I wanted to wait till the end of the season to post the best clips, but man.
Season 1 helped me discover the amazing couple Keone and Mari. Have briefly heard of them before but didn't know much of them then, but have become huge fans of them since then, seeing them journey through life, dance and faith together.
It also featured the amazing Kinjaz, which is another team I really love for their cleanliness in their routines. Though I do think their ABDC all star performances were stronger than their WoD ones.
Couple of other big names were there too but these 2 were the best for me.
Fast forward to season 2 and I didn't recognise anyone except those who came back from season 1 (and even then I was never super impressed by them). But man, while season 1 showcased amazing upper division dancers, season 2 stars were the junior division. Sean and Kaycee got me hooked from the first time they came up, but I have to say I eventually switched my allegiance to Charity and Andres, with waves being my favourite performance all season.
Of course we can't forget The Lab which was the sensation of season 2. They had the blend of choreography, stunts and synchronicity and was just amazing to watch all season.
Oh yea and though he's upper division, Michael Dameski's final performance was really good too.
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So season 3 rolls around. Season 1 was about the upper division, season 2 was about the junior division, and it seems that season 3 is about the teams. Some solos and duos are pretty good but nothing really outstanding like last season. Oh and I guess Asians because Asians are always better at everything yes.
The Kings are probably the favourites to win the entire tournament. I wouldn't be upset if they were, they're an intensely stunt heavy group doing things never seen before, and are pretty good at other aspects as well. What I don't appreciate as much from them is there's alot of set ups for stunts with everyone else waiting around, so they strike me more as the world's best cheerleading group but all guys heh. That being said totally understand why they're amazing and consistently scoring the highest every round. Worth catching all their performances so far, including The Duels and The Cut.
The one I did mash the replay button over and over again and I'm still mashing the replay button every few days is The Heima. Heh I admit to spending an inordinate amount of time watching half naked korean guys.
I think objectively The Heima is probably not as good as The Kings and suffers some weaknesses that prevent it from scoring higher as well, but I guess I prefer this sort of creative bboying (or elegant breaking) over the stunts that The Kings does. Man I can't get enough of this.
I was worried that they might be a one trick pony with Pocket, and thankfully they're not. The group is definitely reliant on Pocket to carry them, but at least Pocket has different tricks up his sleeve as the rest of the crew has some good stuff of their own. Check out The Duels and The Cut. And goodness each week you think Pocket has shown it all and then he goes crazier... the man is a monster.
Finally, the junior team. I admit I didn't remember much of them in the first two weeks. Thought they were clean and strong, but they didn't leave an impact on me. I really wanted The Heima to win. Then I saw this and changed my mind, VPeepz please win. I've been mashing the replay button for this the past week plus, and also watching all the various rehearsal videos.
Derek said it perfectly, they did not leave any beat any moment unturned. That was one of the sickest, cleanest routines I've ever seen with great choreography. No stunts, no tricks nothing, just top notch dancing. They have the synchronicity of Kinjaz but they hit harder and faster, more energy in their routines which reminds me a little of The Lab. I suppose they might lose in the end because they lack tricks which makes it hard to compete against The Kings and The Heima, but damn they're top notch. Went back to watch The Qualfiers and The Duels as well, pretty good and can see the cleaniness is there but the choreography was not as strong. This performance at The Cut was the best for sure.
I think they have the skills to keep up, it's just whether their choreography does. There's hope it does because I just found out that they are the junior team of UPeepz which is Philippines top hip hop crew, led by an amazing choreographer. So hopefully they've been saving the best for last.
Finally well if we're interested in some solos, Briar Nolet and Poppin John are great. Briar does feel abit more like a gymnastics show though and popping just doesn't do that well in WoD so we'll have to see how it goes.
I spent WAY longer doing this post than I expected because I went to watch everything again heh. And VPeepz 3 times. I think I watched VPeepz close to 10 times today.
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