The Australian National DMC DJ Championships has been going strong for over 30 years, and is highly regarded in the industry as the Olympics of the DJ world.
In light of the current pandemic, the 2020 Australian DMC DJ Championships went online with four competition dates that ran on Facebook Live throughout September and October.Being online for the first time in the history of the competition meant any DJ from any remote location in Australia was able to compete and as a result there were many entrants that had not entered before. It was great to see many new faces enter the competition for the first time.
Competitors were required to submit a two-minute video for the eliminations, with the top 10 advancing to the National Finals.
The eliminations judging panel was I-Dee (DMC Online World Champ), Total Eclipse (X-Ecutioners), Osyris (x2 Australian DMC DJ Champ), Spell (DMC Online World Champ), Subway (Australasian IDA Scratch Champ), Skizo (Aust DMC Champ + DMC Italy Branch Manager), ASK (x2 Australian DMC DJ Champ).
The final top 10 that proceeded to the National Finals were Mizhap, DJ D, Ole Mate from Pirie, Jewlz, N.A.T, Yoshidog, Clear Cut, Zah, Max Best, and J Red.
These competitors then had three weeks to put together their four-minute set for the National Finals.
Being online, judges had the advantage of taking their time to look at the competitor videos several times before deciding. They all had a week to decide their scores, which meant no trick or technique could have been overlooked, which sometimes happen in a live environment.
National Finals Judges were I-Dee (DMC Online World Champ), Total Eclipse (Executioners / ITF World Champ), Osyris (x2 Aust DMC DJ Champ), D Style (Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Beat Junkies), ShortKut (Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Beat Junkies), Jon 1st (DMC Online World Champ), Asian Hawke (x6 UK DJ Champ).
Judges voted their top 3 with first given 3 points, second given 2 points, and third given 1 point. Pioneer DJ Australia also reviewed all the videos to decide who they will give the 12 month endorsement to as part of their sponsorship deal.
On 25 October, it was time for the winner announcements. This final stream featured international guests live from New York: Grandwizard Theodore (inventor of the scratch) and Mr Freeze (Rock Steady Crew) who gave us a bit of a history lesson on how the culture all started in the Bronx and evolved.
Attention then turned to our own backyard and a discussion with our pioneers in Australia. Other guests were Rosano from Sound Unlimited and Mistry from Bretheren. K-Sera from 96.1FM also joined I-dee and co-hosted the interviews.
DJ D (NSW) took the endorsement deal from Pioneer DJ Australia. Fourth place went to Max Best (TAS); third place was a tie with Yoshidog (QLD) and Ole Mate from Pirie (SA); second place was awarded to J Red (VIC) and the overall winner was the defending champ, Wallzee (VIC).
We would like to congratulate Wallzee for his back to back win and wish him the best of luck at the World Finals.
