A Photographer's Notes | Capturing the Red Bull BC One World Final in Tokyo

Having been a photographer for Red Bull in Japan since 2008, I have had the opportunity to shoot an amazingly wide variety of sports at every level.

One of the sports I love to cover the most is breaking (or breakdancing). In 2025, Red Bull Japan was the host to the Red Bull BC One World Final, the pinnacle of breaking competition. It was held at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Arena.

The main event of the competition was the final held on Sunday, November 9. However, my job with the event actually started a few days before that.

Settling In

Although my official duties for the event were scheduled to start early Friday morning, November 7, I was able to check into my hotel in Shibuya on Thursday afternoon. This allowed me some extra time to get settled in. I was even able to have a fun little photoshoot with my good friend B-Boy Taisuke in Shibuya before dinner.

I love shooting with B-Boy Taisuke, and we had a great little session. Looking back, I wish I had reached out to more of the B-Boys and B-Girls visiting for the event. But everyone seemed super busy and focused, as they should be.

One other thing I was able to do that evening was check out the practice space set up for the dancers at their hotel, the Shibuya Stream Hotel. Not just anyone can walk in and hang out while the dancers are practicing. However, since I was one of four official photographers for the event that week, I was able to chill and photograph some of the dancers while they practiced.

This gave me the chance to practice my breaking photography. It also allowed me to see what kind of moves this year's B-Boys and B-Girls would be performing during the competition. Good times for sure!

Last Chance Cypher

The following morning, Friday the 7th, it was off to the venue for a location check for the Last Chance Cypher. That was scheduled for later the same day.

What is a "Last Chance Cypher," you ask? The final of the Red Bull BC One World Final is a one-on-one battle competition made up of 16 B-Girls and 16 B-Boys.

Of the 16, 12 B-Boys and B-Girls are wildcards, having been hand-picked from various countries throughout the year. The remaining four B-Boys and four B-Girls are decided by having a separate cypher two days before the final, made up of all the national winners from around the world.

This is the "last chance" for these competitors to win a spot in the final. So, to say they were all hyped up would be an understatement.

Finding My Angles

As for the venue check, this is something we do before every event and is critical to ensure we are able to secure the positions we need during the event. Oftentimes, there are several video cameras and other photographers that also want/need to shoot close to the action. Therefore, this is the best time to work everything out so all those involved are able to capture what they need.

After talking with the other photographers, Little Shao and Dean Treml, it was decided I would generally float around to capture various angles, while they remained on either side of the middle.

This was fine with me as I can speak Japanese and negotiate with people when I need to squeeze into tight spots. And I love trying to capture a wide variety of images during events like this as well.

*B-boy HARUTO competes during the Last Chance Cypher at the Red Bull BC One Camp, prior to the World Final, at Spotify O-EAST, Tokyo, Japan on November 7, 2025. (©Jason Halayko)*

All in all, the Last Chance Cypher was fire from start to finish, and I was super happy to see B-Boy Haruto make it to the final on Sunday.

Unfortunately, Japanese B-Girl Cocoa, although she danced amazingly, wasn't able to join Haruto in the finals.

She is an amazing dancer, though, and I am sure this is not the last time we see her at the Red Bull BC One World Final Stage.

Once the event was finished, it was unfortunately not the end of my night. When shooting for Red Bull, especially at these world final events, we have to get the photos selected, edited and published as soon as possible after the event.

Furthermore, for 2025, Red Bull wanted to provide images for each dancer at the Last Chance Cypher. Therefore, we had to select and edit even more images than normal. I am used to this, so it wasn't difficult. It just ended up taking until 2 AM to finish it all up, though, and head to bed. Long day, but it was super fun!

Red Bull BC One Camp

To give the winners of the Last Chance Cypher a day to rest, the Red Bull BC One Camp was held in Harajuku the following day, November 8. The Red Bull BC One Camp is a full day of multiple smaller competitions, exhibitions and workshops held for anyone who wishes to participate.

With so much going on, our duties as photographers were split up, and I was tasked to cover the "Deadly Duo" (2vs2) competition, the "Bonney&Clyde" (2vs2 with each team being one male and one female) and the final Japan vs Red Bull Allstars cypher as well. I also had various other duties during the day.

Arriving at the venue in the morning, I was greeted with a giant image of B-Girl Ami on the outside of the camp's location. The same image was used outside the Last Chance Cypher, but not nearly as large. It was massive and could be seen from Harajuku station and the entrance to Yoyogi Park. This got me super excited, as I have rarely had images printed and displayed so large and so prominently as this. Thanks, Red Bull!

Feeling the Hype

And just like the day before, the competition at the Red Bull BC One Camp was absolute fire. I couldn't write all the crazy moments from the day. But I think my favorite single moment came during the final cypher of the day, the Japan vs Red Bull All Stars event.

