A few days ago I was down in LEEDS for the final installment of Attention to Detail (ATD) Expojam; there were many qualifying events up and down the UK and even one in Belgium. This was the first time I was down in Leeds for an event and I'd heard a lot of good things about it...so you could guess what my expectations were.
Out of the crew it was only myself and Maule that made the travel down, which made 2 of us. How many Scottish bboys were there? 3. (Harribo lives in Bradford now and came thru).
Anyway, met up with Maule at 8am roughly to make the drive down. I am normally used to waking up earlier to travel down to events but this one was hard to wake up for, could be a winter thing - not sure. I think this was the first time Maule and I have traveled to an event together, but definitely isn't the first time we've been the only Jalapenos at an event. During the travel I was recording more footage for a new STRIFE.LIFE video. If you don't know what the strife life it, it's basically when someone from Strife.tv films their journeys to, during and after an event they attend. This one was interesting, stopped at a few service stations and got some good things to put into it - Maule's always a lot of fun when he's in front of a camera or behind it.
It took about 4 and a half hours to get down to Leeds University, we were a lil anxious that the battles would start without us but luckily the event started 30 minutes after we got there.
I got my travel paid down to the event to film, and put together a highlights trailer and a coverage video (documenting what people thought of the event and to have the concept explained). This also meant I got in for free, and so did Maule (since we were the only ones travelling through from Scotland).
Because of this I didn't really plan to dance at all; as much as I would have loved to cypher all day and that, I had to keep my head clear and make sure I was doing a good job with filming - so I only threw down ONCE before the battles started. But during the battles, it got to the last battle of the first qualifying round and they were 1 bboy short; I was really hyped just from filming the battles and everything so I stepped up! What the hell was I thinking?! I didn't warm up, didn't throw down enough rounds to feel comfortable or did I even intend to touch the ground in any aspect!! But guess what? I make it past the 2 qualifying rounds into the Main Battles ;). As Maule said during one of my battles "JALAPENOS BITCH!!".
I only threw down 3 times before the main battles, and had no idea what the hell I would do for the next battle.
The concept of ATD battles are simple: The 8 bboys that are invited to battle are also judges; when a judge battles this leaves an odd number of judges, when there's 2 judges battling a reserve steps in to judge to keep the numbers even. For this event in particular, a qualifying bboy has to go up against an invited bboy...and I was landed with ThePhasion. DAYUM THAT DUDE IS NASTY!!
To sum up my battle in as fewer words as possible? He roasted me! Straight up, I lost. I ran out of moves, couldn't even think about what I was about to do next, I was beat. Good battle though, definitely one to take back to training with me. Props to ThePhasion! Think I did Scotland proud, not that I had that burden on me but the thought did occur later on.
Congratz to the winner of the 1v1s BEANZ (Ghetlow Pirates) and GHETLOW PIRATES for 4v4s - great battle with Trinity Warriors that could have gone either way. It was a blast to film, and battle at. Met new people, spoke to those I respect that gave me props for my filming - it's great to hear I'm being appreciated for filming. More motivation for me to keep doing it, getting recognised for my filming too is a big plus - from the like of Kid Karam and Ghetlow Pirates (some i've never spoken to).
I also got a teeshirt and a bag from Eastpak! Nice!!
Journey back was even better than the journey going down, by miles!! We only had 1 mixtape to listen to - and it was a Rocking mixtape that SkamRok gave to Maule - and we listened to it all the way down AND back up...and yet we were still hyped for every track!! We also got caught in snow, and discussed the possibility of a Flyin' Jalapenos 10 year Anniversary jam!!
Shoutouts to the guys at ATD (Jamie, Flo etc), to those I battled (Phasion, Million Dollar Mike, Sneaky) and to those I met and filmed down there (Trinity Warriors, Ghetlow Pirates, Tukyz). Y'all know who you are, and I appreciate opportunity to come to ATD and film.
*Signing Out*.
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