It was the first official sporting event ever held on Alcatraz and the first time basketball had been played there since the inmates left 50 years earlier.
In 2013, 64 finalists representing 25 countries competed and eventually 36-year-old L.A. native Tarron “The Beast” Williams was crowned the fourth and final “King of the Rock” on September 28, 2013.
The event brought 32 King of the Rock finalists from 23 countries to face off on the prison exercise yards of Samasana Island, Taiwan, and crowned the 2014 champion Kivanc Dinler from Turkey.
During the first and only global one-on-one street basketball tournament ever held in Asia, the first-ever Queen of the Rock, Stanislava Fedotova from Russia, was also crowned.
Both qualifying and finals rounds incorporate the normal one-on-one set-up of players going head-to-head on an outdoor court, using a single elimination tournament bracket.
In the final round at Alcatraz, a custom trophy, cash prize of $20,000,[5] and the title “King of the Rock” was awarded to the overall winner.