...is officially open for business and welcome to it.

It's a new year. While last year's tournament wasn't exactly flawless, I think it was enough of a success to warrant a sequel (it did good box office numbers in China, I heard). Stay tuned for the rule changes and updates.

During the course of this tournament, you will be competing directly against other SimplyScripts writers and vote for your favorite scripts. Unlike last year's tournament, where writers were paired off in brackets, this will be an open challenge where your scores from all rounds will be averaged together and, when all 5 rounds are said and done, the highest-scoring writer (or, writers, in the case of a tie) wins.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

The period to write your scripts for each week will be from 12:00AM Saturday through 11:59PM Sunday EDT (-5 GMT).

Everyone who enters will be able to participate in all rounds.

The scores from all 5 rounds will be averaged together on a scale of 1.00 - 5.00.

All scripts will be a minimum of 1 page and a maximum of 5 pages.

There will be no disqualification of any scripts in this contest.

Grading will be done on a scale of 1 - 5 across 5 categories: Story, Characters, Dialogue, Prose & Meets Criteria (genre (if any), length, etc. In the case of Meets Criteria, this is a Yes or No question on the scorecard. Yes is 5 points, No is 1 point).

When scorecards are submitted for a round, they will only be accepted if at least 50% of the scripts have been scored.

When each round goes up, the writers will be provided with a genre, an object and a location (for those of you familiar with NYC Midnight, you get the idea). The object and location should be important to the story (I would take this wording further, but I have a feeling there are people who would get a lot of use out of "Meets Criteria" if I did).

If a writer doesn't submit a script for a week, they will receive a 1 for all categories that week. This is not a disqualification nor an elimination.

All scripts submitted should be done so anonymously.

Only one script is allowed per writer.

It should go without saying, but cheating is forbidden and... I would strongly advise anyone against trying it.

I'm sure I probably forgot to add something in here, but I do have the answers to any potential questions and will update this post with any updates.

Good luck and have fun.

Sweet! This sounds like a lot of fun.

So every round will have a different genre, object, and location?

And when will round one be starting?

Quoted from Zack So every round will have a different genre, object, and location? And when will round one be starting?

Yes and remember the song (?), respectively.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde Yes and remember the song (?), respectively.

Goddamn Barenaked Ladies.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde There will be no disqualification of any scripts in this contest.

This almost sounds like a challenge

I’m curious if everyone will be getting the same criteria, or maybe we’re broken into groups and everyone in a group has the same criteria, or Sean has something completely different up his sleeve.

Quoted from FrankM This almost sounds like a challenge

It is. I'm just daring somebody to get on my bad side this year...

Damn, really wanted to enter this one, as it's the one contest of the year that doesn't seem completely genre-centric...

With every writer surviving every round though, that's a literal crap-ton of reading and commenting, along with the actual writing....

I think I have too many commitments in June and July to be fair to all the writers, so as much as I regret it, I may have to skip... good luck to all that enter!

AJR

I love the new guidelines, Sean!

If the timing wasn't off due to other commitments I'd be in.

I'll be watching closely though and helping to guard The Wall.  
(Just finished watching GOTs - less said the better on that final Ep.)

Exciting!

Impressive format. Good improvements over the last one. And with 5 or fewer pages per script, not a huge time commitment.

How long is the reading and voting process between rounds? Is it just the weekdays between each weekend?

Quoted from ReneC How long is the reading and voting process between rounds? Is it just the weekdays between each weekend?

I have the answer for that one, but there's a reason why I haven't revealed it, yet. Stay tuned.

Woa, Sean!

You're doing this again? How amazing is that. I loved last one.
The rules for this one differ though. I don't understand them quite well this time, but I'm unusually instructionally challenged most of the time. I'll read deeper into them.

What if a writer submitted but haven't read enough scripts?

Quoted from khamanna I don't understand them quite well this time, but I'm unusually instructionally challenged most of the time. I'll read deeper into them. What if a writer submitted but haven't read enough scripts?

Everyone writes a script and receives their scores. These scores carry over round after round. At the end, they're averaged together to receive your final score. Highest score wins.

There's no penalty for not reviewing. All that'll happen is their scores for their round won't count, if they didn't score at least half of the available scripts that round.

Put my name down.

Have you thought about eliminating people who don't review?  Only for the first round. To stop those people who submit and never review.

Quoted from jayrex Have you thought about eliminating people who don't review?  Only for the first round. To stop those people who submit and never review.

