Taiwan dancers take first place in France X sports festival team event

A team of three Taiwanese dancers with two teammates, from their defeated quarter final and semi final opponents, has won the breakdancing team event at “FISE de Montpellier,” one of the biggest international competitions in the world of X sports.

The top placing Taiwanese dancers at the “FISE (International Extreme Sports Festival) de Montpellier,” were Lilma Liu (劉承德), Lo Kuo-chuan (羅國銓) and Quake Chan (孫振), better known by their stage names Bboy Lilma, Bboy What21 and Bboy Quake, respectively.

The trio participated in the “FISE Breaking Battle Challenge — Crew” event on Saturday.

According to one of their coaches Liu Chih-chiang (劉志強), better known as Bboy Choco, the trio’s event adopted the so-called “Lucky Loser” rule whereby the team that wins its quarter-final matchup selects a dancer from the losing team to join them in the next round, thereby turning the competition from 3-on-3 into 4-on-4 in the semifinals.

In the semifinals, the winning team again selects a member from the opposing team to take part in the final which is a 5-on-5 event.

Together with their two new teammates, Bboys Lilma, What21 and Quake defeated France, Germany and Uganda to be crowned champions.

Coach Bboy Choco said the Taiwanese dancers performed exceptionally, with What21 improvising his set by grabbing a random strawberry from the stage which he ate while dancing.

The coach said due to the fun and entertainment the Taiwanese dancers brought to the stage, fans were asking each other where the team was from.

The coach went on to say that after winning over the audience, the MC of the competition announced that the team was from Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei, adding that the event’s organizers also congratulated the team by posting a picture of the Republic of China (Taiwan) flag.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese female dancer Yang Jia-li (楊加力) made it into the top 16 in the women’s single competition, but was unable to advance further, the coach said.

Encompassing extreme sports such as BMX, skateboarding, roller blading, parkour, wakeboarding, slopestyle mountain biking and breakdancing, the “FISE de Montpellier,” is the biggest extreme sports event in Europe and attracted participants from more than 50 countries this year.

The 2022 competition marks the 25th edition of the event, held on May 25-29 in the city of Montpellier in southern France.

With breakdancing scheduled to be an event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the 2022 “FISE Breaking Battle Challenge — Crew” event was co-organized by the FISE organizers along with the World DanceSport Federation and the French Dance Federation.

Coach Bboy Choco said the Taiwan delegation used the competition to assess its skills and gain more experience as part of preparations for Olympic selection events which start in July.

The Taiwanese team departed for Spain Tuesday to participate in the Madrid Urban Sports 2022 event, the coach added.