His opinion: GBB26 Quarterfinal vs FootboxG = 9.5/10
The reality: Official Judge Vote = D-Low WINS 4-1 FootboxG

His opinion: GBB19 Quarterfinal vs Colaps = 9.0/10
The reality: Official Judge Vote = D-Low WINS 5-0 Colaps

His opinion: GBB26 Grand Final vs River' = 8.5/10
The reality: Official Judge Vote = D-Low LOSES 4-1 River'

His opinion: GBB18 Quarterfinal vs Trung Bao = 8.0/10
The reality: Official Judge Vote = D-Low WINS 5-0 Trung Bao

His opinion: GBB19 Grand Final vs Tomazacre = 7.5/10
The reality: Official Judge Vote = D-Low WINS 3-2 Tomazacre

His opinion: GBB18 Grand Final vs Codfish = 7.0/10
The reality: Official Judge Vote = D-Low LOSES 2-3 Codfish

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Some interesting takeaways:

1. D-Low thinks his best GBB solo performance ever was against FootboxG (9.5/10). Even though he won a majority decision 4-1 vs FootboxG, compared to unanimously winning 5-0 against Colaps. Some people thought D-Low lost to FootboxG, while nearly everyone agrees that D-Low battered Colaps. This means D-Low slightly improved in the battle vs FootboxG at GBB26, even though the win was less dominant than vs Colaps at GBB19. Which means that FootboxG was a stronger opponent for D-Low in 2026 than Colaps was in 2019.

2. D-Low thinks his best GBB solo grand final performance ever was against River'. Even though he lost against River' but won GBB previously against Tomazacre. The same person (D-Low) could perform BETTER in GBB26 finals and lose, while he won GBB19 finals but performed WORSE. How does this make sense? This means that River' massively improved from his GBB19 performance, where he lost to Tomazacre. By performance ranking: River GBB26 > D-Low GBB26 (8.5/10) > D-Low GBB19 (7.5/10) > Tomazacre GBB19 > River GBB19. If every beatboxer had an ELO rating graph that charts over 10 years, River would have one of the highest rating improvements, while D-Low would probably be the highest ELO rating every year (consistently top level) but have less ELO gain compared to River (less improvement % change). The conclusion is that winning GBB in 2019 was easier than winning GBB in 2026, and that trend will continue. The average level of competition increases over time, just like in every sport. The top 8 finisher at GBB 2069 would likely beat the breaks off of every GBB Champion we've ever had so far.

3. D-Low ranks his quarterfinals performances, on average, better than his grand final performances. This could either mean several things: A) his quarterfinals routines are OP and his finals routines are worse; B) he doesn't try as hard later in the competition because he already made the finals; C) his opponents in the finals are stronger than his quarterfinals opponents. D-Low performs worse, on average, over the course of the competition. This is not ideal. The ideal performance graph, if you were to assign each battle an ELO rating, should rise from the lowest at the beginning of the comp (weakest performance, weakest routines) and gradually rise until the end, with the peak ELO in the finals (strongest performance, strongest routines). Or it could simply mean that his opponents are worse in the quarterfinals so he dominates in the early battles. Or it could also mean his opponents are, obviously, stronger in the finals so it's harder to win there.

Mt Olympus

Colaps (#1-3)

• Round 1: 1st Round vs River' at GBB21 (Death Bringer)
• Round 2: GBB26 Showcase (Rise Again - Unreleased Track)

River' (#1-3)

• Round 1: 1st Round vs D-Low at GBB26 (My Way Remix)
• Round 2: 2nd Round vs Colaps at GBB21 (Voices)

D-Low (#1-3)

• Round 1: 1st Round vs FootboxG at GBB26 (Dynamite Remix + Zombie)
• Round 2: 2nd Round vs Zekka at SBX Kickback 2021 (Circle of Death)

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Legendary

FootboxG (#4-6)

• Round 1: 2nd Round vs F9Y at China Beatbox 2025 (Deathblow)
• Round 2: GBB26 Showcase Elimination (Melt It Down)

Wing (#4-6)

