Battle of the Year

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Battle of the Year, commonly referred to as BOTY, is an annual international breakdancing series that began in 1990. It is a crew (as opposed to individual) competition. Regional qualifying tournaments, also known as preliminaries, are held worldwide culminating in the BOTY International, the world finals event which is held at the Volkswagenhalle in Braunschweig, Germany. Battle of the Year is widely regarded as the premier b-boying tournament in the world,^[1] frequently referred to as the "World Cup of B-Boying".^[2] Battle of the year creates "spaces for a globalization at the bottom, bringing people together across the barriers of geography, language, and race" ^[3] Benson Lee filmed a documentary on the Battle of the Year called Planet B-Boy which gives a point of view on what type of people take part in the Battle of the Year. "BOTY becomes more and more international and that means more and more popular. So the capacity of the venues grows and every year there are some more key men in the BOTY-team. One of their aims is to integrate young and motivated people. And it's necessary to do it because it is getting harder and harder to fulfill all the claims" ^[4].

The 2007 Battle of the Year world finals was held on October 20, 2007. Qualifiers for the 2008 world finals began in May and will run through September.

Contents 1 Past Champions and Best Show Winners 2 2007 Season 2.1 2007 World Finals results 2.2 Crew List for 2007 World Finals 3 Series Format 3.1 World Finals Format 3.2 Scoring Criteria 3.3 Qualification and Preliminaries 3.4 World Finals Format History 4 Media 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Past Champions and Best Show Winners

The following is a list of all BOTY world finals champions and runner up and Best Show winners, by year, along with the country (or countries) they represented. Please note that there was no "Best Show" award given from 1991-1996, and no battle champion in 1990.

Year	Champion	Runner Up	Best Show
2007	Extreme Crew	Turn Phrase Crew	Turn Phrase Crew
2006	Vagabonds	Last For One	Vagabonds
2005	Last For One	Ichigeki	Ichigeki
2004	Gamblerz	Fantastik Armada	Break the Funk
2003	Pockémon	Expression	Fire Works
2002	Expression	Vagabonds	Vagabonds
2001	Wanted Posse	Team Ohh	Visual Shock
2000	Flying Steps	Waseda Breakers	Waseda Breakers
1999	Suicidal Lifestyle	Rock Force Crew	/ Spartanic Rockers
1998	Rock Force Crew	The Family	Spartanic Japan
1997	Style Elements	South Side Rockers	South Side Rockers
1996	Toys In Effect	Enemy Squad	Not Awarded
1995	/ The Family	Enemy Squad	Not Awarded
1994	Vlinke Vuesse	Enemy Squad	Not Awarded
1993	Always Rockin' Tuff	Fresh Force	Not Awarded
1992	Battle Squad	Second To None	Not Awarded
1991	Battle Squad	TDB	Not Awarded
1990	Not Awarded	Not Awarded	TDB

[edit] 2007 Season

[edit] 2007 World Finals results

	Semifinals					Finals
	Extreme Crew		W
	Legiteam Obstruktion		L
						Extreme Crew		W
						Turn Phrase Crew		L
	Turn Phrase Crew		W
	Funk Fellaz		L

Best Show: Turn Phrase Crew

[edit] Crew List for 2007 World Finals

This list is in chronological order by date qualified. Preliminaries that have not occurred yet have a colored background.

Crew	Qualification
Hoochen	Winner, BOTY Benelux 2007
Sick 7	Winner, BOTY South East Europe 2007
Plastic Def Squad	Winner, BOTY Balkans 2007
Legiteam obstruktion	Winner, BOTY France 2007
Rapid Soul Moves	Winner, BOTY Italy 2007
Fallen Angels Crew	Winner, BOTY Iberica 2007
Extreme (Obo Wang)	Winner, BOTY Asia 2007
Turn Phrase Crew	2nd place, BOTY Asia 2007
Ground Scatter Crew	3rd place, BOTY Asia 2007
Breakerholicks	Winner, BOTY Israel 2007
Ultimate Desperados	Winner, BOTY Scandinavia 2007
Funk Fellaz	Winner, BOTY Germany 2007
Ruff'n'X Crew	Winner, BOTY Switzerland 2007
DF Zulu Breakers	Winner, BOTY Brazil 2007
Vagabonds (withdrew)	Champion, BOTY International 2006
Last Minute Crew (withdrew)	Winner, BOTY South Africa 2007

[edit] Series Format

[edit] World Finals Format

The format comprises firstly a showcase round in which all crews perform a routine of no more than six minutes in length demonstrating their ability in the different styles of breakdance. Judges rank all competing crews by evaluating certain criteria based on the shows.

