Rewiev by Gianluigi Bosco
What’s up flair fans! The WFA Grand Slam Asian tour continued with an another great comp. This time we were in beautiful Bali, one of the most known islands in Indonesia. Mr Agung Yoga outdid himself once again this year organising yet an another edition of Stars War Flair Championship. 45 competitors from 12 countries battled it out to grab the 7500 usd cash prize. It was a long day but by 8.30pm we were ready to start with the finals. 10 made it through and for the first time in this competition the show was available in live streaming.
With such a line up it was needless to say it was an epic show!
Here’s a quick summary of the finals, starting from ten place going towards the Champion.
Ivan Usov from Russia was the one opening the show as he qualified 10th in the afternoon. Very good stage presence and sick moves, which could’ve give him a much higher place if he would’ve read the rules. Unfortunately he had two missing drinks, and with that 80 points deduction it was quite impossible for him to place better than 10th.
In 9th place was a veteran in the flair world but somebody we haven’t seen in a while on stage, mister Alex Searle from England. One of the most original competitors in the world, he had not his best round in Bali, but was still able to show his unique style.
8th place was taken by mr. Vitaly Kolpin. The Russian has been improving a lot lately, but unfortunately he had too many drops and that affected his final result.
Next on our way to the top was Vaclav Abraham from Czech Republic. Fresh from his great performance in Japan which earned him his WFA black level, Vaclav wasn’t quite able to repeat himself in Stars War. A mistake in the early stages of his round had him spilling sweet and sour all over his tools, and that’s definitely something you don’t wanna have in your routine, especially with the amount of difficulty he’s throwing.
6th place was surprisingly taken by one of the crowd’s favourite, Alexander Shtifanov from Russia again. His routine is one of the most complete out there at the moment, with a huge amount of variety performed smoothly at a great speed. Unfortunately he wasn’t in the best shape we’ve seen him lately and that had him dropping too many times.
Onto the top five we find the first Polish, mr. Adam Branczyk. Good performance from him with a lot of interaction with the music, nice grabs and high difficulty.
In fourth place we find the only Asian competitor in the finals, Yi Che Liao from Taiwan, who moved up a place compared to last year’s finals. His show was very nice to watch, with a lots of interaction with the crowd and many cheeky moves. Well done.
Moving up into the podium…
In third place one of the most influential flair bartenders nowadays, mr. Denny Bakiev from Ukraine. Once again he came out with a great choreography to the beat, and showed everybody why is considered one of the best in the world. Nice job Denny.
Fresh from his win in Japan, last year’s winner Tomek Malek took a very respectful second place. Great difficulty as usual and a few new things added to the routine, made it a great show for the audience. He was unlucky though as he had an injury to his finger just two days before the comp and that affected him as it started bleeding again during his round. Even more bad luck came when he broke a bottle towards the end, cutting himself again on the other hand. Considering all this, we can definitely say that he can be proud with his placement!
And finally we get to the Champion. After a very disappointing round in Japan, Marek Posluzsny was able to find again his mental strength and put on a great performance. Great variety of moves, combined with difficulty and originality. Add that to his showmanship and presence and we had found ourselves a winner. Well deserved!
Congratulations also to Putu Purna Yasa who took the award for best Indonesian and to Tomek Malek for the best cocktail award.
See you again in Bali next year and stay tuned for the Bar Stylez Big Match coming up in a few days in Singapore!