This is a list of rules and scheduling details for the NGUAC 2021, an annual audio contest here on Newgrounds. If anything is unclear, please leave a comment below.

TL;DR: DEFINITELY DON’T DO THESE THINGS

• Submit a piece to the Knock-out or Final Round that you worked on before the round started
• Submit a collaboration as your tryout piece when you’re not on a team
• Update your track in the project system during the judging phase
• Submit your track after the deadline
• Use copyrighted or stolen content

ALL THE RULES

SECTION I: General track requirements

1. If you are entering as a solo artist (i.e., not part of a team), YOU CANNOT SUBMIT A COLLABORATION to the competition. If you are entering as a team, you cannot collaborate with anyone besides your teammate. Having someone sing or play an instrument for you is fine, but you must still compose the music and lyrics yourself AND mix/master the piece. Your singer/instrumentalist is not allowed to improvise for your track.

2. You may only submit one song per round.

3. The pieces you make for the competition should be full-length songs, of any musical genre you want. No comedy pieces, sound effect reels, or voice acting.

4. You may have pre-packaged loops and samples in your piece, but overusing presets may compromise your track’s originality. Songs that use full-length acapella vocal tracks or drum loops with little modification - even if they’re not copyrighted - will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

5. For tryouts, it's okay to submit covers, arrangements, remixes, remakes, mash-ups, and pieces with samples downloaded from the internet.

6. In the Knock-out and Final rounds, covers, arrangements, VIPs, mash-ups, remakes, and remixes are not allowed. 

7. YOU MUST SUBMIT YOUR SONG TO NEWGROUNDS and follow the NG Audio Portal regulations. No submissions from Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Spotify, etc. will be accepted! Also, make sure you actually press “publish audio” - the judges can’t access your piece if it’s left unpublished in the project system. 

8. You may submit a song to the NGUAC that you had previously submitted to another contest on NG, like the NGADM or AIM.

9. In order to submit a track, post a link to your song in this forum thread. You can also change it by CLEARLY stating in the thread that you’d like to change it, but only during the submission phase.

SECTION II: Schedule-related rules

1. The contest has 3 distinct rounds (tryouts, a knock-out round, and finals) each consisting of a submission phase of roughly 2 weeks and a judging phase of 4-9 days. 

2. There is a separate forum thread for each round. Participants submit their songs by posting a link to the song in the corresponding forum thread.  

3. PARTICIPANTS MAY NOT start working on their Knock-out or Final Round tracks until the corresponding forum thread is posted. You also can’t create samples for the purpose of using them in a Knock-out or Final round piece before that corresponding round begins.

4. No one is allowed to update their track (i.e., replace or delete the audio file in Newgrounds' Project System) during the judging phases until results are released for the following round.

5. All submission phases close at 23:59 (11:59 p.m.) Eastern Daylight Time on the final date of each phase (see the schedule below). Submission phases open as soon as the forum thread for that round is up.

6. Immediately after the tryout submission phase, the participants will be grouped evenly based on their fan totals. This ensures that the best of the “Underdogs” advance as far as possible without directly competing with more experienced and knowledgeable musicians. It’s kinda the premise of the entire competition.

7. Late submissions will be accepted until 24 hours after the deadline with a “tax” on your score, according to the following paradigm: 

Hours late = percentage off final score

<1 = 5% 

1-3 = 10% 

3-6 = 15%

6-24 = 20%

>24 = 100%

If you’re, say, EXACTLY 3 hours late, your submission will fall in the “3-6 hours” category. 

SECTION III: Teams

1. Participants are allowed to enter the competition as a team of two.

2. If the members of your team would otherwise be placed in different groups as solo artists, the team will be placed in the group corresponding to the highest fan total among its members (e.x., if one member has 20 fans and the other has 60, and the All Stars each have 50 fans or more, the team will compete in the All Stars group).

3. Both members of a team must contribute to all of the pieces submitted as part of the contest. You can’t just submit a collab as your audition piece when your team member is AWOL for the rest of the contest.

