Review Battle of the Year 2011 CCRAAZZY!!!! (Internet Trolls Rejoice lol)

[mjfoo]

Why did Jinjo get disqualified this year? In 2010 they did the same show from R16 2010, and the show was shorter then 6 minutes. They won Boty 2010. They did the same in 2011. Same R16 showcase and shorter then 6 minutes. BOTY has got to return to Germany.

[Den1s]

At Flow13 prize money 1500 Euro to Duo

[Kaal]

Originally Posted by samson

you're just looking at the amount of money though. With the exposure they get comes the possibility of sponsorships, and building some high quality connects. Also,a lot of bboys say it's a dream to be on that BOTY stage, and you can't put a price tag on living out a dream.

that is very true. but still...

[marlon]

Originally Posted by samson

you're just looking at the amount of money though. With the exposure they get comes the possibility of sponsorships, and building some high quality connects. Also,a lot of bboys say it's a dream to be on that BOTY stage, and you can't put a price tag on living out a dream.

But does that not mean the event is exploiting bboys and other dancers??The event generates sales from tickets and sponsorship but bboys gets peanuts?? So what are you saying is that you would dance for nothing?? evening knowing for a fact that the event earnt X amout of money from your expense?

[samson]

Originally Posted by marlon

But does that not mean the event is exploiting bboys and other dancers??The event generates sales from tickets and sponsorship but bboys gets peanuts?? So what are you saying is that you would dance for nothing?? evening knowing for a fact that the event earnt X amout of money from your expense?

What people don't realize is how much actually goes on behind the scenes when throwing these jams and how much it costs with all the expenses. It's rare for bboy jams to get more after they break even.

Would I dance for nothing? To be honest I'm not as active in the bboy scene as much as a lot of the dancers on this board, I have a steady job and go to college. My opinion doesn't matter as much as others. My life doesn't revolve around dancing. I would definitely take the opportunity dance at an event like BOTY. I believe using the word "exploiting" is a bit extreme when describing events like this. Everybody feels exploited/cheated/ripped-off if they aren't winning. Maybe you think I'm just naive, but I believe I'm looking at things from a bigger perspective. I didn't start dancing to make money off of it from the beginning. I always thought it was more important to be dope, leave a legacy, get respect, and love dancing. The money is just a bonus.

Do I think my way of thinking is how all bboys should think? Of course not

[Kaal]

Originally Posted by samson

What people don't realize is how much actually goes on behind the scenes when throwing these jams and how much it costs with all the expenses. It's rare for bboy jams to get more after they break even.

Would I dance for nothing? To be honest I'm not as active in the bboy scene as much as a lot of the dancers on this board, I have a steady job and go to college. My opinion doesn't matter as much as others. My life doesn't revolve around dancing. I would definitely take the opportunity dance at an event like BOTY. I believe using the word "exploiting" is a bit extreme when describing events like this. Everybody feels exploited/cheated/ripped-off if they aren't winning. Maybe you think I'm just naive, but I believe I'm looking at things from a bigger perspective. I didn't start dancing to make money off of it from the beginning. I always thought it was more important to be dope, leave a legacy, get respect, and love dancing. The money is just a bonus.

Do I think my way of thinking is how all bboys should think? Of course not

I understand completely where your coming from, I am a college student myself with a job and I will dance on every opportunity I can because I have to actually find the time to practice and go to jams

(and it is a reality sometimes when I can't attend RARE workshops or jams just because of my studies + jobs, you can only miss/skip so much... it sucks but it is what it is).

but I try to put myself in the shoes of those who practice 5-6-7 times a week for hours straight (as a crew) to perfect routines, commandos and get that move down. They do it for months and after one night, its over... one of the crews walks away with such a small amount of money. yes it must be amazing to be on that stage and say "I was in boty". but after that, when your looking at the time and energy they spent to get there, the reward does not match, atleast not to my eyes.

some bboys, and I know them, I see them at jams, bboying is a way to get by in life for them and I think they DO get exploited to a degree.

[samson]

Originally Posted by Kaal

I understand completely where your coming from, I am a college student myself with a job and I will dance on every opportunity I can because I have to actually find the time to practice and go to jams

(and it is a reality sometimes when I can't attend RARE workshops or jams just because of my studies + jobs, you can only miss/skip so much... it sucks but it is what it is).

but I try to put myself in the shoes of those who practice 5-6-7 times a week for hours straight (as a crew) to perfect routines, commandos and get that move down. They do it for months and after one night, its over... one of the crews walks away with such a small amount of money. yes it must be amazing to be on that stage and say "I was in boty". but after that, when your looking at the time and energy they spent to get there, the reward does not match, atleast not to my eyes.

some bboys, and I know them, I see them at jams, bboying is a way to get by in life for them and I think they DO get exploited to a degree.

Yeah, I can feel where you're coming from. Like I said, my life doesn't revolve around dance nor do I try to make a living from it. So my perspective is completely different when compared to someone who does.

