Beatbox Battle World Championships Day 3 Roundup
In a sparkling and ambitious new venue, the battles begin with a bang.

Berlin, Germany; Smirking, top-ranked River held out the microphone to the crowd, and let them win his round of 16 battle against Xankish for him.
The crowd eagerly sang the lyrics to the 2018 French Champion's song "By Ourselves," filling the packed concert hall at Huxley's Neue Welt with a chorus as full as any sound made into the mic last night.
"It was a cocky way to react" to Xankish, River said after the battles. "You see? 'They know my song and they didn't know yours.'"
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Taking the mic back, River ran melodic riffs alongside technical flares, setting the judges faces alight and cruising into the quarterfinals of the Beatbox Battle World Championships.
The first night of battles at the world champs concluded with most of the favorites advancing to Saturday's battles, but it still delivered plenty of surprises and action.
The evening started with Tag Team elimination showcases, which gave the battlers a sense for the sound system. Powerful and robust in the low-end, the sound system played up the routines of the beatboxers with great mic presence and brassy routines.
In the first few battles, most of the artists took advantage of the bassy system, but no beatboxer had mic presence like European Champion MaxO from Bulgaria, who defeated Demellow and Stan en route to the quarterfinals.
"He moves air. I don't know how else to say it but he moves air," remarked a competitor in the crowd during one of MaxO's rounds. Each of MaxO's four rounds was built around drum patterns, and a basic set of sounds with more power than other competitors' biggest sounds.

Throughout the night, artists began to notice the difference in sound quality between themselves and their competitors, and signaled the gulf in quality to the audience by pinching the air near their opponents.
The beatboxers in the crowd spent the evening discussing the sound. A community of technicians, beatboxers are quick to notice the pluses and minuses in a sound system, and exploit them to their battles.
River, however, didn't change a thing about his routines for either of his 5-0 victories.
"I adapted my rounds so they can work on any sound system," said the top-seeded Frenchman. "There are sounds that are pretty dangerous — like whistles — so I stay on the sounds that I'm sure are going to work on any sound system."
Azel from Italy rode this same attitude to the round of eight. "I structure everything in advance. It's a matter of patterns. You just structure rounds beforehand and execute it."
With that said, it certainly helped him that some his favorite sounds are powerful basses. When, during his round of sixteen battle against Bozz of Denmark, Azel brought a Riddim track, the building shook.
On the other end of the spectrum, a pair of beatboxers built success on their stage presence. Pacmax brought the theater, incorporating props and dancing into his battles, and ABH from the United Kingdom met that standard.
In the battle of the night against JBeat from Italy, ABH saw JBeat deliver the most creative routine of the night, mixing intricate drum patterns with amazing and wacky high sounds.
To counter, he did a Rick and Morty impression, and jumped high like he was raving during a Drum and Bass round.
"There hasn't been a battle in many many years that got my heart racing like that," he said after the win. "Me and JBeat were embracing afterwords. It was great."
I've got to go report at this next night but you get the point it's nuts over here lmfao.
The first night of battles was also a huge success on the production value for Bee Low and his team. After two nights at the intimate Gretchen Club, the move to Huxley Neue Welt and its 1,600 capacity concert hall was a statement of intent from Beatbox Battle TV.
"When I walked in and saw the scenery and how big the stage is, it was a good surprise for sure," said River after the battles.

On stage, where Camero and Dana McKeon took over MC duties, was a set of large fake monitors that made the large stage feel event larger. Two large vertical screens showed close ups of the artists, flanking a larger square that displayed the timer set among the fake monitors. It was an impressive stage, one befitting the World Championships.
For those at home. Beatbox Battle TV significantly upgraded its live stream from what they had back in 2018. Over 34,000 YouTube viewers were treated to a multi-camera broadcast with a quality sound hookup, and additional backstage interviews and commentary.
I will have more extensive coverage of the scratch battles in the future, but I do want to note that the vocal scratching hits in a battle format. As the category moves closer to the final, I still don't really understand the rules and parameters, and I don't think the battlers or organizers do either.
How much beatboxing is allowed in a scratch routine? What constitutes a scratch? How true does your scratching have to hue to the idea of a turntable? We don't know.
I don't have a problem with it though. Vocal scratchers and organizers will sort it out in coming iterations, the competitors clearly don't have any issues with it, and the battles are fun. Who needs rules when it's working?
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