One Champion Belt.
The San Luis Obispo event was run entirely by the club. Cameron Shimokawa is the current president of the club and put together the jam session with his board.
“It’s part of the breaking community to host jams and give back to the community,” he said. “Typically when you host these you don’t do it for the money you kind of just do it to help encourage the breaking community.”
In the competition, winners picked one loser from the opposing team to battle. Co-President Mailee Vang said the club chose a Pokémon theme because the competition’s structure reminded them of a Pokémon battle.
“We knew that we wanted to do a Pokémon battle for the other schools,” she said. “We wanted to be able to interact outside of Cal Poly and so coming up with the theme was as easy as picking the battle. And then we were just shouting out names to each other trying to figure out what we wanted to do.”
Shimokawa and his board spent about five months preparing and organizing the event. Board members were tasked with contacting judges, finding venues and organizing the sponsorship from Red Bull. Last minute venue changes and difficulties contacting people were only some of the challenges the club faced when organizing the event.
“I’m really appreciative of my staff, they put in so much work,” Shimokawa said. “I kind of just was like ‘alright guys just go at it’ and they did it, no questions asked. And like as a president that’s like the most I can ask for.”
Along with spectators and competitors, multiple professionals from the breaking community were also in attendance. Lando Zanotelli has been breaking for 16 years and has judged many breaking competitions in the Bay Area. Through connections with the board, he was able to be one of the judges of the competition.
“I want to see people be present in the moment,” Zanotelli said. “Being clean, it doesn’t matter if it’s power moves, footwork, toprock, but just being clean.”
International student Rafik La Mani was one of the winners of the competition. He found out about it when his friend showed him the flyer. Although he was late to the competition, he was able to compete and take a spot as a winner.
“To be honest when I saw that we took this competition I felt happy cause you know I think everyone who wins the competition feels happy, feels like special. And for me like I feel that my work or my time that I spent at practice is paying off,” he said.
More information about SLO Breakers and their events can be found on their instagram.
