BOTTB

For Bands

How Scoring Works

Every Battle of the Tech Bands set is scored out of 100 points across 5 categories — 4 scored by a panel of judges, one decided by the crowd. Nothing here is secret: this is the same rubric printed on the judges' score sheets on the night.

The 100 points at a glance

  • Song ChoiceJudges20 pts
  • PerformanceJudges20 pts
  • Crowd VibeJudges20 pts
  • Crowd VoteCrowd20 pts
  • VisualsJudges20 pts

80

Judge points

20

Crowd vote points

100

Total

The categories in detail

Judges score each band on every category independently, as you play.

Song Choice

20 pointsScored by judges

Whether your setlist was the right setlist — for this room, this crowd, and this band.

What judges reward

  • Songs the room recognises and can latch onto within the first few bars
  • A set with an arc: a strong opener, light and shade in the middle, a closer that leaves the room lifted
  • Material that suits your singer’s range and the band’s current playing level
  • Variety in tempo, key and feel across the set rather than four songs that blur together
  • Arrangements trimmed to keep the set moving — long intros and jams cost you momentum

Tip: A well-chosen crowd-pleaser played comfortably beats an ambitious deep cut played nervously. Pick songs you can nail on a loud stage with limited monitoring.

Performance

20 pointsScored by judges

How well you played and how you carried it on stage — musicianship plus presence.

What judges reward

  • Tightness: timing, tuning, vocal pitch, and clean starts and endings
  • Dynamics — not everything at full volume for the whole set
  • Confidence and stage presence: eye contact, movement, using the space you’re given
  • A band that visibly enjoys itself and plays as one unit rather than four solo acts
  • Composure when something goes wrong; recovering smoothly scores better than stopping

Tip: This is not a musicianship contest won by the best player. A tight, committed band that commands the stage consistently outscores a more technical band staring at its shoes.

Crowd Vibe

20 pointsScored by judges

The response your set actually produces in the room — energy you transfer, not energy you have.

What judges reward

  • People moving forward, dancing, singing along or filming
  • Direct engagement: talking to the room, counting them in, handing over a chorus
  • How the room feels when you finish compared to when you started
  • Whether you win over people who came to watch a different band
  • Momentum held between songs — long gaps while you retune let the room drift

Tip: Bringing a big cheer squad helps, but this category is scored on the whole room. Judges are watching the people who did not arrive as your fans.

Crowd Vote

20 pointsScored by the audience

The audience’s own verdict, cast on their phones during the event.

How the vote runs

  • Voting opens once the last band has finished, so everyone votes having seen every set
  • It stays open for roughly 15 minutes, then closes
  • One vote per person, cast by scanning the QR codes displayed around the venue
  • Voters can change their mind while the window is open — only the final vote counts
  • Duplicate voting is filtered out, so ballot-stuffing does not help you

Tip: The voting window is short and it opens after the final set — so tell the room, from the stage, to stick around and vote when it opens. The single biggest cause of lost crowd-vote points is supporters who loved your set but had left or stopped paying attention by the time voting went live.

Visuals

20 pointsScored by judges

The visual show you put on: costume, staging, and everything the crowd sees before you play a note.

What judges reward

  • A visible idea — a theme, a look, coordinated costumes, or a strong band identity
  • Backdrops, banners, props, or artwork on the screens
  • Whole-band commitment: consistency across every member beats one great outfit
  • Choices that read from the back of a dark room, not just up close
  • Presentation that suits the music rather than fighting it

Tip: Budget is not what is being scored — intent is. A committed op-shop theme done by the whole band scores well above expensive gear with no idea behind it.

How judge scores are combined

Each event runs a panel of independent judges — usually three or four. Every judge scores every band on every judged category, using whole numbers from zero up to that category's maximum. Judges score as you play and hand their sheets in after the final set.

Your score in a category is the average across all judges, not the total. Averaging means one judge scoring harder (or softer) than the rest cannot swing the result on their own, and the size of the panel never changes what a category is worth.

Worked example — Performance

16

Judge A

18

Judge B

17

Judge C

(16 + 18 + 17) ÷ 3 = 17.0 Performance points out of 20. The same averaging runs for every judged category, and those category scores add up to your judge total out of 80.

How the crowd vote becomes points

The crowd vote is scored relative to the leader. The band with the most votes takes the full 20 points, and every other band is scored in proportion to that band:

(your votes ÷ leading band's votes) × 20

Scoring against the leader rather than the total keeps the category worth a genuine 20 points regardless of how many bands play or how many people vote on the night.

Worked example converting crowd votes into points
BandVotesPoints
Band A12020.0
Band B9015.0
Band C6010.0
Band D305.0

Winners, category awards and ties

Overall winner

The band with the highest combined total out of 100. There is no separate final round and no organiser's discretion — the totals decide it.

Category winners

We also publish the best band in each individual category, so a band that doesn't take the trophy can still walk away with the night's best setlist, performance, crowd response, visuals, or the crowd favourite award.

Tie-breaks

If two bands finish level on total points, we resolve it in this order:

  1. The higher crowd vote wins
  2. Failing that, the higher Performance score wins
  3. If it is still level, the bands are declared co-winners

On the night

  1. 1

    Judges score live

    Each judge fills in a score sheet during your set, with room for notes. Scores are not shared between judges.

  2. 2

    Crowd voting opens

    Once the final band has played. QR codes around the venue link to the voting page, so every vote is cast by someone who has seen all of the bands.

  3. 3

    Voting closes

    The window is short — around 15 minutes. Anyone in the room can vote once and can change their mind until it closes, after which the crowd vote is locked in.

  4. 4

    Scores are combined

    Judge scores are averaged per category and added to the crowd-vote points to produce each band’s total.

  5. 5

    Results announced

    The winner is announced live at the venue, and the full breakdown is published on this site with every band’s category scores.

What isn't scored

  • Technical difficulty on its own. Playing something hard earns nothing if it doesn't land with the room.
  • Gear and budget. Judges score what they hear and see, not what it cost.
  • Company size or how many colleagues you bring — beyond the votes those people actually cast.
  • Fundraising. Money raised for Youngcare is the point of the night, but it carries no points.

How the format has changed

Results pages show the scoring version each event used, so older results may look different to the current rubric.

Brisbane 2022 – 2025

v2022.1

Early events recorded the winning band only, with no published score breakdown.

Sydney 2025

v2025.1

First full breakdown. Included the Scream-o-Meter, a live measurement of crowd noise.

Song (20) + Performance (30) + Crowd Vibe (30) + Crowd Vote (10) + Scream-o-Meter (10)

Melbourne 2026

v2026.1

The Scream-o-Meter was replaced by Visuals, judging costume and staging.

Song (20) + Performance (30) + Crowd Vibe (20) + Crowd Vote (10) + Visuals (20)

Brisbane 2026, Sydney 2026

v2026.2Current

Even weighting — all five categories are worth the same, so no single category can decide the night on its own.

Song (20) + Performance (20) + Crowd Vibe (20) + Crowd Vote (20) + Visuals (20)

Still have questions?

Have a look at past results to see how the scoring plays out, or ask us anything about the rubric before you plan your set.