Red Bull Street Style Japan FInals 2014
Japanese baller HIRO-K (a 24-year-old, part-time workers, from Ehime) dazzled his way to the world freestyle football finals, winning the Red Bull Street Style 2014 Japan Finals here in Nagoya and will be representing Japan in Brazil at the Red Bull Street Style World Finals.
“Japan really has a variety of styles genre, with some people that do various kinds of tricks, I thought this would be a difficult game, so many people were there in such a cool venue. Really there was no method of winning such a hard battle, but I was able to win and really happy from the bottom of my heart.”
Freestyle football world tournament Red Bull Street Style Japan Final (Red Bull Street Style World Finals) was held on September 6th, 2014 in Japan’s central prefecture of Aichi, in Nagoya city to select the Japanese representative for the World Congress tournament at the Red Bull Street Style World Finals to be held in Salvador, Brazil in November.
In its fifth year, Japan has really been showing off their skills at this tournament. In 2008 Yosuke Yokota was the runner-up and in 2012 Tokuda Kotaro took the spotlight as theĀ first Japanese world champion from Asia.
From all parts of Japan, 83 people gathered to try and become the next to challenge the world tournament as a representative of Japan. You do not want to miss this hot battle!
Introduction
Red Bull Street Style is a global freestyle soccer competition series that aims to find the best overall player in the world. The sport of freestyle has many styles of players. The street style format is designed to pay equal weight to both the technical and style parts of the game. The most creative, technical and stylish player will be crowned Red Bull Street Style World Champion.
Stage:
Round stage area, 7m/23ft of diameter.
Ball Specs:
Balls in correct size will be provided before the competition.
Format:
1 ball, 2 athletes, 3 minutes.
Participation in the competition is open to freestylers older than 15 years.
The format is a head to head competition involving two freestylers on stage for a 3 minutes battle.
ā¢ Each 30 seconds one freestyler has to pass the ball to this opponent (both freestylers will have the ball 3 times during every battle)
ā¢ Participants can use only one ball at the same time
ā¢ Hands are NOT allowed
ā¢ Props and objects cannot be integrated into the battles (E.g. pens, rope, clothing etc.)
ā¢ Competitors cannot leave the stage at any time during the battle
ā¢ One participates at a time
ā¢ Mocking or insulting the other player is forbidden
ā¢ The player on hold (not with the ball) can react to the performance of the competitor, but not disrespect
ā¢ Same situation if one athlete doesn’t give the ball back to his opponent after the 30 seconds clearly on purpose
It is essential to bring your own style of music for your performance for theĀ DJ to mix.
As this is a ‘battle’ format, the winner of each battle is the one who gets more votes from the judges and proceeds to the next phase.
Judges will pick the winner on overall performance in theĀ each category of skill: Style, Control & Variety
It’s not possible to appeal the judges’ decision.
Competition is broken down intoĀ 2 phases:
1. One-to-One:Ā where freestylers compete against other members (determined by draw)
2. Top 16: phase where it’s a direct elimination phase. (If two athletes end the groups phase with the same quantity of won battles the Ā tie breaker criteria to see their position in the group will be their total quantity of votes.)