4. Teams of more than 2 are not permitted, even if your band of 3+ members shares one Newgrounds account.

SECTION IV: Code of conduct

1. If you have any complaints about judges’ scores or the contest in general, please PM THEM instead of getting combative in the thread. Standard BBS and Audio Portal rules ALWAYS apply.

2. The judges give participants a score out of 10 by considering a variety of parameters. These parameters may vary by judge. Scores are averaged among the judges to determine who advances to future rounds. Most rounds, a given judge won’t score all of the competitors; we’ll divide it up by group. 

SECTION V: Prizes

1. Prizes will include forum signatures for the top 3 finishers boasting of their success in the competition, as well as spots on the front page of the Audio Portal the week after the competition.

Contest Schedule:

Phase - Start date - End date

Tryout submission - 7/15 - 8/6

Tryout judging - 8/7 - 8/15

K-O submission - 8/15 - 8/29

K-O judging - 8/30 - 9/3

Final submission - 9/3 - 9/17

Final judging - 9/18 - 9/21

Thank you in advance for following the rules. Good luck and (most importantly) have fun! :D

Funny story.

In case you didn't know, it used to be that only the PMs you received counted towards the 2MB limit on how much space you had in the overall messaging system. Then, in the past couple of weeks, Newgrounds changed it so that you have 4MB worth of received PM space and 2MB worth of sent PM space, presumably to discourage spam.

Anyway, I'm currently about 3.5 times over capacity on the sent side (6.7MB vs. 2), so that's why I'm using a news post to tell @Dursope that the next NGUAC starts in June, but he should check the audio forum occasionally because other contests and events happen all the time! :)

I'll definitely have my PM outbox cleaned up before contest season, lol. Until then, please comment on this news post if you need to HMU.

Cheers,

Andrew

Oh man, it's been a crazy year - pandemic, election, wildfires, protests, etc. But if there's one good thing that came out of it, it's that the Newgrounds Audio Portal has been on a hot streak. By my count, there were 90,657 pieces of music uploaded to Newgrounds in 2020, up from 61,164 in 2019. It seems that COVID-19 really has driven people to seek community online.

Anyway, I obviously haven't listened to all 90,000+ tracks uploaded to NG in 2020, but among the several hundred I have listened to, I'd like to highlight a couple of lasting favorites, in chronological order:

Royal Azalea by @Miyolophone

• I've tried to limit myself to one song per artist on this list. Miyo made this rule the hardest - just listen to his In My Garden EP and the soundtrack to Will of the Wisp, and I'm sure you'll agree.

Body Jammer by @Waterflame

• Gritty club beats overlaid with jazzy melodies and quirky vocal samples. Thoroughly, toe-tappingly enjoyable.

Overflow by @Rosendale

• Rosendale is probably my favorite male vocalist on Newgrounds. He's also critically underrated. When he teamed up with Kevlah for this EDM bop, it checked all the boxes for an insta-fave and DL from yours truly.

Buccaneer Troop by @Zerisan

• Super catchy and creative VGM track with a distinct pirate theme. You really can't go wrong with making a track about pirates.

Chapel by the Sea by @Papkee

• An airy cinematic piece with gorgeous string melodies. The epitome of tranquility in a year of chaos.

Backfire by @SpitfyaUK

• I know, I know. There's already too much EDM on this list. But I swear I lost like 5 pounds this summer just from jogging to this song, lol.

Lost Valley of Wycloff by @xZiriusX

• A mesmerizing cinematic guitar track. As I said in my initial review of it in August, "that lead guitar could convince me to leave my family and join a religious cult if it wanted to."

Gaining Ground by @AjSkull

• With consistently powerful vocals and crisp lead guitars, AjSkull's band, The Galacticas, gives me strong Green Day vibes. Also, this is the track on this list with the fewest listens, so show it some love, y'all!

