Life has been quite busy lately or else I would have posted this sooner. I apologize for the short deadline.
MARCH MADRUS!
Because I can't do anything normal, this will be a unique spin on the walrus concept. Many will enter, but only one will be left standing at the end. Here is how it works:
PRELIMS:
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Submission Deadline: Friday, February 25th
-There is no limit to how many submitters may take part in the prelims.
-There will be three preliminary categories (see the end of this post).
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All three category submissions and the tie-breaker must be sent in by the deadline to take part in the prelims.
-Depending on how many people sign up, there may be one, two, or even three reveal nights for the prelims.
-At the end of the prelims, all submitters will be ranked by score from highest to lowest. This will determine the seeding for the double-elimination tournament.
DOUBLE-ELIMINATION TOURNAMENT:
-After the prelims, this walrus event moves into one-on-one matchups. Everyone starts in the winners bracket. Once a participant loses their first matchup, they move down to the second-chance bracket. Once a participant loses two head-to-head matchups, they are eliminated from contention.
-If exactly 8 or 16 people take part in the prelims, then everyone will make the tournament. If there are more than 8 but fewer than 16 participants in the prelims, then only 8 will make it to the tournament. If there are more than 16 participants in the prelims, then only 16 will make the tournament.
-Double-elimination categories will be revealed at a later date. As with the prelims, the tournament categories will also be loosely March Madness/sports themed. I have a number of categories drawn up so far, but I may reduce or combine them as necessary based on the number of participants.
-Due to the head-to-head nature of the tournament, participants will be asked to submit tie-breaker songs along with their category submissions. Sometimes the tie-breakers will be tied to the category, but sometimes tie-breakers will be any song the submitter wishes to use.
-As the tournament progresses, there will be fewer and fewer participants remaining, and reveal nights will become shorter as a result. My initial thought is to run reveals on the weekends, but reveal night scheduling will remain flexible for now. I will try to weave reveal sessions around the March Madness schedule as best as possible.
RULES AND GUIDELINES:
-Once again, you are not considered part of the prelims unless you submit all three prelim category songs and a tie-breaker song to me by the deadline.
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All submissions need to be sent to me via Syndicate PM.
-You do not need to disguise your submissions when sending them in. I don't mind being spoiled.
-After the prelims are over, participants will be prohibited from submitting any song revealed in the prelims for tournament categories.
-Submissions for the double-elimination tournament are first-come-first serve. If you submit a song that someone else has submitted for that same round, you will be notified and asked to submit another song.
-Once a song has been revealed in the tournament, participants will be likewise prohibited from submitting it in later rounds of the tournament.
-Scoring will be a two-part system. All songs will first be scored on a 10-point scale (using half-points) based on how much I like the song on its own. Each song will then be scored on a 5-point scale based on how much I agree with the song's catfit equity. Since I don't mind being spoiled, feel free to defend the merits of your submissions.
BANNED ARTISTS:
No artist is technically banned, however I will assess a full 1-point penalty if you submit a song by any of the following artists. These are all artists whom I have submitted to previous walrus events. Most, but not all, of these artists are reflective of my broad musical tastes:
Afroman
Fiona Apple
Balawan
Sara Bareilles
Beck
The Black Keys
David Bowie
James Brown
J.J. Cale
Johnny Cash
Nick Cave (and the Bad Seeds)
Cheap Trick
The Clash
Coldplay
Nat King Cole
Bill Conti
Elvis Costello
Miles Davis
The Decembrists
Deodato
Celine Dion
Eels
Mama Cass Elliot
Everclear
Explosions in the Sky
Focus
Ben Folds
Foo Fighters
Gnarls Barkley
Goo Goo Dolls
Good Charlotte
Greta van Fleet
Hanson
George Harrison
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Billy Idol
Incubus
Jamiroquai
The Kinks
KISS
John Lennon
Annie Lennox
Darlene Love
Loretta Lynn
Amy Mann
Marilyn Manson
MC5
Bobby McFerrin
Meat Loaf
Moon Hooch
Muse
The Music
Nada Surf
Willie Nelson
Wayne Newton
OAR
Outkast
Tom Petty
P.O.D.
The Polyphonic Spree
Iggy Pop
Joe Purdy
Queen
Queens of the Stone Age
A.R. Rahman
Ramones
Rancid
Reef
Reel Big Fish
Rodgers & Hammerstein
The Ronettes
Sesame Street
Allan Sherman
Silent Knight
Paul Simon
Frank Sinatra
Soundgarden
Cat Stevens
The Stooges
The Strokes
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Unwritten Law
Frankie Valli (and the Four Seasons)
Van Halen
Vast
The Velvet Underground
Violent Femmes
Andrew W.K.
Weezer
"Weird" Al Yankovic
Frank Zappa
Zwan
There will also be a 1-point penalty for submitting anything by the following artists whom I enjoy profusely:
The Beatles
Ben Folds Five
Daft Punk
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
The Rolling Stones
U2
The Who
Penalty assessments may not matter as much in the prelims as they might in the tournament. If, however, you feel that you can still achieve a high/winning score with a song by these artists even after the 1-point penalty, by all means- press your luck.
PRELIM CATEGORIES:
1) HYPE SONG: Give me something stadium-friendly that gets both your team and the home crowd fired up before a game.
2) TEAM: Give me a song that embodies or conveys a sense of camaraderie akin to that which you might find on a team.
3) PROVING GROUND: The end of the season is where you prove to the world that you belong in the tournament. Give me a song by a band or artist who hasn't been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet but deserves to be.
PRELIM TIE-BREAKER: Any song you like. This will only be used for determining seeding in the event of a tie in the standings after all three prelim rounds.
DOUBLE-ELIMINATION TOURNAMENT CATEGORIES:
Tournament Bracket Round 1 Category
BEST FOOT FORWARD- First impressions are everything. Give me a killer opening track off of a debut album. TIE-BREAKER: the album track immediately following it.
Good luck!
CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS:
1. Syn
2. Boomslang
3. screenplay
4. nutella
5. bloobird
6. hollowkatt
7. DaughterOfOmega
8. Epignosis
9. falcon45ca
10. Marmot
11. Elohcin
12. motobot
13. Simon
14. Queen Pink
15. dunya
16. ignoramus