INFORMATION AND RULES

Hello, and welcome to the Yugioh Fanfiction Contest. I am Computerfreak101, but you may call me Compy. I am the host of this lovely game. Now, if you’re here, it must be for one of two reasons. One, you’re a new player, interested in signing up. In that case, welcome! On the other hand, you may already be signed up, and are just coming here to refresh your memory, and take note of any new rules. So in that case, welcome back! ^_^ Below you’ll find the rules and guidelines for the contest. Break any of them, and you will be punished.

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1. What is the contest?

The Yugioh Fanfiction Contest’s purpose is to ultimately help you become a better writer. Each new pairing challenge will test your flexibility, and introduce you to a new level of writing. You may never write romance, yet each challenge will involve a specific pairing. You may only write yaoi, but there will be het pairings thrown in as well. Maybe a yuri, if I feel like throwing you a curveball. Which I definitely will. XP Whatever the reason, the contest is to improve your writing skills, broaden your horizons, and bring some writers together. The winning part is just a bonus. ^_~

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2. What are rounds?

The number of rounds vary every contest. We initially start out with 24 rounds, but disqualifications, drop outs, and lack of sign ups usually cut it down anywhere from 20 - 12 rounds. Each round will feature a Challenge Pairing. You must write a one shot featuring the Challenge Pairing, and post the link in the Stories thread. You have a week to write your story and submit it.

There are three types of rounds: Easy, Medium and Hard. The Easy rounds feature the common, average, run-of-the-mill pairings (like Puzzle, Silent, Pride, Tender, etc.), the Medium Rounds feature some not-so-common (but not entirely unheard of) pairings, and the Hard rounds are (you guessed it) full of challenging, almost never seen pairings featuring characters you'd never think could exist as a couple until you're assigned them. I'll tell you when we're entering a new set of rounds.

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3. Judging and Submission

Originally, there was only going to be one judge; me. But to decrease the amount of biased voting possibilities, you will now be judged by your fellow contestants. After every story has been submitted, you will have 4 days to vote on your favorite. The rules for judging are:

(*) Absolutely NO voting for yourself.

(*) No PMing or e-mailing another author saying, “I’ll vote for you if you vote for me.” If any of you should receive an e-mail or PM like that, forward it to me via PM with the name of the sender. The sender may or may not be disqualified.

(*) Voting does not start until every story has been submitted, and the link is posted in the Stories thread. Once the final story is submitted, I’ll give you all a few days to vote. I know it’s difficult to read 20+ stories in one day, but it does get easier as the numbers decrease. You'll have 4 days to vote. If you do not vote before the deadline, your vote does not count.

(*) Also, if you *don’t* vote, one vote will be taken from the total amount of votes for you. So, if you have 5 votes, and you do not vote, you now have 4. And in this contest, you’ll need all the votes you can get.

(*) In the case of Rule Four, if your vote tally reaches negative numbers, you will be eliminated. For example, if you had 0 votes to begin with, and you do not vote, you now have –1, and are therefore eliminated.

(*) In the case of a tie, everyone will vote between the two (or more) stories (except the authors of the tied stories) in a tiebreaker.

(*) No asking other contestants what they’re planning to write. We don’t want copiers here.

(*) NO allowing contestants to beta your work. You can have outside help beta it, but no one from the contest, not even me.

(*) When you post your one shot, place the link in the Stories thread, and ONLY in the Stories thread. Do not place the link for the contest in your story. Your readers don’t need to know about the contest, because they have no business in it. We don’t want your readers to come to the contest and start voting unnecessarily.

(*) You may submit reviews to other contestants’ stories, even if it’s to say a simple good luck. But absolutely NO flaming. Disagreements are one thing, but if it looks too much like a flame, you will be required to explain. A vote will then determine whether or not you stay in the contest. I, personally, would have you thrown out immediately, but that wouldn’t be fair, now would it?

(*) The two contestants with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated from the contest. If you are eliminated DO NOT badmouth the other contestants, or insult their work. If you’re going to be immature about this, you will be asked to leave permanently (in other words, blocked).

(*) When you are eliminated, your job is NOT over. Though you cannot submit anymore one shots, you are still required to stick around and vote for the remaining contestants. Failure to do so will result in your permanent expulsion from the contest. That, and me constantly PMing you asking for your vote. Trsut me, I can be quite annoying. ^___^

(*) All votes are FINAL and any attempt to change the votes in your favor or in someone else’s will result in disqualification.

(*) If you happen to win the contest, please do not brag incessantly and trash the losers. This contest is to help everyone so everyone is a winner. No one likes a sore loser, and everyone hates a sore winner.

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4. When do we start?

Whenever we 1) Have 24 contestants or 2) The pre-determined starting date arrives. I'll PM you if we start early.

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5. What kind of stories are accepted?

Only one shots are allowed, no multi-chapters. I will not give you a word limit, but please, don’t make your story ridiculously long or short. Write your story the best you can, but choose your length wisely. Also, ANYTHING can happen in your story. You can make it AU, a tragedy, fluffy goodness....I don’t care. You can make your couple break up in the middle and end up with someone else at the end of the one shot. The only thing you are required to put in your story is the Challenge Pairing. We have to KNOW the pairing does/did/will exist for it to count. Everything else is up to you. You may choose any rating.

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6. What will we be judged on?

Well, different authors will be looking for different things. We’ll have to enjoy reading it, obviously. Also, grammar, spelling, plot, originality, and organization will be judged as well. It’s called spell check and proofreading. Use them. Like chocolate and laptops, they are your only friends in this crazy world.

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7. Where do I sign up?

In the Sign Up thread.

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8. LATE SUBMISSIONS

All stories *must* be submitted before the week deadline is up, unless the following happens.

* Family emergencies (Injuries, death in the family)

* School (Finals, competition, etc.)

* Personal Health (Surgery, sick as a DOG)

* Trips (Vacation, reunions)

* Other, but you must be specific on what it is, and I'll decide whether to give you time or not.

* You're working on it (halfway done, or something) and you need more time. In this case, you will need to give a status report about how far along you are, and how much time you think you'll need.

At MAXIMUM, you will have three days to finish. After that, I'm sorry, but we do have a contest to do, and other people who *are* done and ready to vote. All voting will be put off until your one shot is submitted.

Depending on the situation, your time may be longer depending on the other situations, but three days is the usual extension time. Excuses such as: “This pairing is too hard for me to write,” will not be accepted. Your story must fall under one of these categories, or you will be eliminated by default.

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9. Song Fics and Karaoke

It is, as you all know, now against the rules to copy/paste song lyrics onto your stories, thus eliminating the possibility of a song fic or a karaoke one. I can’t stop you should you choose to write a song fic, however I am not responsible if your fic gets deleted. If it does get deleted, we can’t vote for it, and you’ll be eliminated. If you really want to do a song/karaoke fic, I suggest you write your own song. Original songs are ones FFNet can’t delete. If you do write your own song, make sure to say so in the Author’s Notes.

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10. Questions?

As the host, I am allowed to PM you, and likewise, you are allowed to PM me, should you have any questions. You can also ask them in the Chat thread, and someone will answer them for you.

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Failure to follow these rules will result in disqualification from the contest. We want to have fun here, but we also want this to run as smoothly as possible.

If you are willing to follow these rules and want to join, go to the Sign Up thread.

Welcome to the YuGiOh! Fanfiction Contest.

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