Chasing Parallels by @Kor-Rune

• It's actually a shame that Kor-Rune doesn't upload more often. The dude is just crazy talented, and this pop-rock-jazz fusion is my favorite track of his since, well, 2019.

Remember the Fallen by @Potato-stick

• A solemn and moving tribute to the September 11th terrorist attacks. The beginning even reminds me of a @LucidShadowDreamer piano improv, which is always a good thing.

Let me know if I missed any especially good ones, guys! I'm always looking for new pieces to review. ^^ Until then, happy 2021!

This is a list of rules and scheduling details for the NGUAC 2020, an annual audio contest here on Newgrounds. If anything is unclear, please leave a comment below.

TL;DR: DEFINITELY DON’T DO THESE THINGS

• Submit a piece to the Knock-out or Final Round that you worked on before the round started
• Submit a collaboration as your tryout piece when you’re not on a team
• Update your track in the project system during the judging phase
• Submit your track after the deadline
• Use copyrighted or stolen content

ALL THE RULES

SECTION I: General track requirements

1.If you are entering as a solo artist (i.e., not part of a team), YOU CANNOT SUBMIT A COLLABORATION to the competition. If you are entering as a team, you cannot collaborate with anyone besides your teammate. Having someone sing or play an instrument for you is fine, but you must still compose the music and lyrics yourself AND mix/master the piece. Your singer/instrumentalist is not allowed to improvise for your track.

2. You may only submit one song per round.

3. The pieces you make for the competition should be full-length songs, of any musical genre you want. No comedy pieces, sound effect reels, or voice acting.

4. You may have pre-packaged loops and samples in your piece, but overusing presets may compromise your track’s originality. Songs that use full-length acapella vocal tracks or drum loops with little modification - even if they’re not copyrighted - will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

5. For tryouts, it's okay to submit covers, arrangements, remixes, remakes, mash-ups, and pieces with samples downloaded from the internet.

6. In the Knock-out and Final rounds, covers, arrangements, VIPs, mash-ups, remakes, and remixes are not allowed. 

7. YOU MUST SUBMIT YOUR SONG TO NEWGROUNDS and follow the NG Audio Portal regulations. No submissions from Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Spotify, etc. will be accepted! Also, make sure you actually press “publish audio” - the judges can’t access your piece if it’s left unpublished in the project system. 

8. You may submit a song to the NGUAC that you had previously submitted to another contest on NG, like the NGADM or AIM.

9. In order to submit a track, post a link to your song in this forum thread. You can also change it by CLEARLY stating in the thread that you’d like to change it, but only during the submission phase.

SECTION II: Schedule-related rules

1. The contest has 3 distinct rounds (tryouts, a knock-out round, and finals) each consisting of a submission phase of roughly 2 weeks and a judging phase of 3-7 days. 

2. There is a separate forum thread for each round. Participants submit their songs by posting a link to the song in the corresponding forum thread.  

3. PARTICIPANTS MAY NOT start working on their Knock-out or Final Round tracks until the corresponding forum thread is posted. You also can’t create samples for the purpose of using them in a Knock-out or Final round piece before that corresponding round begins.

4. No one is allowed to update their track (i.e., replace or delete the audio file in Newgrounds' Project System) during the judging phases until results are released for the following round.

5. All submission phases close at 23:59 (11:59 p.m.) Eastern Daylight Time on the final date of each phase (see the schedule below). Submission phases open as soon as the forum thread for that round is up.

6. Immediately after the tryout submission phase, the participants will be grouped evenly based on their fan totals. This ensures that the best of the “Underdogs” advance as far as possible without directly competing with more experienced and knowledgeable musicians. It’s kinda the premise of the entire competition.

7. Late submissions will be accepted until 24 hours after the deadline with a “tax” on your score, according to the following paradigm: 

Hours late === percentage off final score

<1 === 5% 

1-3 === 10% 

3-6 === 15%

6-24 === 20%

>24 === 100%

If you’re, say, EXACTLY 3 hours late, your submission will fall in the “3-6 hours” category. 