This sounds more than fair to me.

I like that idea too... and maybe easier to admin?

I had considered that idea, way back when, when I first thought of doing this a second time. My issue was always creating a line. If you say a person reviews nothing, they'll be DQ'd, they'll review one. If you say they have to review half, they'll review as many as they have to, but no more. What is the accomplishment at that point? You're getting half-assed reviews from people who are doing it only because they're being forced to. What kind of value do you expect to get from them? More than that, does "This is terrible. Pass." count as a review? There are certain things that you just can't dictate. While I'd like to see all participants review, the rules and steps you'd have to take to put something in place would have to be so restrictive that you'd have people messaging all day long, saying reviews aren't sufficient or "They only reviewed 8 and they were supposed to review 10." Do you really want to see that? Do you really want it to come to that?

Since we're throwing out ideas to make your life harder.... ..... how about posting the full point total as well as the average? That is... after three rounds, so and so leads with 54 total points, in second X has 48 points... etc.

It's the same as the average, just stated in a different way. Feels more fun to me, but then, I watch way too much sports and I'm used to seeing scores this way.

Quoted from PKCardinal Since we're throwing out ideas to make your life harder.... ..... how about posting the full point total as well as the average? That is... after three rounds, so and so leads with 54 total points, in second X has 48 points... etc. It's the same as the average, just stated in a different way. Feels more fun to me, but then, I watch way too much sports and I'm used to seeing scores this way.

I'll reveal the way the scores/scoreboard is revealed a bit later on.

P.S. Doing it in that way, instead of averaging them, actually takes less work.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde Grading will be done on a scale of 1 - 5 across 5 categories: Story, Characters, Dialogue, Prose & Meets Criteria (genre (if any), length, etc. In the case of Meets Criteria, this is a Yes or No question on the scorecard. Yes is 5 points, No is 1 point).

I think your grading guidance would/should/could be a good format for what a review should address. If that's what we should be grading to, we should consider those factors in our reviews.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde P.S. Doing it in that way, instead of averaging them, actually takes less work.

Hey now, don't take ALL the fun out of my back seat driving.

Quoted from JEStaats I think your grading guidance would/should/could be a good format for what a review should address. If that's what we should be grading to, we should consider those factors in our reviews.

In an ideal world, absolutely. Believe me, I'm on board with that. But, there's a reason why I made scoring at least half the scripts a requirement and didn't do the same for the reviews. It's an anti-cheating measure. I would hope that every participant would review every other writer's work, but you can't dictate that. What I can dictate is ensuring that there are no attempts to cheat the scoring system this time around. I'm trying to avoid a mob mentality which almost came through last year.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde During the course of this tournament, you will be competing directly against other SimplyScripts writers and vote for your favorite scripts. Unlike last year's tournament, where writers were paired off in brackets, this will be an open challenge where your scores from all rounds will be averaged together and, when all 5 rounds are said and done, the highest-scoring writer (or, writers, in the case of a tie) wins.

The knockout structure was a lot of fun, but I like the inclusiveness of the new format.

The downside of keeping a running total is people might bail if they don't have a chance of winning, even if they write their absolute best script. And if Warren sweeps the first three rounds, the whole tournament might be sabotaged.  

Quoted from ReneC The downside of keeping a running total is people might bail if they don't have a chance of winning, even if they write their absolute best script. And if Warren sweeps the first three rounds, the whole tournament might be sabotaged.

I thought that a lower score would be more incentive to try for a better script in the following round.

I'd say you have a better chance than me! I didn’t even make it into the writer’s liked section last OWC!!

Quoted from ReneC The downside of keeping a running total is people might bail if they don't have a chance of winning, even if they write their absolute best script. And if Warren sweeps the first three rounds, the whole tournament might be sabotaged.

Been accounted for. Will be revealed later. Stay tuned.

Quoted from Warren I'd say you have a better chance than me! I didn’t even make it into the writer’s liked section last OWC!!

Your script didn't make it... not you. Your next script? Who knows.

Quoted from DustinBowcot Your script didn't make it... not you. Your next script? Who knows.

True, I still think Rene is a better writer than me, but hopefully I can get out 5 quality scripts.

Quoted from Warren True, I still think Rene is a better writer than me, but hopefully I can get out 5 quality scripts.

It's all about the story. Under pressure, I tend to miss the mark with story. Remember, I was going to do a serious take on the murder of Santa Claus for the vehicle challenge. My first ideas are terrible.