• Round 1: 2nd Round vs Codfish at GBB26 (Aventador Remix)
• Round 2: 3rd Round vs Codfish at GBB26 (Dopamine DnB Remix)

Napom (#4-6)

• Round 1: 1st Round vs River' at GBB23 (Lose My Mind)
• Round 2: 2nd Round vs Babeli at BBWC 2015 (Earthquake)

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Honorable Mention

Improver (#7)

• Round 1: 2nd Round vs Inertia at Haten World 2024 (Dirty Planet)
• Round 2: Feel The Future

Here are a few suggestions on how Grand Beatbox Battle could restructure its format to elevate the quality of both battles and showcases.

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1. Determine and release battle brackets ahead of time

When opponents know who they will face in advance, they prepare better. When the public knows, it builds massive hype. Better preparation means higher quality rounds, smarter counters, and better anticipation.

• The Proof: We saw this with Wing vs. Codfish for the fantasy battle. They knew their matchup ahead of time, planned which routines would work better, and had time to practice counters. We saw the same thing in the loopstation quarter-finals: every single quarterfinal had tailor-made battles because participants knew exactly who they were facing.
• The Shift: The overall quality of battles will increase. It will stop being "my routine vs. your routine" and become "I know all your strengths and weaknesses and you know mine, let's see who prepared better and wants to win more."

> You may be wondering: "How is this possible for the solo category since brackets are traditionally determined by showcase eliminations the day before?" This leads to suggestion #2.

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2. Split the Solo Category into "Solo Battles" and "Solo Showcases"

Right now, we have 4-minute showcase eliminations where the top 8 enter the quarterfinal battles. However, showcases and battles require entirely different skillsets and offer different viewing experiences for the audience.

Many incredible showcase artists exit prematurely because they don't make it to the battles or get crushed in a battle format (e.g., H-Has). Conversely, many legendary battlers struggle to barely make it past the showcase round (e.g., Exallos).

Instead, we should split them into two independent categories:

• Solo Battles: A straight Top 16 bracket determined from the usual 16 GBB qualification spots, skipping the showcase elimination entirely.
• Solo Showcases: A dedicated tournament for performance-based beatboxing.

> But wait... how do you seed 16 people for a battle bracket without an elimination round? This leads to suggestion #3.

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3. Alternative ways to determine seeding for Solo Battles

Seeding will always come down to fairness and what people believe is a fair process. Here are five potential options:

1. Qualification Rank Seeding: Standard tournament seeding based on wildcard/audition ranks. For example, the former GBB Champion is paired with Wildcard #10, the 2nd place previous GBB finisher is paired with Wildcard #9, and so on.
2. Pure Lottery Draw: Host a short livestream a month or 2 weeks before GBB where brackets are drawn randomly on stream. This ensures total transparency, and players won't feel "cheated" by a fixed bracket. Every participant has an equal chance of drawing a powerhouse (e.g., Participant 4 has an equal chance as Participant 7 of facing D-Low).
3. Judge Preference: The judges decide together on the brackets based on what matchups they believe will lead to the most exciting, intense, or stylistic battles.
4. Popularity Consensus Vote: A Swissbeatbox members-only poll determines who battles whom in the Top 16 based on what the community wants to see most.
5. Global ELO Rating / General Reputation: Seed players based on their historic battle data (global stage experience, win/loss ratios, etc.). This prevents a situation where two massive powerhouses meet in the very first round of the night (e.g., D-Low vs. River in the Top 16 battle).

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4. How the "Solo Showcase" category would work

This wouldn't be a typical 20-30 minute performance. It would be a structured competition to determine the world's best showcaser:

• The Setup: Hold a normal qualification system to see who qualifies for the GBB Solo Showcase category.
• The Elimination: All qualified participants perform a standard 4-minute showcase.
• The Twist: Instead of transitioning into a face-to-face battle, the top 4 showcases based on the judges' scores advance to the Showcase Semi-Finals.
• The Semi-Finals and Finals: The Top 4 perform a second showcase (either 4 minutes or a new time length). The bottom 2 move to a showcase "small final" (3rd place), and the top 2 move to the Showcase Grand Final.