SECTION III: Teams

1. Participants are allowed to enter the competition as a team of two.

2. If the members of your team would otherwise be placed in different groups as solo artists, the team will be placed in the group corresponding to the highest fan total among its members (e.x., if one member has 20 fans and the other has 60, and the All Stars each have 50 fans or more, the team will compete in the All Stars group).

3. Both members of a team must contribute to all of the pieces submitted as part of the contest. You can't just enter the contest as a "team," submit a collaboration to the Tryout phase, and then make a track as a solo artist in the next round. If you want the advantages of being on a team, then it really does have to be a joint effort.

4. Teams of more than 2 are not permitted, even if your band of 3+ members shares one Newgrounds account.

SECTION IV: Code of conduct

1. If you have any complaints about judges’ scores or the contest in general, please PM THEM instead of getting combative in the thread. Standard BBS and Audio Portal rules ALWAYS apply.

2. The judges give participants a score out of 10 by considering a variety of parameters. These parameters may vary by judge. Scores are averaged among the judges to determine who advances to future rounds. Most rounds, a given judge won’t score all of the competitors; we’ll divide it up by group. 

SECTION V: Prizes

1. Prizes will include forum signatures for the top 3 finishers boasting of their success in the competition, as well as spots on the front page of the Audio Portal the week after the competition.

Contest Schedule:

Phase - Start date - End date

Tryout submission - 7/10 - 8/1

Tryout judging - 8/2 - 8/10

K-O submission - 8/10 - 8/24

K-O judging - 8/25 - 8/29

Final submission - 8/29 - 9/12

Final judging - 9/13 - 9/16

Thank you in advance for following the rules. Good luck and (most importantly) have fun! :D

Hi everyone,

I know I previously told a lot of people that the NGUAC for this year was starting in mid-late June. I originally was planning on posting the thread today, but I decided to push it back a couple of weeks so as to not get in the way of the NGADM's audition phase. I think it makes more sense to give that (longer, and probably harder) competition its due course first, especially since it'll give people who don't make it past auditions a chance to join another competition (i.e., the UAC) later.

I'm now aiming for July 10th as a start date for the UAC, so watch out for the forum thread and/or a PM from me in mid-July. Thanks for your patience, guys! This site's got a lot of contestin' to do. ^_^

~Andrew

@ACXLE @ADR3-N @JessieYun @sjlsmusic @LunacyEcho

Hi everyone. By my count, there were 8,301 submissions to the Audio Portal in April 2020, the highest monthly total since August 2009. Before about 6 months ago, the number of monthly submissions was stable at around 5,000. The sudden increase is even more noticeable visually (see the graph below).

If anyone has any insights into why this is the case, please let me know. I'm always looking for evidence to refute the popular refrain that "Newgrounds is dying", but I'm also just really curious. Thanks! ^_^

The following is a list of rules and scheduling details regarding the NGUAC 2019, the 6th annual audio contest here on Newgrounds. If anything is unclear, please PM me.

TL;DR: DEFINITELY DON’T DO THESE THINGS

• Submit a piece to the Knock-out or Final Round that you worked on before the round started
• Submit a collaboration as your tryout piece when you’re not on a team
• Update your track in the project system during the judging phase
• Submit your track after the deadline
• Use copyrighted or stolen content

ALL THE RULES



SECTION I: General track requirements

1.If you are entering as a solo artist (i.e., not part of a team), YOU CANNOT HAVE A COLLABORATION AS YOUR TRYOUT PIECE or as any other piece for the competition. If you are entering as a team, you cannot collaborate with anyone besides your teammate. Having someone sing or play an instrument for you is fine, but you must still compose the music and lyrics yourself AND mix/master the piece. Your singer/instrumentalist is not allowed to improvise for your track.

2. You may only submit one song per round.

3. The pieces you make for the competition should be full-length songs of the musical variety (of any genre). We won’t accept audio that has the sole purpose of being comedic, not to mention sound effects or voice acting.

