The International Dance League (IDL) Global hosted their first annual dance competition series this past year, consisting of six professional teams from all over the world. The audience grew larger through each of the five stops that the competition made, and had a very controversial ending to the series.
At the end of the series, the top three teams were Los Angeles’ GRV holding first place, Brotherhood Vancouver with first runner up and Jam Republic of Southeast Asia in third.
This sparked heated debates, specifically with Brotherhood’s loss after going the whole series without losing a single point. All four stops leading up to the championship, both rounds per stop, Brotherhood scored 7-0 against each of their competitors.
“From a biased perspective, I think that Brotherhood was robbed of IDL victory… However, much like football, no matter how many games… you’ve won, it doesn’t give you an upper hand in the final round,” Islas said. “Acknowledging this, I respect GRV’s win and I am happy for them.”
Teams were judged by a panel of six judges and an additional fan vote was added to the score for a total of seven points per round. One change that IDL made to the championship was the decision to remove the fan vote entirely which all teams agreed upon to be completely equitable and based solely on their talent and technique alone.
“I think based on the season, the clear winner for the championship was Brotherhood. But based on the runs in the final round, GRV had a more diverse style and was much cleaner than Brotherhood,” Koki said. “I think it was a well-deserved win for GRV because… in the LA regional and Championship, they really brought their best.”
Much of the controversy surrounding the point-system lies within fan’s misunderstanding of how the winner would be determined. Most fans were under the impression that the points accumulated during the series would add up towards the final rankings. While the points did count for the amount of money each team won, the first place title is what most fans were hoping would go to Brotherhood.
“I think with more clarity on how they do it, the people won’t be as shocked or upset,” Koki said.
Based on the overall format of the season Brotherhood’s previous win streak should have been at least a factor in the season champion.
On the contrary, having witnessed the competition in person as well as the audience reaction to the performances, GRV’s win is completely understandable and earned. Each team put forth their best effort, and Brotherhood’s performance was not of lesser quality in any way, but GRV truly improved their whole performance, especially in music, technicality and choreography.