Why this would work: It allows amazing showcase beatboxers to fully express their art without the pressure of forced battle routines. Because there are no face-to-face battles here, you could even allow the live crowd to count as 1 judge vote via a wave of hands or loudness.

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after seeing the showcase rounds from gbb26, it looks like there are people who would benefit from a separation between battling and showcase.

maybe in the future, gbb could be split for solo and become 2 categories:

• category 1 - solo battle: no showcase + top 16 battles
• category 2 - solo showcase (no face-to-face battle): showcase eliminations (top 4 advances) + top 4 semi finals + top 2 finals

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also:

• producer vs loopstation? it's apparent that styles like raje/mahiro and martin/mokbay create a divide in the community about what looping should be
• or some kind of new rule change. for example, traditional loopers (like tioneb) don't like the loop category inconsistencies

changes implemented in fictional "geoguessr hardcore" mode:

1. include all 195+ countries and all territories on earth (example: china, north korea, sentinel island, tiny remote islands, etc). anything with land is fair game

2. not just drivable roads with pavement. it could be a random drop in a dense jungle with no roads. or in the middle of a desert or cave. or on the side of a mountain at 15,000 foot elevation. or inside any building on earth. camera pov spawns randomly in a random land coordinate

3. not just day-time with clear visibility. it could be dawn, twilight, dusk. or even night-time with only street lights

who would be world champion of this hardcore mode?

1. Everyone D-Low battles will use their best routines against him. He is the GOAT of beatboxing. It's like playing against France or Argentina in the World Cup, every team is on their A-game. They say it's hard to become a champion in any field. But it's even harder to stay champion. When you are at the top, all eyes are on you. That means everyone is analyzing you, creating counters, memorizing your routines, taking down notes. It's essentially D-Low vs the best version of everyone else. Example: nearly everyone made a 'Dopamine' counter for Wing in GBB25, because of how popular and mainstream that track, and Wing, had become.

2. D-Low will only battle at ~85% of his capabilities. He has said in livestreams that his goal for GBB26 is to have fun and enjoy the moment. We won't ever see D-Low at 100% capability because that would mean he would have to dedicate his whole life to improving/battling, which is just not realistic. When he was prepping for GBB19, it consumed him. He was going extra tryhard and had the champion mentality to win no matter what. He had lost in the GBB18 Finals to Codfish, and a lot was riding on his performance in GBB19. He had something to prove. Fast forward 7 years, D-Low is in a completely different stage of life. He has a family, more important priorities, and quite simply, he already proved he is the GOAT. There is no sink-or-swim situation anymore. He already "made" it. We see this time and time again where the young are hungry, and the established names are just there for the fun of it. Examples: Djokovic in tennis and Magnus in chess. D-low is also in 3 categories this year, so that just makes it even harder to win in Solo.

So who are the likely contenders to win besides D-Low? Probably River', FootboxG, and King Inertia.

River' has that hunger to win 2 times, he is in the DBZ time chamber mentality. He likely wants to prove that his win against Napom at GBB23 was not luck. FootboxG has that hunger to be the 2nd-ever dual World Champ and GBB Champ. FootboxG is like D-Low and Colaps in the sense that he rarely competes nowadays. He said if he ever came back to GBB (GBB podcast livestream) it would have to be in the right time of his life and motivation. And King Inertia is looking real good this year, he is hungry to get further than he ever has in past GBBs. A King Inertia with beatbox discipline and good fundamentals/timing is a dangerous world-beater.

But of course, anyone in the competition could win it all.

