How this works

Season one runs from Wed, Aug 5 to the final on Wed, Oct 14. Weeks 1 to 4 were the OPEN DECKS sign-up nights and they are finished. Everything from here is a Wednesday: two challenger nights, the knockout bracket, then the final.

Every deadline on this site runs on Denver time.

Entries for season one are closed. The four OPEN DECKS nights are finished and the 66 competitors who were drawn are the whole field for the rest of the season.

While entries were open it was anyone 21 or over who could legally work in the United States, no application, no demo, no booking history required. The same applies whenever season two opens.

Duos entered as one act. A duo is one entry: no solo name as well, and the same person cannot appear in two acts. A duo that was drawn shares the set, the profile page and the votes as a single competitor.

Staff of Tavern and their immediate families can't compete for the prize.

The sign-up nights are over. Weeks 1 to 4 were the OPEN DECKS nights. You put your name in beforehand, names were drawn at random in the room, and whoever was drawn played twenty minutes of whatever they wanted.

66 competitors came through those four weeks, and they are the whole field for the rest of the season. Nobody else can enter.

Each week ran its votes in one window, Friday 9:00 AM to Monday 9:00 AM, so everyone drawn that week was ranked together. Those final counts are published on the board and stay there. Everyone who played keeps their profile on this site.

Two nights, and which one you are on depends on where you finished in your own OPEN DECKS week.

Challenger Week 1, Wednesday 2 September — the top five from each week, twenty DJs. Challenger Week 2, Wednesday 9 September — sixth through tenth from each week, twenty more. You are required at your own night and not at the other.

Each DJ plays a ten-minute live set and earns points from two places. Three judges, on performance, energy, creativity and the ability to put on a show. The crowd, on how many people you bring out to support you. There is no online voting in these rounds.

At this stage it is not just about your music. Energy is key. We want to see who can command the room, create an experience, and bring a crowd with them.

Everyone ranked eleventh or lower in their week plays neither night. They are ranked on the online votes they already have, and those rankings set their place in the bracket. They are welcome at both challenger nights and required at neither.

If two DJs finish level, the judges decide.

Online voting is finished. It ran through the four OPEN DECKS weeks and decided who came where in each of them. From the challenger nights on, nothing is scored on a phone: the points come from three judges and from the crowd in the room.

The votes still count for something. Every competitor's OPEN DECKS total stays published on the board, and for the 26 competitors who are not on a challenger night, those totals are what set their position in the knockout bracket.

While it ran, voting was one vote per person per day, confirmed once by email with a six-digit code, and the day rolled over at midnight Denver time. Votes cast by scripts, bought accounts or throwaway addresses were removed before any count was published. We would rather remove a hundred fake votes than let them decide who wins.

After both challenger nights the field forms a standard knockout bracket. The forty who played a challenger night are seeded on their judge and crowd points; the other twenty-six are seeded on their OPEN DECKS votes. Nobody carries a running total into the bracket, every round starts level.

The bracket runs head to head on 16, 23 and 30 September, a semi-final on 7 October, and the final on Wed, Oct 14. Competitors are told their own night by email once the bracket is drawn.

The Warehouse has final say on eligibility, conduct, and anything this page did not anticipate. This is the first running of the competition and some of it is being worked out as it goes. Any change to these rules is posted here with the date it changed.

Show up on time, play your set, don't touch anyone else's gear. Harassment of other competitors, staff, or the crowd ends a run immediately.