Below is a complete list of rules and formatting guildelines for my competition. Please read them carefully if you plan on participating. Thank you in advance.

1. You may have someone sing or play an instrument for you as long as you write the music and lyrics AND mix/master the piece.

2. You can enter the competition as a team of two. If the members of your “team” would otherwise be placed in different groups (Underdog, Professional Amateur, or All Star) 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). Teams of more than 2 are not permitted. Also, if you are entering as a team of 1, you cannot have a collaboration as your audition piece or as any other piece for the competition.

3. The pieces you make for the competition should be full-length (2-8 minute) songs of the musical variety. Under no circumstances will we accept parodies, skits/sketches, sound effects, voice acting, or anything with non-copyrighted pre-packaged loops in it (Garageband’s Apple loops come to mind). For tryouts, it's okay to submit covers, arrangements, remixes, and have samples in your piece. In the Knock-out Round, we're going to be stricter about this (details to follow).

4. Remember when I said you couldn’t have HTML when posting your songs? Well, part of the reason for that is you usually HAVE to have HTML if you’re posting your songs from a site besides Newgrounds. You must be able to submit your song to Newgrounds in order to enter the competition. No submissions from Soundcloud, Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, Audiojungle, etc. will be accepted!  

5. You can post commentary in the threads dedicated to the competition, but please keep it friendly! Sportsmanship, people, sportsmanship! If you have any complaints about judges’ scores or the contest in general, PM THEM instead of embarrassing yourself by acting like a sore loser in the thread. Also, just because this is a special contest doesn’t mean regular BBS and Audio Portal rules don’t apply. The mods will be watching this contest with their fingers already on the trigger, not hesitating to shoot down rogue competitors (or, well, ex-competitors). Please use common sense and THINK BEFORE YOU POST, because no one wants to have to clean up your guts off of the train tracks (metaphorically speaking). Also, you’re encouraged to support and review the pieces of your competitors.

6. The judges are not obligated to review any of the pieces you submit to the competition until you make it to the Knock-out Round (i.e., the round after tryouts). During the Knock-out Round, you should receive at least THREE rather detailed reviews from three of the different judges. They should each give you a score out of 10 and state clearly what that is in the review itself. These scores will be averaged to determine who advances to future rounds. Btw, we use the same scoring system for tryouts, just without the reviews. Last year, we had issues with judges posting their reviews on time, so if you haven't received any reviews by the time we've annouced who is advancing onto the final round, you have every right to PM me (or any of the other judges) requesting those reviews.

7. After tryouts comes the Knock-out Round! Another thread will be posted in the BBS, setting the time limit for Friday, July 31st at 11:59 P.M. EDT for the remaining competitors to submit their completely-from-scratch and original new tracks. The judges and I have yet to decide how many people we're going to accept into the final round (or the contest in general, for that matter). Last year, the final round consisted of 3 people from each group. These remaining competitors will be announced on Monday, August 3rd. The deadline for the final round is Friday, August 14th at 11:59 P.M. EDT., and the winners will be announced on Monday, August 17th. For the Final Round, all the judges will be scoring all the participants.
 

Thank you all for following the rules. It really makes it a lot easier for the judges, the mods, and myself. If you have any questions about the rules, please don't hesitate to PM me. Good luck in the competition, my friends! ;D

~Andrew