QUALIFICATION RULES FOR BREAKING AT THE 2018 YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES

This document principally addresses Stage One of the qualification process, which is a digital qualification stage, during which breakers will submit videos for evaluation by an international judging panel.

SUMMARY OF QUALIFYING STAGES

  1. Stage One: Digital Qualifying for Continental Qualifiers
  2. Stage Two: Continental Qualifiers for WDSF World Youth Breaking Championships
  3. Stage Three: WDSF World Youth Championships Qualifier for Youth Olympic Games

STAGE ONE QUALIFYING

VIDEO SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

  1. Video must not be longer than 45 seconds.
  2. Video must be recorded with the actual real-motion frame rate (no speeding up or slowing down), and in a single take, i.e. one breaking set up to 45 seconds long.
  3. Video must be recorded with the camera at a low angle, kept steady and without any zooms or pans.
  4. You will be provided with a number of breakbeat tracks on the Breaking For Gold website from which to select. The rights to each of these tracks have been cleared with the DJs providing them. NO other music may be used and NO other third-party intellectual property or copyright-protected content or material may be included in the recording.
  5. Your video must be recorded with the breakbeats track you have selected being clearly audible.
  6. Video cannot be edited, altered or dubbed.
  7. Video must show your breaking skills videoed from a floor-level view, with your entire body centered in the frame, and with you performing a single breaking set in the direction of the camera, as if battling an opponent in the camera’s direction.
  8. Video must demonstrate your breaking skills, not your skills in another dance style.
  9. Accepted file formats are MOV (.mov), MPEG-4 (.mp4), FLV (.flv) or WMV (.wmv).
  10. During Stage One Qualifying, which shall run from 1 May through 31 July 2017, you may replace the video that you have uploaded with another video as many times as you want. Use your login details to replace the existing video file with the new one.
  11. You must submit proof of your date of birth by uploading a scanned file (PDF or JPEG) of your passport or ID card.
  12. You must submit a signed release and parent permission forms along with your video.
  13. Video must not include any visible commercial signage, whether on the dancer (except for usual clothing manufacturer’s markings), nor in the environment (such as for example and without limitation banners etc.).
  14. Videos must not include anything abusive, profane, obscene, pornographic, disrespectful, threatening, and defamatory and may not unreasonably denigrate any creed, belief, or symbol.  Videos may not include gratuitously offensive material of any kind.
  15. Video submissions must be received prior to the end of the day on 31 July 2017 in Coordinated Universal Time, which corresponds to Greenwich Mean Time.
  16. You must keep at least one copy of the video. The World DanceSport Federation (“WDSF”) and/or its agents and assigns cannot be held responsible for any videos that are lost, damaged, or that do not upload properly.

VIDEO SUBMISSION STEPS

Step 1: Complete the online submission form.

Step 2: Upload the scanned copy of your passport or ID card in a way that your name, photo and date of birth (between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2002) are clearly visible and can be confirmed by the moderators. The copy should also establish the nationality in the country you would represent in the Youth Olympic Games ("YOG").

Step 3: Upload the signed release/permission form.

Step 4: Upload your video.

Step 5: Wait up to 72 hours for your video to be published, i.e. available for public viewing or for an email message informing you of the reasons for non-admittance.

ADMISSION PROCESS

Every video that is uploaded to Breaking For Gold shall undergo evaluation to ensure that the video is in compliance with the rules. The same shall apply for the documents you are to submit. A moderator will verify your age on the basis of the scanned passport or ID card you upload, and confirm that the release and parental consent forms you have uploaded are properly dated and signed. This process could take anywhere from twelve (12) hours up to three (3) days, perhaps even more. Only once the process is completed will your video be admitted and released for public viewing. It will be visible only to you prior to that point in time. If the moderators find anything wrong with what you have uploaded, they will reject your submission altogether and send you an email message, informing you which of the following points resulted in non-admittance:

  1. Video does not comply with the rules (1. – 16.).
  2. Age range cannot be confirmed.
  3. The parental-consent form is not signed.

