About Battle Of The Year (BOTY)

Battle of the Year, commonly referred to as BOTY, is an annual international b-boying 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 was held at the Volkswagenhalle in Braunschweig, Germanyuntil 2009. In 2010 the world finals took place in Montpellier, France. 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] BOTY audiences increased over the years - in 1997, 4000 people watched the finals. The BOTY finals in 2000 held in Hannover, Germany had the largest audience, with 10000 people watching the finals. In 2001, "A change of direction" was added to the BOTY logo as decisions were made to change the format due to the increased popularity and to make it more manageable.^[5]

Past Battle of the Year results

Year	First place	Second place	Third place 1	Fourth place	Best show
2011	Vagabonds	Battle Born	Nine Stages B-boyz  TPEC	No third-place battle held	Vagabonds
2010	Jinjo	Mortal Combat	Gamblerz  La Smala	No third-place battle held	Mortal Combat
2009	Gamblerz	Top 9	All Area  Phase-T	No third-place battle held	All Area
2008	Top 9	T.I.P.	Formosa  Smokémon	No third-place battle held	Top 9
2007	Extreme Crew	Turn Phrase Crew	Legiteam Obstruxion  Funk Fellaz	No third-place battle held	Turn Phrase Crew
2006	Vagabonds	Last For One	Drifterz  B-Town Allstars	No third-place battle held	Vagabonds
2005	Last For One	Ichigeki	Gamblerz	Phase-T	Ichigeki
2004	Gamblerz	Fantastik Armada	Stuttguard	Break the Funk	Break the Funk
2003	Pockémon	Expression Crew	Gamblerz	Fire Works	Fire Works
2002	Expression Crew	Vagabonds	Deep Trip	Top 9	Vagabonds
2001	Wanted	Team Ohh	HaviKoro	Visual Shock	Visual Shock
2000	Flying Steps	Waseda Breakers	Scrambling Feet	South African Allstars	Waseda Breakers
1999	Suicidal Lifestyle	Rock Force	Bag of Trix	The Family	/ Spartanic Rockers
1998	Rock Force	The Family	Phase 2	Suicidal Lifestyle	Spartanic Japan
1997	Style Elements	South Side Rockers	Black Noise	Suicidal Lifestyle	South Side Rockers
1996	Toys in Effect	Enemy Squad	Wedding B-Boys & Flying Steps	Passo Sul Tempo	None awarded
1995	/ The Family	Enemy Squad	Out of Control	Phase-T	None awarded
1994	Vlinke Vuesse	Enemy Squad	Always Rockin Tuff	Crazy Force Crew	None awarded
1993	Always Rockin Tuff	Fresh Force	Enemy Squad	TDB	None awarded
1992	Battle Squad	Second 2 None	Enemy Squad	TDB	None awarded
1991	Battle Squad	TDB	Enemy Squad	Fresh Force	None awarded
1990	/ TDB	Crazy Force Crew	City Rockers	None awarded	None awarded