2018 Silverback Open Championships.

The 2018 Silverback Open Championships took place on October 27^th and 28^th, 2018 at a new venue named 2300 Arena, based in South Philadelphia. Nearly 850 breakers from 50 countries battled to get into the final rounds on a main stage and two cypher stages with three giant video screens run by and8 from Germany scheduling the breakers during the preliminaries and final rounds.

A panel of seven judged the 1-v-1 Open, 1-v-1 Bgirl, 3-v-3 Open, and 1-v-1 U14, with two alternates available in the event a judge happened to be in the same crew as a competitor, which brought the total judging panel to nine for the weekend.

The Silverback Open is a Champions Series level event on the Pro Breaking Tour and is organized by Silverback Bboy Events. The 2018 event was the fifth Silverback Open – the 1-v-1 Open is one of the most challenging breaking events in the world, given the depth and quality of the competitive field, featuring scores of past winners of leading international breaking competitions and Pro Breaking Tour events, many of whom do not get past the preliminaries.

As with all competitions, there can only be one first place winner in each category, and the Silverback Open had its well deserving victors in every category. In the 1-v-1 Open battle, Victor (Squadron / MF Kidz / Red Bull BC One All Stars) took first place over Stripes (Main Ingredientz / Flipside Kings); for the Bgirls, 15-year old Logistix (Underground Flow) prevailed over Jilou (Jimakeno Crew / Nin10do Crew); in the 3-v-3 Open, Plan B (Menno, Hong10, and Vero) took first over Navi Crew (Lussy Sky, Beetle, and Shigekix); and, in the U14 category, Lorenzo (born in 2005) took first over Kid Dynamite (2010).

Results of the final rounds are available on the and8 website.

Prize Money Breakdown

1-on-1 Open Prize Distribution: $26,800 Cash for the final 32 breakers + Gold and Silver Silverback Medals
- $15,000 for first place + gold Silverback medal; $5,000 for second place + silver Silverback medal; $1,000 for each semifinal loser (3rd-4th); $500 for each quarterfinal loser (5th-8th); $250 for each Round of 16 loser (9th-16th); $50 for each Round of 32 loser (17th-32nd).

1-on-1 Bgirl Battle Prize Distribution: $9,500 Cash for the final 8 Bgirl qualifiers who were selected from the 1-on-1 Open prelims + Gold and Silver Silverback Medals
- $5,000 for first place + gold Silverback medal; $2,500 for second place + silver Silverback medal; $500 for each semifinal loser; $250 for each quarterfinal loser

3-on-3 Open Crew Prize Distribution: $23,700 Cash for the top eight crews + Gold and Silver Silverback Medals
- $12,000 for first place + gold Silverback medal; $4,500 for second place + silver Silverback medal; $2,400 for each semifinal loser (3rd-4th); $600 for each quarterfinal loser (5th-8th).

1-on-1 U14 Prize Distribution: Gold and Silver Silverback Medals
- Gold Silverback medal for first place; silver Silverback medal for second place

Judges for the 1-v-1 Open, 1-v-1 Bgirl, 3-on-3 Open, and 1-on-1 U14:

Seven judges and two alternates judges served for 2018, including seven judges who were new to the main event at the Silverback Open – after five years the Silverback Open has featured 47 different judges from around the world.

Main Judges:

Crazy Legs – Rock Steady Crew (United States)
Storm – Battle Squad (Germany)
Poe One – Style Elements / Mighty Zulu Kings (United States)
Narumi – Body Carnival (Japan)
Skim – Jinjo Crew / 7 Commandos (Korea)
Lil Cesar – Air Force Crew (United States)
Goku – Soul Control (United States)

Alternates:

8. Jeskilz – Cyper Adikts (United States and Algeria) [Alternates / Prelims]
9. Renegade – Soul Mavericks (United Kingdom) [Alternates / Prelims]

Johnjay Chon managed the event logistics, with a great staff of breakers and event organizers assisting.

The DJs for the weekend were Lean Rock (Squadron / Boogie Brats), BlesOne (Knuckleheads Cali), Fleg (Lionz of Zion) and Foxx Boogie (Repstyles).

As for emcees, Ivan the Urban Action Figure (Style Elements) and Nemesis (Breaks Crew) handled the main stage battles during the final rounds and prelims — Cros1 (FreeStyle Session) and Tyrone (The Notorious IBE / 45 Live) handled the cypher stages during the prelims.

The livestream was broadcast by Stance Elements and the hosts were Profo Won (Floor Games), Ark (808 Breakers), Candy (Floorlords), Queen (NV).

Monster Energy was in the house with free giveaways of Monster Energy beverages, as were Tiger Balm and a.fatti. Gear from within the Bboy scene also made an appearance.

We’ll be posting videos and pictures from the event in the upcoming days. Also, make sure to visit us on Facebook for even more content!

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