4. You may use pre-packaged loops and samples in your piece, but be aware that after a certain point abusing presets compromises your track’s originality. Songs that use full-length acapella vocal tracks or drum loops with little modification - even if they’re not copyrighted - will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

5. For tryouts, it's okay to submit covers, arrangements, remixes, remakes, mash-ups, and pieces with samples downloaded from the internet.

6. In the Knock-out and Final rounds, no participant may submit covers, arrangements, VIPs, mash-ups, remakes, or remixes. 

7. You must be able to submit your song to Newgrounds in order to enter the competition. This mandates compliance with all general NG Audio Portal regulations, as well as that you need a Newgrounds account. No submissions from Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Spotify, etc. will be accepted!  

8. You may submit a song to the NGUAC that you had previously submitted to another contest on NG, like the NGADM or AIM.

9. In order to submit a track, simply link the piece you want the judges to consider in this forum thread. You can also change the piece you’d like us to judge by CLEARLY stating in the thread you’d like to change it, but only during the submission phase.

SECTION II: Schedule-related rules

1. The contest has 3 distinct rounds (tryouts, a knock-out round, and finals) each consisting of a submission phase of roughly 2 weeks and a judging phase of 3-7 days (the judging phases get shorter as the contest goes on because there are fewer submissions to judge). 

2. There is a separate forum thread for each round, as well as one for the final results. Participants submit their songs by posting a link to the song in the corresponding forum thread.  

3. PARTICIPANTS MAY NOT start working on their Knock-out or Final Round tracks until the corresponding forum thread is posted. You also can’t create samples for the purpose of using them in a Knock-out or Final round piece before that corresponding round begins.

4. No one is allowed to update their track (i.e., replace or delete the audio file in Newgrounds' Project System) during the judging phases until results are released for the following round.

5. All submission phases close at 23:59 (11:59 p.m.) Eastern Daylight Time on the final date of each phase (see the schedule below). Submission phases open as soon as the forum thread for that round is up.

6. Immediately after the tryout submission phase, the participants will be grouped evenly based on their fan totals. This ensures that the best of the “Underdogs” advance as far as possible without directly competing with more experienced and knowledgeable musicians. It’s kinda the premise of the entire competition.

7. Late submissions will be accepted up until 24 hours after the deadline with a “tax” on your score, according to the following paradigm: <1 hour late = 5% off final score; 1-3 hours late = 10%, 3-6 hours = 15%, 6-24 hours = 20%; >24 hours late is unacceptable. If you’re, say, EXACTLY 3 hours late, your tax will be accounted for in the “3-6 hours” category. 

SECTION III: Regarding teams

1. Participants are allowed to enter the competition as a team of two.

2. If the members of your team would otherwise be placed in different groups as solo artists, the team will be placed in the group corresponding to the highest fan total among its members (e.x., if one member has 20 fans and the other has 60, and the All Stars each have 50 fans or more, the team will compete in the All Stars group).

3. Both members of a team don’t necessarily have to contribute to all of the pieces submitted as part of the contest.

4. Teams of more than 2 are not permitted, even if your band of 3+ members shares one Newgrounds account.

SECTION IV: Code of conduct

1. If you have any complaints about judges’ scores or the contest in general, please PM THEM instead of getting combative in the thread. Standard BBS and Audio Portal rules ALWAYS apply.

2. The judges should give participants a score out of 10 and be able to thoroughly explain how they arrived at that score by considering a variety of parameters. These parameters may vary by judge, however. Scores are averaged among the judges to determine who advances to future rounds. Most rounds, any given judge won’t score all of the competitors; we’ll divide it up by group. 

3. If you change your username at any point during the competition, please let me know. Keeping track of username changes is time consuming and confusing. 

SECTION V: Prizes

1. Prizes will include forum signatures for the top 3 finishers boasting of their success in the competition, as well as spots on the front page of the Audio Portal the week after the competition.