First, the room for this cypher was packed with people — like 110% full capacity. Even then, many people had to watch on a TV in an adjacent room. And even that room filled up super fast! So you can just imagine the energy and hype that was in this room even before the battle began.

The Action Begins

Once it started, the whole place just went crazy! So many amazing moves by both sides got the crowd screaming and yelling like you don't often see here in Japan. But, like I said, my favorite moment had to be when Lilou (a well-known B-Boy from France) swung his leg over the head of B-Boy Taisuke (kind of a diss in breaking) during one of his rounds.

These two have been good friends, but also fierce rivals for many years. I even saw them battle at the BC One World Final in South Korea, which ended in a controversial win for Lilou. When Lilou did this, everyone knew their history, and the whole room exploded! It was amazing. Lilou even did it a second time, with the same result. It was great to see that B-Boy Taisuke also thought it was hilarious and was laughing super hard each time it happened.

After the event it was editing time again, but as I had time during the day to work on images, we were finished up much earlier, at 11 PM. And even though there was an after party somewhere in Shibuya, I went straight back to my hotel to get rested for the final the next day. What can I say — I'm getting old.

The Final

The morning of the final finally came. Although I technically didn't need to be at the venue until 1 PM or so, my nerves wouldn't let me just sit and relax at my hotel. I knew people would be at the venue from quite early so around 10 AM I headed out to the Ryokoku Kokugikan Sumo Arena via train from Shibuya.

Whenever I am part of these large events, I love to arrive early and explore the venue alone. It is the best time to search for angles, find the hidden path ways, and get a general feel for moving around the arena. I also had various other responsibilities to cover other than the main competition, like taking photos of the exterior and various local activations. This was the perfect time to slowly get those done without being rushed.

Soon enough, the rest of the team arrived and it was time to figure out who would be shooting what, when, and where. Since there are so many moving parts in events like these, it's important for us photographers to discuss and decide where each of us will be shooting during the night to ensure we don't miss anything critical.

My tasks started with shooting an overview at the start, then moving to shoot by the stage for the top 16 B-Girls, float around for the top 16 B-Boys and top 8 for both, and then shoot from around the stage for the semi-final and final rounds. Lots of moving around, but that's how I like it at these events.

Highlights

Like the Last Chance Cypher and the Red Bull BC One Camp, there were just too many amazing moments in the night to write them all here. It was so crazy and adrenaline filled for me as well that I find it hard to recall some of the finer parts of the evening. Looking back through the images after these kinds of events, I often have images I honestly don't even remember taking — that's how locked in I get sometimes.

But I do remember that during the top 16 B-Boys, Haruto faced Hiro 10. Even though I wasn't technically supposed to be shooting from around the stage at that point, I just had to sneak up and cover the first Japan vs Japan battle of the night. It was amazing, and I was super happy to see B-Boy Haruto move on to the top 8.

Another highlight for me would have to be a couple of B-Boy Issin's battles, but for different reason's. Issin's first battle was against B-Boy Amir from Kazakhstan. Issin had lost to him during the 2024 Olympic qualifications and therefore failed to qualify for the breaking event at the Paris Olympics.

Even though this was his first battle of the night he came out super strong with crazy combos that got the crowd up on their feet yelling from the get go. He won and was able to move on, but it wouldn't be his last hard battle before the finals.

The other battle of Issin's that I loved was the second Japan vs Japan B-Boy battle of the night, Issin vs Shigekix. With him being a former champion of the Red Bull BC One, you knew this was going to be a crazy battle.

Both B-Boys threw it all down. Since I am friends with both of them, I almost lost my voice from cheering for them both, but in the end, Issin won and went on to the final.

The Climactic Showdown

The final itself was pretty crazy as well with it once again being a Japan vs Japan battle with Issin now facing off against his teammate, Haruto. This battle was pretty amazing as well, but there was one moment at the end that made everyone there just go insane.

At the end of Issin's final round, he did a kind of dolphin jump. Because he and Haruto have trained together, Haruto saw this coming and did the same jump at the same time. The building went crazy yet again. I was lucky to capture this moment, and it was for sure the most hyped moment of the event on social media the following days after the event.

All in all I think I shot over 10,000 images from start to finish on the final day alone … too many! But again we had to select, edit, and publish our images ASAP after the event. And just like the Last Chance Cypher, Red Bull wanted edited images of each battle for the participants, so I think I ended up working till 4am that night.

So yes, that was my experience at the Red Bull BC One World Final 2025, Tokyo Japan. It was a lot of hard work, and sleepless nights, but it was 10,000% worth it and something I would jump at the opportunity to do again in a heart beat if given the chance. Next year, the final is in my home country of Canada, so who knows — maybe I will get a chance to do it all again some day soon.

Author: Jason Halayko

Jason Halayko is a professional photographer specializing in action sports and portrait photography. Follow him on X and Instagram.