In the same email, you will also receive instructions on how to upload again, after you have corrected any errors or omissions. If your video and/or documentation is rejected on the grounds that they include anything abusive, profane, pornographic, disrespectful, threatening or defamatory toward any person, entity, belief, or symbol, or that gratuitously offensive material of any kind is used, you will not be allowed to resubmit.

PUBLIC POPULARITY CONTEST

What is expected to be a popular feature of the Breaking for Gold | Stage One Qualifying is the involvement of the public at large in a preliminary, although unofficial, review of all videos submitted and accepted.

Visitors to the Breaking for Gold website will be invited to express their personal preferences for up to ten (10) different submissions. To do so, the visitors will need to register through the Breaking for Gold social media platform.

As soon as a minimum number of submissions have been reviewed by the members of the public, an unofficial public ranking will be generated for each country for both males and females, providing the popularity ranking in unofficial national standings per gender. For the avoidance of doubt, the popularity standings shall not be considered by the judging panel, nor be a part of the official qualification process.

OFFICIAL JUDGING

The Judges Panel

The official evaluation of all videos submitted during Stage One Qualifying will be carried out commencing 1 August 2017. The videos submitted will be judged by one (1) to as many as three (3) of the following ten judges:

  1. B-Girl A.T.
  2. B-Boy Crazy Legs
  3. B-Girl Jeskills
  4. B-Boy Katsu
  5. B-Boy Lamine
  6. B-Boy Mounir
  7. B-Boy Moy
  8. B-Girl Narumi
  9. B-Boy Renegade
  10. B-Boy Storm

The judging of all videos is expected to be completed by 6 August 2017, two months ahead of the first Continental Qualifier.

The same ten judges will also be judging the battles at the Stage Two Qualifiers in Philadelphia (USA), Essen (GER), Tapei (TPE), at the 2018 WDSF World Championship Youth (Stage Three) in Japan, and at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.

Judging Procedure

Using the And8 Select tool in its most up-to-date version for Stage One, the judges review all videos which have been admitted as of the 31 July deadline, comparing the breaking skills of the breakers with one another by nation of citizenship and by gender (male and female). Separate ranking for b-boys and for b-girls of every single country shall be established, identifying the top five (5) breakers of both genders who will qualify for Stage Two. These standings are published on breakingforgold.com after all judging has been completed and the standings ratified by the Breaking for Gold judges and officials.

Feedback from Judges

The judges will be providing individualized feedback to all b-boys and b-girls whose videos have been submitted and admitted, summarizing strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement.

STAGE TWO QUALIFYING: CONTINENTAL QUALIFIERS

Continental Qualifiers

Up to five b-boys and five b-girls in the leader board standings per country per gender may qualify to move on to Stage Two, entering one of the three Continental Qualifiers. They will be notified by email and receive a formal invitation to confirm their entry into the assigned Qualifier.

If the judges consider that the skill level of one or more of the breakers ranked within the top five in his or her gender in his or her country is not adequate to take part in a Continental Qualifier, the judges could decide that the breaker(s) shall be ineligible for participation in Stage Two. Such a decision shall be communicated to the breaker(s) in a personal message.

All of the judges’ decisions will be final and cannot be appealed.

Following the publication of the standings by country and by gender on the breakingforgold.com website, WDSF shall notify the National Olympic Committee (“NOC”) and, where applicable, the National Member Body ("NMB") in each country, or in a territory with a NOC that is recognized by the International Olympic Committee, of the names and contact details of the breakers who have qualified for Stage Two.

An email message will be sent to each qualifying breaker's NOC and, where applicable, to the breaker's NMB, for the purpose of providing the following information for those who have qualified for the Continental Qualifiers: name, contact details, plus a link to the video the breaker had submitted.

If one or more of the qualified breakers should fail to confirm that he or she will enter the assigned Stage Two Qualifier by notification to the World DanceSport Federation, the next b-boy(s) or b-girl(s) in the order of their rank in the national standing(s) will receive an email invitation to enter in the place(s) of the initially qualified breaker(s).