The Numark turntables and MacBook Pros sat buzzing quietly on the stage in Levin Ballroom at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday. At the end of the night, the talented DJ Octokyu (Michael Hwang '12) would emerge victorious in a well-fought battle also featuring Flaky & the Bail (JP Wiegand '11 and Aarish Sheikh '11), DJ Marcos (Marcos Kriger '10), DJ CKD (Carl Decoteau '13) and DJ Vicious (JV Souffrant '12).

The Battle of the Brandeis DJs was sponsored by Student Events with support from Orientation. The battle, in typical Brandeis fashion, was a fierce but good-spirited one. It was a bumping good time for all who attended.

Using popular digital audio workstations and vinyl emulation software programs such as Ableton, Serato and Traktor, the DJs mixed and spun to the best of their abilities. From Michael Jackson to Martin Solveig to Skrillex, the wide variety of music selected by the DJs was always danceable.

The worldwide electronic dance music craze infiltrated the Brandeis campus long ago, as the emergence of Brandeis' own small horde of DJs has demonstrated. This battle showcased some of the less-established DJ talents here at Brandeis. While there was certainly some overlap in the song choices made by the artists, each DJ at the battle had a unique style and identity.

DJ Sensation (Johnny Wilson '13), a versatile DJ who plays genres from techno to bhangra to pop, started off the night as last year's winner. After Sensation, each DJ performed for 5 minutes in two slots, back-to-back against one other DJ. Emcees Herbie Rosen '12, the Student Union president, and Marc Eder '12 judged the competition based on the applause and cheering of the energetic audience.

The battle kicked off as Flaky & the Bail faced off against DJ Vicious. Flaky & the Bail, an older DJ duo, had an especially unique style, playing a computerized set mixed with live music and instruments. The pair also has a penchant for Game Boy and other video game music, sampling bits that hearkened back to the days of the Pokémon craze.

DJ Vicious, from Orlando, Fla., said about himself, "I'm a DJ. I do everything [in terms of music]." Hailing from New York, the younger, less-experienced DJ Venti, who specializes in playing house and Top 40 music, was the second to be eliminated, after a dynamic but rather sloppy performance. Venti might have made it farther if his transitions between songs were smoother and his mixes were in key with one another. DJ CKD, from Boston by way of Toronto, said that he is a "cue-in DJ" who specializes in mixing such fan favorites as "Get Low" with pop or house à la Duck Sauce's "Barbra Streisand."

After CKD was eliminated, the final two competitors were DJ Vicious and DJ Octokyu, another young DJ who originally hails from Hong Kong. Octokyu said that he "incorporates dubstep and house with hip-hop" and that he was excited for his second-round introduction, featuring a song from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

After an intense final showdown between Vicious and Octokyu, the crowd decided that Octokyu's talent and skill came out on top. While Octokyu was certainly the best DJ of the night, there is an incredible pool of talented DJs on campus, as each competitor demonstrated at the event.

Executive Director of Student Events Shanny Shmuel '12 said that the event "was a really big success last year" and that it was "a great way to showcase student talent." Fina Amarilio '12, Student Events' director of finance, hopes that the event will "become a Brandeis classic, … a fun new Brandeis tradition." The event was surely a success the second time around and will hopefully continue to be in the future.