Following the showcase round, the top four crews are selected to take part in a crew-vs-crew battle playoff. In the semifinals, the top-ranked crew battles the 4th-ranked crew and the 2nd-ranked crew battles the 3rd-ranked crew. The winner of each semifinal then battle each other for the championship.

An award, "Best Show", is also given to the crew that had the best-scoring showcase.

[edit] Scoring Criteria

Judges evaluate the showcase round on two main elements, artistry and technicality, each of which includes several criteria. The artistry element includes theme, music, synchronicity, and choreography, among others. The technicality element includes toprock, uprock, footwork, and power moves, among others.^[5]

[edit] Qualification and Preliminaries

The champion of the world finals is always invited directly to the following year's world finals to defend their title. All other crews qualify via preliminary tournaments, although historically there have been a few instances of directly-invited crews (usually when there is no preliminary in that crew's region).

Qualification is moving towards a two-step system consisting of individual country preliminaries followed by regional preliminaries. Historically, each country had an individual preliminary and sent one crew to the world finals; however, countries have become more and more regionalized over the years. For example, starting in 2007, there is a new BOTY Asia regional preliminary that will send the top 3 finishers to the world finals; in 2006 and years prior, Asia region countries such as Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan had their own preliminaries and sent one crew each to the world finals.

The following is a chart showing the regions and countries in the region, as well as number of crews sent to the world finals, for the 2007 season.

Region	Crews Sent	Member Countries
BOTY Asia	3	China,  Indonesia,  Japan,  South Korea,  Laos,  Malaysia,  Philippines,  Singapore,  Taiwan,  Thailand,  Vietnam
BOTY Balkans	1	Albania,  Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Bulgaria,  Cyprus,  Greece,  Macedonia,  Montenegro,  Romania,  Serbia,  Turkey
BOTY Benelux	1	Belgium,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands
BOTY Iberica	1	Portugal,  Spain
BOTY North East Europe*	0	Belarus,  Czech Republic,  Estonia,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Poland,  Slovakia
BOTY Scandinavia	1	Denmark,  Finland,  Norway,  Sweden; also, BOTY North East Europe member countries are invited to participate*
BOTY South East Europe	1	Austria,  Bosnia,  Croatia,  Hungary,  Slovenia

Countries with individual preliminaries (one crew each):  Brazil,  France,  Germany,  Israel,  Italy,  South Africa,  Switzerland,  United States**

* BOTY North East Europe regional preliminary was canceled. On July 10, 2007, it was announced that BOTY North East Europe member countries would be allowed to enter BOTY Scandinavia.^[6]
** On September 7, 2007, the BOTY USA 2007 qualifier was announced;^[7] however, it was canceled less than one month later.

[edit] World Finals Format History

Prior to 2006, the current championship playoff system was not used. Instead, there were only two battles: two crews would compete for first place, while two other crews would compete for third place. While a "Best Show" award was still granted based on showcase performance, the judges would also rank the crews as to who they thought should participate in the championship battle. This resulted in frequently-occurring situations where the crew that received the "Best Show" award was not even able to compete for the championship, as they were picked for the third place battle instead of the championship battle. Examples include three "Best Show" winners in the final five years under the old format: Break the Funk (2004), Fire Works (2003), and Visual Shock (2001).^[8] The change to the playoff system also brought the world finals format into line with some of the qualifier formats, such as the BOTY Korea Preliminary, which has been using the four-crew playoff system for years.

Starting in 2004, a strict 6-minute time limit per crew on the showcase was enforced for the world finals, with scoring penalties assessed for going over time. This was enacted so that the world finals event would finish in a shorter time period. The 6-minute limit was quickly adopted at preliminaries.^[9]

In 1990, when the event was known as the "International Breakdance Cup", there were only shows and no battles. From 1991-1996, there were battles resulting in a crowned champion, but no "Best Show" award was given.

[edit] Media

An official DVD documenting the showcases, battles, and extra features is released usually a few months after the tournament. It is a perennial best seller on many breakdance and hip-hop media retail sites.

Several documentaries have also been produced based on the competition, probably the most notable of which is the feature-length documentary Planet B-Boy. On November 17, 2006, a teaser of Planet B-Boy was released and earned a featured spot on the website MySpaceTV.^[10] While the film has completed production and premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival^[11] and has recently been scheduled for a Spring 2008 distribution,^[12] it is not yet known if the movie will have nationwide screenings or be released on DVD.

On occasion with the annual competition, a CD/LP titled "The Official Battle Of The Year Motion Soundtrack" is released. It features some of the leading B-Boy Funk artists such as DJ Nas'D, Def Cut, Cutmaster GB, and DJ Phantom.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• 'Battle of the Year' official website