THIS CONTEST IS OVER! GO SEE THE RESULTS HERE!
It's been over a year since the last official r21freak competition, Comp III, so it's high time we had another exciting pad file stepping tournament to determine who the strongest steppers at the site are right now! Is straightforward the new gimmicky? Will there be a surprise victor, or will the home team favorites come out on top? And, most importantly, who will rig this one?? Only time will tell, so get excited and read the rules below!
Important Dates
Competition Start: Friday March 6th, 2009
Competition End: Thursday April 2nd, 2009 11:59PM EST (THIS IS WHEN THE FILE IS DUE BY GUYS)
PRIZES:
1st place: custom rank and FotW
2nd place: 2nd place trophy rank
3rd place: 3rd place trophy rank
File Subission Rules
1. You may only submit one file. That’s all. One. No exceptions.
2. Only include one chart (preferably Expert/Challenge) in your file. Only that one chart for each file will be judged. You are welcome to make more difficulties later (to be put in when the pack is released), but they will not be taken into account for judging.
3. Your chart must be between a 9 and a 13, though keep in mind that the more accessible the chart is to the judges, the chances of it doing better are probably increased.
4. Do not include your name ANYWHERE in the file. This includes the folder your file is in, cd titles, the name of the file and anything else in the song folder, and anything located anywhere within any file itself (ie: inside the .sm).
5. Your file must be completely, 100% never released before. If anyone except for you has even seen it, then you may not submit it. You cannot submit a file that has been released elsewhere in any form before (single charts from it, snapshots, rough drafts, etc.) You can step songs that have been stepped before, but be aware they you're probably going to lose originality points if your file is like many others, or a well-known one.
6. Song play length/stepping time must be between 1:30 and 2:15, to ensure that the judges will be able to test them at their arcade, and so that everyone can enjoy them after the competition is over. One second (or more) over or under is not allowed.
7. No explicit lyrics. Since these are (mostly) going to be played in arcades to be judged, they must be appropriate to be played anywhere, even at Chuck-E-Cheese’s and whatnot. One or two minimally audible swears might be okay. Check with me first if you are unsure.
8. No backgrounds/banners. I do not want anything to distract the judges from judging only the steps to the song. Even though it is possible to ignore good backgrounds, they do make a subliminal difference, and I do not want that here.
9. Your song must be in .ogg format and patched for time if necessary (1:58 and up should be patched), and your stepfile must be in .sm format. These are r21's, not SM files. They are meant to be played at the arcade.
10. Anything else not specified here that could lead to any complications is forbidden. This is open to interpretation by the admin.
11. All of the above applies for the entire competition period, and beyond. If at any time your file is found to have any of the above in it (even if you or I didn't notice it), then you will have your file disqualified from the competition immediately, along with any prizes you may have won. If possible though, I will let you know that something is wrong in advance so that you can fix it.
12. If at any time before the entry due date you are unsure as to whether or not something in your song or file fits the above rules, PM me or ask me on AIM. I will tell you my opinion, but it is up to you to make sure that it still fits the rules stated above. Excessive/inappropriate clarification of rules will result in being banned from this competition, along with further action if necessary.
13. When you have finished making your file, send it directly to me, sssmsm, either on AIM or via a PM on this forum. It may be hard to reach me on AIM, so linking to it in a PM is probably a better idea. Just upload it to Filefront or somewhere else that hosts files for free.
How Judging Will Work
If you've been at r21freak for any significant period of time, then you know that contests have not always ended as cordially as they could. They usually result in far more drama and angst than is necessary. To try and curb those unwanted feelings, we've tried many different ways of judging, from traditional judges giving numerical scores to democratic member judging. Nothing has worked 100% perfectly so far, so for this competition, we're trying something new.
Here's how it will work:
1) The judges will all get the files and they will not know who made them (except for me).
2) All of the judges will rank the files in order of how they liked them, from 1 being their favorite.
3) All of the judges will then share their lists, and the rankings for the files will be totaled to produce a preliminary final list. (For an idea on how this works, here's an example: suppose Judge Aaron ranks the files as (1) Butterfly, (2) Max 300, (3) Cutie Chaser; Judge Betty ranks the files as (1) Butterfly, (2) Cutie Chaser, (3) Max 300; and Judge Carl ranks the files as (1) Cutie Chaser, (2) Butterfly, (3) Max 300. This means that Butterfly has a total of 4, Max 300 has a total of 8, and Cutie Chaser has a total of 6, so the preliminary final list would be Butterfly in 1st, Cutie Chaser in 2nd, and Max 300 in 3rd).
4) After the preliminary list is put up for all the judges to see, the real judging begins. The judges will discuss and debate the rankings, going into detail on what they thought was good and bad for charts they feel are ranked too high/too low. The preliminary final ranking will be fine-tuned accordingly. This discussion will continue until all of the judges are satisfied with the official final ranking. It may take over a week.
5) Once the official final ranking is decided, then the judging will be posted, along with the pack of files for everyone to download.
And that's about all there is to it. I feel that this way of judging gets the best of all worlds. It has the knowledgeable, experienced judges, and it has the in-depth analysis requirements as well. If this doesn't produce good final results, then I don't know what will
Also, the judges are the following four people:
The Judges
sssmsm
Gloves
Insane Steve
[ICNH]
It is a very balanced team of judges who were all chosen based on their past experience in judging competitions and in their varied opinions on what makes a good stepfile. Gloves was an excellent judge for the Scholarship Comp, and while he knows what is and isn't fun on the pad, his love of straight up cool files is unequaled as well. Insane Steve was a great judge in Comp III, and his preference for extremely solid and straightforward files is known far and wide. [ICNH] was an amazing Scholarship Comp judge, and he is famous for loving and making files centered on fun. Though I was only an official judge for Comp III (where I think Insane Steve and I averaged out to an awesome team), I've showed my dedication to judging with the Scholarship Comp, and I cannot wait to see what comes out of this competition. Though some may say it would be unfair for me to judge since I will know who submitted what, after seeing the past several competitions fold out, I don't think it will be an issue. Many judges judged according to who they thought made certain files, and I will be there to ensure that doesn't happen. The other judges will also not hold back in telling me when I am absolutely wrong in thinking something, just in case a small bias happens to come out as well.
Also, none of the judges can submit files to this competition, obviously. However unfortunate that may be, I believe that it is a small price to pay for such a fair and comprehensive judging method.
So get on that file making already! Though you may think you have plenty of time right now, the deadline will be here before you know it. Give yourself plenty of time to playtest and revise, make sure your file complies with the rules, and, most importantly, become one with the file you are making. Good luck!