Contest Schedule:

Phase - Start date - End date

Tryout submission - 6/24 - 7/14

Tryout judging - 7/15 - 7/21

K-O submission - 7/21 - 8/4

K-O judging - 8/5 - 8/11

Final submission - 8/11 - 8/25

Final judging - 8/26 - 8/30

Thank you in advance for following the rules. Good luck and (most importantly) have fun! :D

Sitewide, it seems like hundreds of users lost a good chunk of their reviews sometime in the last 24 hours. I can still read old reviews by going to the listening/watching page itself, but otherwise everyone's stats have changed immensely. 

It's possible that the staff is trying to delete crappy reviews, but I honestly don't think so. Does anyone know what's going on?

HOLY SHIT WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN I HAVEN'T POSTED A REVIEW IN DAYS.

Mostly positive stuff here by my assessment.

I like the new emojis that go with the scores, even if there's a severe lack of Pico/Darnell/Nene. 

I like how you can edit your reviews and votes, as well as react to others' reviews. Editing your vote is also a step up imo. 

They've also made it easier to flag reviews that are clearly unhelpful/abusive. Nice!

Also a plus: gaining XP when you vote on any submission! No more movie/game favoritism. ^_^  If you're an audiophile (like myself), you should be pumped right now!

I'm confused about how voting averages will get calculated from now on. Seems like you can vote using the star system without posting a review, but I think that the viewing/listening page could be reformatted to make it more conspicuous. Right now, the star system is kinda buried underneath the author's description. It would be great if the star system was above the author's description, and then once you click on the star system, it gives you the option to post a review.

I also don't like how the votes from 2000-2015 got ignored. Now, the vast majority of submissions from the good ol' days have no votes. 

In retrospect, replacing all of the portal-specific characters with Tankman Steve probably makes things more accessible and less confusing for new users. I just hope that, in general, they'll still be present on the site. 

In a way, my favorite change is actually the reactions to others' reviews. Making the site more interactive and social is probably the best way of continuing to modernizing it. 

--------------------------------------

That's my two cents. Let me know what you guys think of the voting/review overhaul!

~TL

The following is a list of rules and structural details regarding the NGUAC 2018, my annual audio contest here on NG.

TL;DR: DEFINITELY DON’T DO THESE THINGS

• Submit a piece to the Knock-out or Final Round that you worked on before the round started
• Submit a remix/mashup/cover/arrangement to the Knock-out or Final Round
• Submit a collaboration as your tryout piece when you’re not on a team
• Update your track in the project system during the judging phase
• Submit your track after the deadline
• Use copyrighted or stolen content

ALL THE RULES

SECTION I: General track requirements

1.If you are entering as a solo artist (i.e., not part of a team), YOU CANNOT HAVE A COLLABORATION AS YOUR TRYOUT PIECE or as any other piece for the competition. If you are entering as a team, you cannot collaborate with anyone besides your teammate. The only exception to these rules is when you have someone sing or play an instrument for you, but you must still compose the music and lyrics yourself AND mix/master the piece.

2. You may only submit one song per round, regardless of whether you are on a team or not.

3. The pieces you make for the competition should be full-length songs of the musical variety (of any genre). We won’t accept audio that has the sole purpose of being comedic, not to mention sound effects, voice acting, or parodies.

4. You may use pre-packaged loops and samples in your piece, but be aware that after a certain point abusing presets compromises your track’s originality. Songs that use full-length acapella vocal tracks or drum loops with little modification - even if they're not copyrighted - will be accepted on a case-by-case basis. 

5. For tryouts, it's okay to submit covers, arrangements, remixes, remakes, mash-ups, and pieces with samples downloaded from the internet.

6. In the Knock-out and Final rounds, no participant may submit covers, arrangements, mash-ups, remakes, VIPs, or remixes.

