2000 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships
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Played April 12–21 in Katowice and Krakow. This was the final year of the qualifying tournaments (except for the "Far East"), so it was a simple matter of the winner being promoted. This was also the final year of the traditional eight team tournament. Beginning in 2001 Group B would be renamed 'Division I' and consist of two six team divisions.
Germany was promoted to the 2001 IIHF World Championship. No team was relegated.
Played March 20–26 in Beijing. In 1999 Group C was disrupted because of political issues surrounding Kosovo. The IIHF chose to have no team relegated and have Yugoslavia retain their position, the result was a nine team tournament this year. With the forthcoming realignment, four nations had the opportunity to be promoted to Division I, the remaining five would participate in next year's Division II.
Hungary was promoted to Division I
Croatia came back from a two goal deficit to tie Romania, and thereby clinch a promotion to Division I.
China was promoted to Division I.
Lithuania was promoted to Division I.
Played April 10–16 in Reykjavik. The upcoming realignment meant that seven of the nine teams moved up to "Division II" for 2001.
Both Israel and Iceland were promoted to Division II.
Both Australia and New Zealand were promoted to Division II.
Both Belgium and South Africa were promoted to Division II.
Both Luxembourg and Turkey had to stay behind in what was initially called Division II Qualification (later renamed Division III). There was no third team to play against so they both simply skipped a year and joined Division II in 2002
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