Battle of the Year

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, [ [http://www.thememagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=77&Itemid=117 Hong 10: B-Boy Champion] , Retrieved August 21 2007] frequently referred to as the "World Cup of B-Boying". [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770796/plotsummary Planet B-Boy Plot Summary] , Retrieved August 21 2007] Battle of the year creates "spaces for a globalization at the bottom, bringing people together across the barriers of geography, language, and race" [ Chang, Jeff. “It’s a Hip-hop World.” Foreign Policy 163, Nov/Dec 2007, 58-65. ] 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" [ [http://www.battleoftheyear.de/about/history.html History of BOTY ] ] .

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.

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.Countries with individual preliminaries (one crew each): BRA, FRA, GER, ISR, ITA, RSA, SUI, USA**

"*" 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. [ [http://www.battleoftheyear.de/ Battle of the Year Official Site - News] , Retrieved August 22 2007]
"**" On September 7, 2007, the BOTY USA 2007 qualifier was announced; [ [http://www.bboyworld.com/forum/breaking-discussion/60259-battle-year-usa-its-yall-oct-7th-2007-a.html BOTY USA 2007 Announcement] , [http://www.bboyworld.com BBoyWorld.Com] , Retrieved September 12 2007] however, it was canceled less than one month later.

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). [ [http://www.battleoftheyear.de/past-events.html BOTY Official Website: Past Events] , Retrieved August 21 2007] 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. [ [http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2004/072204/artsweek.html Breakdance battle] , Retrieved August 21 2007]

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.

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. [ [http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1441915358 Planet B-Boy (feature documentary) trailer] , Retrieved August 21 2007] While the film has completed production and premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival [ [http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tixSYS/2007/filmguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=3153 Planet B-Boy (Tribeca Film Festival Official Website)] , Retrieved August 21, 2007] and has recently been scheduled for a Spring 2008 distribution, [ [http://mobile.iht.com/articles/break.1.7109927.xhtml Break dancing breakds out again, around the world] , Retrieved August 21 2007] 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.

References

External links

* [http://www.battleoftheyear.net/ 'Battle of the Year' official website]