[bboy_sting]

Japan seems fresh this year :-)

[Gecko1989]

Braun Battle Of The Year - Results

Official standings are up

[bboy E-vade]

Im tired of people saying they get exposure most of us are grown men with responsibilities and we dedicated our lifes to this culture and you say its about exposure sorry but thats bs bboys need to be properly paid exposure is great but that dont feed a family and majority of people that are feeding everyone that crap about its for the exposure are the ones making money off us

Bboy Evade Dynamic Rockers Hybrid Crew

[maleekc2p]

3 - Hosts
Bring back Trix!!!! I cant stress this enough! I cant belive they only let him on stage for the judges intro (besides his showcase) and that was it! Legendary Trix is BOTY in person - period! You take away Trix it is no longer Boty! I mean check this: They sell Boty merchandise shirts with the words "one breaker, one move" and "Tonight you gonna see some breakin'" but the person who came up with all that is excluded from hosting the event! I remember when I saw Trix doing his "Tonight you gonna see some ..." speech back in 2003 - the crowd went nuts! Bring that back, please!
I can understand that with the french crowd you need a french host, so I can accept one of them. But the guy who should translate to english couldnt really speak good english, nor did he really translate what the other guy said (i speak french too, so i know). My suggestion would be 1 french MC (actually I didnt like Nasty nor Maleek) and MC Trix.

si tu parle francais tu vas comprendre ça : 18 ans que ce sont les mêmes speakers...faudrait changer mec! le hip hop est en perpetuel mouvement, alors pourquoi ca ne s appliquerais pas aux MC's???? quant à mon anglais (oui car je suis l un des 2 MC) je pense que j ai été compris....maintenant les puristes de ton éspèces, les conservateurs, les mecs qui parlent derriere leur clavier.....que veux tu que je te dise???? continue c'est bien. une dernière chose : que Trix (qui a fait une triste prestation avec l'imitation irrespectueuse de James Brown) fasse ce qu'on a fait : mettre le feu a 14000 personnes comme on l'a fait!!!!

peace.

Originally Posted by carpe

I will post my opinion on this years BOTY here too.

Well, the last time I was at a BOTY was in 2003 in Braunschweig. Visiting Montpellier 8 years later I must say, things have changed, and I'm afraid, for the worse. I'll write down the points which bugged me the most and what else I felt, while not discussing about the judging only about the event it self.

1 - The Location
Location was dope, huge stadion, lots of space. Nice merchandise booths with ******** (oh, nice that b.boy.spot appears only as stars ... bbw afraid of them?), armory, boty etc. For my taste there could have been more food and drink stations, always lots of ppl during the breaks, but thats not so easy to change. So all in all comparing to Braunschweig a step up the ladder.

2 - The Music & Light
I am dissapointed! Sound quality during the shows and partly in the battles in front of the stage was miserable. I checked and saw that the sound engineers were on the side of the stage - wtf? There was a big FOH where the cams were, but only the light engineers where placed there. You can't mix a whole hall from the side of the stage, simply because you cannot hear how it sounds in the hall. I checked if they had at least a backline (a second set of speakers in the middle of the hall so you wont notice sounddelays) - I saw none! During the shows I wondered if the bboys on stage heard there music well enough and for me standing in front of the stage it was not really satisfying.
Lighting looked dope at first sight, but I mean with all those moving lights hanging there you could surely do something a bit more versatile. At least during the battles could be done diffrently.
Then, music during the breaks? Which music? I mean in 2003 I had a good time cyphering, but this year I wasnt hyped to cypher. Why? Because they played the commercial for the Boty France DVD and some Braun shavers all the time! No bboy music playing during the breaks! When I checked the cyphers that formed nonetheless all i could see was little kids who dont need music to "dance". I was really disappointed! One time a DJ spun some music, but mostly not music to bboy to.

3 - Hosts
Bring back Trix!!!! I cant stress this enough! I cant belive they only let him on stage for the judges intro (besides his showcase) and that was it! Legendary Trix is BOTY in person - period! You take away Trix it is no longer Boty! I mean check this: They sell Boty merchandise shirts with the words "one breaker, one move" and "Tonight you gonna see some breakin'" but the person who came up with all that is excluded from hosting the event! I remember when I saw Trix doing his "Tonight you gonna see some ..." speech back in 2003 - the crowd went nuts! Bring that back, please!
I can understand that with the french crowd you need a french host, so I can accept one of them. But the guy who should translate to english couldnt really speak good english, nor did he really translate what the other guy said (i speak french too, so i know). My suggestion would be 1 french MC (actually I didnt like Nasty nor Maleek) and MC Trix.

