Overview

The World Tournament is a tournament held once every three years on May 7. As always, there are exceptions to this. For instance, 11 years passed between the 23rd and 24th Tournaments as the the arena was rebuilt, 7 years passed between the 24th and 25th because of the Cell Game, and 4 years passed between the 25th and 26th because of Majin Buu. The greatest fighters from around the world gather at every tournament to battle it out for the title of world champion and quite a hefty prize.

The Basic Rules

You are disqualified if:

• You use any sort of foreign object or weapon
• You leave during the Tournament
• You kill your opponent

You lose if:

• You are on the ground for a 10 count
• You get knocked out of the ring
• You give up
• You start to cry

Definately NO:

• Poking of the eyes
• Kicking below the belt

Japanese Construction:

The Japanese term Tenkaichi Budoukai is the basic translation of World Tournament, but here we will show you the full meaning of Tenkaichi Budoukai.

• Ten - Heavens or Sky
• Ka - Under or Beneath
• Ichi - First or Best
• Bu - Martial Arts
• Duo - Way of
• Kai - Meeting

• Ten (Heaves or Sky) combined with ka (Under or Beneath) literally gives us "Under the Heavens". Well, what's literally under the heavens? The Earth of course. So these two characters combine to give us "World"
• ichi literally means "First" or "Best", giving us "The World's Best" when combined with the first character.
• Bu (Martial Arts) combined with dou (way of) gives you "Martial Arts." Now, I know your saying "Huh? what happened to 'way of''?" Well, in Japanese when you combine one word, Martial Arts (which is the way of fighting), with another which contains a partial definition of the first word, way of, the resulting word has the same meaning of the first indefinitely. This is sort of like saying "Blazing Hot" in English.
• kai when preceded by Budou literally means "Martial Arts Meeting". Well, what do Martial artists do when they get together, talk? No, they hold a tournament so they can fight. So here, Budoukai gives us "Martial Arts Tournament" Combine both halves of the translation and you get "The World's Best Martial Arts Tournament"

21st World Tournament:

Series: Dragon Ball

Total Entrants: 137

Date: May 7, 750 A.D.

Finalists: 8

Winner: Jackie Chun (Master Roshi)

Runner-up: Goku

Prize Money: 500,000 Zeni

22nd World Tournament:

Series: Dragon Ball

Date: May 7th, 753 A.D.

Total Entrants: 182

Finalists: 8

Winner: Tien

Runner-up: Goku

23rd World Tournament:

Series: Dragon Ball

Date: May 7, 756 A.D.

Total Entrants: 72

Finalists: 8

Winner: Goku

Runner-up: Piccolo

24th World Tournament:

Series: Dragon Ball Z

Date: May 7, 767 A.D.

Total Entrants: Unknown (assumed to be over 100)

Finalists: Unknown (assumed to be 12-16)

Adult Division Winner: Mr. Satan

Adult Runner-up: Jewel

Junior Division Winner: Videl

Junior Division Runner-up: Unknown

25th World Tournament:

Series: Dragon Ball Z

Date: May 7, 774 A.D.

Adult Division Entrants: 137

Adult Division Finalists: 16

Junior Division Entrants: 35

Adult Division Winner: Mr. Satan

Adult Division Runner-up: Android 18

Junior Division Winner: Trunks

Junior Division Runner-up: Goten

Prize Money: 10,000,000 Zeni

26th World Tournament:

Series: Dragon Ball Z

Date: May 7, 778 A.D.

Total Entrants: Unknown

Finalists: Unknown (assumed to be 16)

Winner: Mr. Satan

Runner-up: Mr. Buu (Majin Buu)

27th World Tournament:

Series: Dragon Ball Z

Date: May 7, 781 A.D.

Total Entrants: Unknown

Finalists: Unknown (assumed to be 16)

Winner: Mr. Satan

Runner-up: Mr. Buu (Majin Buu)

28th World Tournament:

Series: Dragon Ball Z

Date: May 7, 784 A.D.

Total Entrants: 114

Finalists: 12

Winner: Mr. Satan

Runner-up: Mr. Buu (Majin Buu)

Tournament Shematics:

The Tournament battle field wasn't actually the only battle field, in fact there were many other battling fields. Most of the others fields were used for the try-outs and the elimination rounds. The actual Tournament field in Dragon Ball was quite small(bottom left), not much fighting room. Later in Dragon Ball Z they used a bigger field surrounded by crowds of people on all angles similar to a football stadium(bottom right). The platform was squared and was perfectly aligned on all edges, made of cement, making it the ideal fighting scenario(for people with low power levels that is).