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Congratulations are in order once again for New Zealand graffiti crew TMD (The Most Dedicated), who triumphed at the World’s Largest Graffiti competition at Splash Festival in Germany on the weekend. Artists Askew, Disruptiv Music’s own Pest5, Deus, Addict, Gary Grouch and Sirum (AUS) were defending their title as world champs which they won in 2006.

Crews are judged on their concept wall (60%) and a crew representative is sent to compete in each sketch (15%), throw-up (15%) and tagging (10%) battle. Twelve crews were whittled down to seven for the final. This year’s phrase for the concept wall was “Make It Funky” and crews painted using the same colour palette over an eight hour stretch. A new and improved judging system allowed 70% of the scoring to be based on crews judging each other, removing any favouritism calls from defeated teams.

TMD placed first in the concept wall and well-respected Grey Lynn artist Deus is now officially the best tagger in the world – his family are very proud. Copenhagen Connection (Denmark) placed second overall, with Gipsy Kings from Romania placing third overall.

to follow Pest5′s adventures, click here