4 - The crowd
In 2003 I was amazed by how many bboys there were, a stadium full of bboys. This year already when I stood in row at the entrence I thought "Man, is this a Britney Spears concert?" Lot's of families and lots of girls and boys who clearly werent bboys. For me it is okay, it's good for the event to have a wide spread audience and for bboying in general, but it felt a bit awkward that the crowd went nuts over a regular headspin and not giving a shit about a real one hand airflare by i believe someone from Thailand. In 2003 you already heard the cheering for KYS when he only touched his elbow. I can live with that change, not so bad but it just caught my attention. And I loved how the crowd cheered on the Japanese, most entertaining showcase and for me the best show by far! Having fun is what dancing is about and the crowd honored that!

5 - The Closing
After the announcement of the winners and standing for the whole evening I got myself a seat since the hall cleared really fast. It was like maybe 10 min after the announcement when they started to kick everyone out. I would have loved if there would have been some music playing that everyone could cypher a bit but no, rather have security kick everyone out as fast as possible - dissapointing!

6 - Price Money
Only 7500 Euros pricemoney (3000 best show/1st place and 1500 2nd) is not enough for a what they claim to be the "biggest battle world wide". Give the bboys proper payment for their hard work! I dont want to know how much Braun has to pay to be the title sponsor ...

7 - Planet BBoy "Showcase" / Movieshoot
They could have at least informed the audience on what is about to happen. I liked the showcase, but the "battle" got interrupted at a random point, probably because they captured enough footage. Suddenly you see on the main screen "Soul Assassins VS USA Dream Team - Final Battle" and you think wait what??

8 - Vagabonds
I see that they are the crowds favourite, simply by beeing french. But I think it is plain unfair if there are like 30+ ppl staying on Vagabonds side during the battle, that is not fair, it's like you are battling against a wall of ppl. And I would say they should have been disqualified after the final battle! Why? BBoys like Nono took part in the routines and even entered a solo run without beeing in the showcase! Plain violation of rules and therefor to be disqualified. Sorry, but you simply dont do that!!! I can go for Lil Kev joining them, all good, even if during the show he only comes in for one set and a headspin at the end, although he's from Phase T. They did not participate in Boty France so all good, but still a bit strange.

9 - The DJs
Lean Rock did a solid job, I did not really like MAR, but that might be personal taste. I already mentioned that they should spin before the shows and during the breaks for cyphers.

10 - The program
When I entered the arena I was handed a program - dope idea but sadly it wasnt thought trough to the end. Some text were in french only, some french and english and some had spelling mistakes that caught your eye by just hovering over the text and even got noticed by me who is neither a native english nor french speaker. So in short: Dope idea, badly done.

All in all I would say, their motto "A change of direction" is legit if the direction is towards an event not primary for the bboys. All the things I mentioned are small, but together it made my experience worse compared to 2003 in Braunschweig. I hope some people of the BOTY Headquarter will read this topic and really think about the points made in this thread. I hope I can come back to BOTY in a few years and see that things have changed for the better, I really hope so for a legendary event like BOTY. Just think more about the real bboys and not only about the money that one can make with such an event.

Peace,

Michi - Dirty Hands, Switzerland

[carpe]

Originally Posted by maleekc2p

si tu parle francais tu vas comprendre ça : 18 ans que ce sont les mêmes speakers...faudrait changer mec! le hip hop est en perpetuel mouvement, alors pourquoi ca ne s appliquerais pas aux MC's???? quant à mon anglais (oui car je suis l un des 2 MC) je pense que j ai été compris....maintenant les puristes de ton éspèces, les conservateurs, les mecs qui parlent derriere leur clavier.....que veux tu que je te dise???? continue c'est bien. une dernière chose : que Trix (qui a fait une triste prestation avec l'imitation irrespectueuse de James Brown) fasse ce qu'on a fait : mettre le feu a 14000 personnes comme on l'a fait!!!!

peace.

Ok, I understand what you are saying, but my french is too weak to reply in, so since you seem to understand what I am writing it should be fine.

You say things change, yeah I get you. But do they always change for good? Not necessarily. Maybe there is a reason why the speakers werent changed in such a long time? Yeah it might be because they made a good job! I mean all I wrote is just personal opinion, just my taste and my understanding. I'm not a conservative person at all, but have you heard about "never change a running system"? Maybe it is just a mentality thing, that the french have another mentality about certain things, i dont know.
You say you think people understood what you said, fine, but I am here and I say I did not! No disrespect, no flaming just a fact.
And by the way, I dont hide behind my keyboard, there is my name and my country right there at the end of the post.

You didnt like Trix' James Brown showcase at all, ok I respect your opinion. I've seen that show a few times before and I always liked it. Calling it respectless is kinda harsh IMO. The thing was that when the break and the showcase was announced, everyone went out to get a drink and food. So you cant compare it to the situation where everyone is waiting for the final and cheering the local, the french crew.

I still stand behind what I wrote, bring back Trix for the simple reason that he is the personificated BOTY and add a french MC for translation.

peace.

Michi - Dirty Hands, Switzerland