7. You must be able to submit your song to Newgrounds in order to enter the competition. This mandates compliance with all general NG Audio Portal regulations, as well as that you need a Newgrounds account. No submissions from Soundcloud, Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, Audiojungle, etc. will be accepted!  

8. You may submit a song to the NGUAC that you had previously submitted to another contest on NG, like the NGADM, AIM, or NCHIPS, but please make sure that it's okay to use the song for both contests in the rules for the other contest as well.

9. In order to submit a track, simply link the piece you want the judges to consider in the corresponding forum thread. You can also change the piece you’d like us to judge by CLEARLY stating in the thread you’d like to change it, but only while the submission phase is still going on.

SECTION II: Schedule-related rules

1. The contest has 3 distinct rounds (tryouts, a knock-out round, and finals) each consisting of a submission phase of roughly 2 weeks and a judging phase of 3-7 days (the judging phases get shorter as the contest goes on because there are fewer submissions to judge).

2. There is a separate forum thread for each round, as well as one for the final results. Participants submit their songs by posting a link to the song in the corresponding forum thread.  

3. PARTICIPANTS MAY NOT start working on their Knock-out or Final Round tracks until the corresponding forum thread is posted. Anything you do to prepare for your piece ahead of time needs to be something you could do if you were blind, deaf, dumb, and wearing a straightjacket. You also can’t create samples for the purpose of using them in a Knock-out or Final round piece before that corresponding round begins.

4. No one is allowed to update their track (i.e., replace or delete the audio file in Newgrounds' Project System) during the judging phases until results are released for the following round.

5. All submission phases close at 23:59 (11:59 p.m.) Eastern Daylight Time on the final date of each phase (see the schedule below). Submission phases open as soon as the forum thread for that round is up.

6. Immediately after the tryout submission phase, the participants will be grouped evenly based on their fan totals. This ensures that the best of the “Underdogs” advance as far as possible without directly competing with more experienced and knowledgeable musicians. It’s kinda the premise of the entire competition.

7. Late submissions will be accepted up until 24 hours after the deadline with a “tax” on your score, according to the following paradigm: <1 hour late = 5% off final score; 1-3 hours late = 10%, 3-6 hours = 15%, 6-24 hours = 20%; >24 hours late is unacceptable. If you’re, say, EXACTLY 3 hours late, your tax will be accounted for in the “3-6 hours” category.

SECTION III: Regarding teams

1. Participants are allowed to enter the competition as a team of two.

2. If the members of your team would otherwise be placed in different groups as solo artists, the team will be placed in the group corresponding to the highest fan total among its members (e.x., if one member has 20 fans and the other has 60, and the All Stars each have 50 fans or more, the team will compete in the All Stars group).

3. Both members of a team don’t necessarily have to contribute to all of the pieces submitted as part of the contest.

4. Teams of more than 2 are not permitted.

SECTION IV: Code of conduct

1. If you have any complaints about judges’ scores or the contest in general, please PM THEM instead of embarrassing yourself by whining about how great you thought your piece was in the thread. Standard BBS and Audio Portal rules ALWAYS apply.

2. The judges should give participants a score out of 10 and be able to thoroughly explain how they arrived at that score by considering a variety of parameters. These parameters may vary by judge, however. Scores are averaged among the judges to determine who advances to future rounds. Most rounds, any given judge won’t score all of the competitors; we’ll divide it up by group.

3. If you change your username at any point during the competition, please let me know. Keeping track of username changes is time consuming and confusing.

SECTION V: Prizes

1. Prizes will include forum signatures for the top 3 finishers boasting of their success in the competition, as well as spots on the front page of the Audio Portal the week after the competition.

Contest Schedule:

Phase - Start date - End date

Tryout submission - 6/22 - 7/15

Tryout judging - 7/16 - 7/22

K-O submission - 7/22 - 8/5

K-O judging - 8/6 - 8/12

Final submission - 8/12 - 8/26

Final judging - 8/27 - 8/31

Thank you in advance for following the rules. Good luck and (most importantly) have fun! :D