Beatbox Battle World Championship:
1st World Champs (2005): Joel Turner vs RoxorLoops
2nd World Champs (2009): ZeDe vs Vahtang
3rd World Champs (2012): SkilleR vs Alem
4th World Champs (2015): Alem vs NaPoM
5th World Champs (2018): Alexinho vs B-Art
6th World Champs (2023): FootboxG vs PACMax

Grand Beatbox Battle:
1st GBB (2009): Marzel vs Knackeboul
2nd GBB (2010): Marzel vs BeatBrenning
3rd GBB (2011): SkilleR vs KRNFX
4th GBB (2012): Ball-Zee vs SkilleR
5th GBB (2013): Dharni vs Alem
6th GBB (2014): Dharni vs Two.H
7th GBB (2015): Gene vs Efaybee
8th GBB (2016): Kenny Urban vs NaPoM
9th GBB (2017): NaPoM vs Hiss
10th GBB (2018): Codfish vs D-Low
11th GBB (2019): D-Low vs Tomazacre
12th GBB (2021): Colaps vs River'
13th GBB (2023): River' vs NaPoM
14th GBB (2024): Julard vs Osis
15th GBB (2025): PACMax vs Wing
16th GBB (2026): ??? vs ???

Legendary ELO (Top 4)

1. D-Low (GBB19 Champ - beat Colaps)
2. Colaps (GBB21 Champ - beat River')
3. River' (GBB23 Champ - beat FootboxG 3x, PacMax 2x, Napom 2x, Blackroll)
4. FootboxG (6th World Champ 2023 - beat River', PacMax, Wing, Napom, Blackroll, King Inertia, Alexinho, Zekka)

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Grandmaster ELO (Top 10)
5. PacMax (GBB25 Champ - beat River', Wing, Napom, Osis, Kaji, Alem)
6. Wing (GBB25 Vice Champ - beat Improver, Blackroll)
7. Improver (Haten World Champ 2024 - beat PacMax, King Inertia, Abo Ice)
8. Blackroll (GBB25 3rd Place - beat Napom, PacMax 3x, Osis 5x, Kaji)
9. Napom (GBB17 Champ - beat D-Low, Wing, Blackroll, Osis)
10. King Inertia (2x German Global Champ - beat Napom, Osis 2x, Remix, Alem, Helium)

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Master ELO (Top 16)
11. Skiller (The only double GBB11 Champ and 3rd World Champ 2012)
12. Julard (GBB24 Champ - beat Osis, Alexinho, Kaji)
13. Osis (GBB24 Vice Champ - beat Remix, Helium)
14. Remix (GBB24 3rd Place - beat Kaji, Abo Ice, Hiss, Zer0)
15. Alexinho (5th World Champ 2018 - beat Napom, B-Art 2x)
16. B-Art (5th Vice World Champ 2018 - beat D-Low, FootboxG, Codfish, Alem, Zekka 2x, Hiss 2x)

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Elite ELO (Top 22)
17. Alem (4th World Champ 2015 - beat Napom, FootboxG)
18. Kaji (GBB24/25 4th Place - beat Wing, Codfish)
19. Codfish (GBB18 Champ - beat D-Low, Zekka)
20. Zekka (2x Spanish Champ - beat Wing, Napom, Blackroll, Osis, Remix, Dropical)
21. Reeps One (2x UK Champ & Technical Pioneer)
22. Gene (GBB15 Champ & Musical Pioneer)

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World Class ELO (Top 30)
23. Hiss (GBB17 Vice Champ, 2019 Asian Champ - beat Alexinho, B-Art)
24. Zer0 (GBB20 Online Champ - beat Napom, Remix, Dropical)
25. Exallos (2025 Online World Champ - beat Vocodah 2x, Dropical)
26. Vocodah (2020 Online World Champ - beat River', Osis, Remix, Dropical)
27. Dropical (2021 Online World Champ - beat Remix, the only 12/12 technicality GBB25 wildcard scored by D-Low)
28. Abo Ice (GBB23 4th place - beat Remix, Zekka)
29. Helium (Russian Champ - beat Improver)
30. Ball-Zee (GBB12 Champ - beat Skiller)

"Wing is a fantastic, phenomenal and also, may I add, at the top of the world in his department. When it comes to a battle, he will need his best things, and I just need to be there. Now that sounds absolutely flipping mental, it does, however. My typical skill or battle-esque beatbox sets would par his very best ones."

😳

• D-Low Livestream, Friday May 15 2026