After arriving in Santiago, Chile the day before and getting acclimatized to the new time zone, everyone met in the garden of Hotel Manquehue in the morning for a briefing of the coming week’s events.
First on the agenda was a trip to the city to go digging for local records from a secret store that opened up exclusively for us to shop at. Of course when we arrived Z-Trip was already there (after cleaning out all the Tokyo record stores last year before anyone else could), along with some trusted friends (sneaky guys).
Fortunately there was plenty of good finds to be had and anyone who cared to get a little dusty came up with a nice stack.
We arrived at Castillo Forestal a little early and got a chance to explore the surrounding area, Parque Forestal (Forest Park) and Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts).
The draw for the finalists to choose the placement and order for the competition was held in the restaurant overlooking the Parque Forestal and DJ Flipout (Vancouver’s favorite DJ and official MC of Thre3style) warmed everyone up with a fantastic DJ Set.
As every year, the draw was done by Skratch Bastid and Jazzy Jeff along with reigning champ (and hometown hero) DJ Byte.
Chilean finalist Diego Zapata coincidentally drew the first pick and chose to play the first set of the first round. Perhaps this was in homage to DJ Byte who was successful last year by selecting the same placement.
Check out the DJCity recap video below:
The final choices were as follows:
December 13 - Round 1
Chile - Diego Zapata
Argentina - Lautaro Palenque
Netherlands - Abstract
South Korea - J Fitz
England - JFB
Canada - Trapment
December 14 - Round 2
Brazil - DJ A
France - Stresh
Barbados - Puffy
Italy - Delta
Spain - Ches
Belgium - Cross
December 15 - Round 3
Azerbaijan - NEZ
Austria - Busy Fingaz
Taiwan - Dinpei
Mexico - Jimmix
Thailand - Bomber Selectah
Japan - You-Ki
December 16 - Round 4
Australia - Beast Mode
Germany - Pro Zeico
New Zealand - Ruse
Poland - 69beats
Switzerland - Flink
USA - Trayze