An example of why comps where the public vote for the winners suck balls - DMC Online

[Sigma]

The current DMC Online battle is in full swing at the moment and I know a few people that are in it so I've been following what's going on with it. Spots 1-3 are decided by public votes, while spots 4-10 are decided by judges. There's some really good prizes at stake for the top 3. The top prize is over £4,000 worth of DJ gear for instance.

Check out this guy's video. He has over 600 votes at the time of writing this: -

http://www.talenthouse.com/creativei...7d5003ec73/646

I'm no battle DJ, but I reckon even I could beat him (no offence to him if he ever reads this, but I'm just trying to be honest about this shit).

Now check out this video, which has just over 200 votes: -

http://www.talenthouse.com/creativei...6dd89f3fd7/646

Mighty Atom (the guy in that second vid) is a member of my site, but I should add that he has not said anything about this comp other than to post his video for people to watch. He's not complained about the voting system, nor has he commented on that other guy's video.

Clearly, if you know anything about turntablism there is no fucking way on Earth that you would put video 1 ahead of video 2, yet because of the public voting system, video 1 has 3 times as many votes as video 2.

Here's what Tony Prince (the head of DMC) said about the comp yesterday: -

What’s going on? NOT ONE AMERICAN OR BRIT OR FRENCH DJ is amongst the Top 3 prize winners from Round 1 and 2. Anyone figure this out? The answer must be simply that CHILE, SINGAPORE, PORTUGAL, ITALY, SPAIN AND ECUADOR have thrilled the public and the pro judges more than DJs from the nations that normally lead the way. One round to go….will we yet see the mighty America, the Great Britain or the Fantastic French coming through to lead in this final Round 3…?

And a few people responded to this, pointing out that UK and US DJs aren't placing not because they are not of a high enough standard, but because of the flawed voting system. Here's Tony Prince's response to that criticism: -

We’re in between the devil and the deep blue sea. First we welcome and indeed welcome new people coming to see you guys and this will benefit your art. If the prizes are seen to be the motivation for competitors to attract votes, then maybe the answer next year is to drop the prizes at the heat stages? What do you think of that proposal?

DMC’s sponsors are being extremely generous I’m sure you will agree.

I’m more concerned that the top 10 in each round contains the best DJs and our view is that they do. This is eventually handed over to knowledgable, respected DMC champions who are as likely to ignore a talented DJ as they are me buying them a drink at the DMC WORLD FINALS!

Let’s not worry too much about heat top 3 but rather that the eventual top 3 DMC ONLINE DJ CHAMPION winners are all magnificent.

Lastly, as Christie Z says at DMC USA, this is a wonderful opportunity for novice DJs to build their confidence and as Sally McLintock points out, this is the first time certain countries can compete at all. So all in all Chile…chill out and just be as good as you can be

Obviously, we all know what bullshit these "who has the most friends on Facebook" comps are, but what pisses me off here are 2 things: -

1. If you're going to have judges, why not let them choose the top 3, instead of positions 4-10? Let the public vote decide 4-10, then DMC still gets all the free promo from the DJs posting on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. but the prizes have a far greater chance of going to those that deserve them the most.

2. Tony Prince's attitude. Of course the prizes are a motivation! There's some really high end gear up for grabs, but the solution isn't to get all butthurt and say "oh, perhaps we should just get rid of the prizes next year then??". Why not focus on the constructive criticism given to you by some of the DJs that are both supporting DMC Online and entering it??

/rant

[Boomcie]

Ok wtf is that shit in the first video, seriously?

[Era 7]

the first...my god...

[Hamza21]

About the first video ,although skillwise he didn't do much;He did use Hip Hop and used Mixvibes. That's a plus in my book. (Proud Mixvibes user here )

As for the second the Disablists are pretty ill on the cut but Atom had three flaws in my opinion: spinning Dubstep ,scratchin the overused,way overused "ahh', and the split camera angle. I didn't cast a vote but if I were voting, I would vote for first guy over Atom. DMC needs to weed out these new schoolers and their wack taste in music and bring back Hip Hop to the battle. DMC is becoming more and more irrelevant each year (no disrespect to all the hard work Christie Z puts in) as DMC has turned to a circle jerk of a select few , all with crappy taste in music , trying impress one another with how fast they can cut ahh & fresh. Nothing but Q bert clones. I know most old schoolers like me don't want see some kid horribly beatjuggling some horrid dubstep-electro beat in a supposed battle of the best Hip Hop deejays.

[Sigma]

It's a battle of skills. In that respect, nobody who knows about this shit would vote for 1 over 2, cos 1 was horrible.

[RaySwift]

I've watched DMC battles since the early 90s to mid 2000s. Once I heard that they were allowing DVS and controllers (I think) I lost interest.

[DJ Headkick]

Sorta reminds me of voter-controlled comedy contests where famous youtubers beat their competitors by a handy margin.

[negativejeff]

I've watched DMC battles since the early 90s to mid 2000s. Once I heard that they were allowing DVS and controllers (I think) I lost interest.

I'm with you there. I don't mind like using DVS but once the Dicers and Fx controllers are used they lost me. Guess I'm just old school.

[DJ Subculture]

I tried watching the videos, but all I saw was:

[RaySwift]

I'm with you there. I don't mind like using DVS but once the Dicers and Fx controllers are used they lost me. Guess I'm just old school.

Me to and fuck with all that "Get with the times" bullshit.

These were my cue points.