Hip hop dance competitions have grown in popularity in recent years, but there is minimal research assessing the reliability of hip hop judging and whether certain elements of dance routines impact scoring more than others. Considering the aesthetic appeal of synchrony in dance, we investigated whether the winning group can be predicted by how objectively synchronized the dancers were, hypothesizing that the most synchronized routine will win. We held an in-person hip hop dance competition, with six groups of five experienced dancers wearing motion capture markers. Five paid expert judges determined the winner by assessing the routines on choreography, execution (including synchrony), and overall cohesion. Simultaneously, audience members provided their own scores. Synchrony was a significant predictor of scores for both judges and audience members. The judges were highly consistent in their scoring, with an intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.94. Audience members with hip hop dance training were significantly more likely to correctly predict the winning group compared to those without. The results emphasize the importance of synchrony in hip hop competition judging, but suggest that judges’ expertise led them to incorporate additional important factors in their assessments.