Post by Kaez on Jun 11, 2014 16:12:30 GMT -5
Welcome to the AWR League Cup 2014!
Some History:
The Cup has a long and proud history here on AWR. The original 2010 Cup was a 16-writer, single-elimination tournament. Blood and Reffy made the semifinals but were eventually eliminated in favor of a Taed-Meleta championship which Mel pulled away with by a single point margin of victory. In 2011, we had a 26-writer 3-judge word war that opened with eight matches of 1v1v1 or 1v1v1v1 format. It was massive and insane. James and Manny Nhaims wrote carnival stories and, for the second year in a row, the margin of victory was just one, single point -- in James' favor.
The 2013 "Megachallenge" Cup was a 12-writer, 2-division set-up judged by Reffy and myself. The Group of Death and the Group of Cake resulted in semifinals of Zovo v Orom and Allya v James -- and neither Zovo nor Orom found the time to get entries in, leading James' victory over Allya as the de facto championship, giving him his second AWR Cup title.
2014:
This year, with 8 writers scheduled, it's the smallest number of authors we've ever had for a Cup. But that's not a handicap. In fact, it allows us to do something really awesome that we've never done before: a league tournament. There's no, "You lost, you're out." The rounds don't need to be fought into: everyone writes every round. Individual head-to-heads don't determine your fate, your record through the season as a whole does. Furthermore, every writer will face off against every other author. This is an awesome and unique feature of this Cup and it means that no self-conscious writer is going to get stuck going up against a seasoned veteran and just be screwed and out -- everyone is on equal footing in terms of who they write against, because everyone writes against the exact same people the same amount of times in a context of equal importance.
What to Expect:
It also allows James and I, as your judges, to craft topics specific to the authors. Dragon v Zovo's Round 7 topic might be "Colonial Islands". Jor v Taed's Round 4 topic might be "Space Pope". ...okay, maybe not either of those, but you get the idea. You're not going to be able to stay in your comfort zone. Write four first-person character dramas back-to-back and we're going to throw you out of your element. Cling onto war stories and we will make your topic "Hugs and Cuddles" whilst up against Reffy. And of course, we're going to try to make the constraints complex and varied: genres, topics, perspectives, opening sentences, etc. It's all on the table.
We want to get the full range out of everyone and will do our best to let you each write what we know you like and are good at and in other rounds challenge you to get as far out of your element as possible. If you're going to write against 7 very different authors, we're going to strive to have you write 7 very different stories. And, hopefully, by the end of it, you're going to be more refined in your craft and will have had some good fun along the way. Since there's no elimination system, you'll know who you're facing and when you're facing them. You'll be perfectly aware that you're facing someone on a 4-0 win-streak next round and you'll know that we still haven't given Silver a war story to write and it might just be his time to shine when you're up against him. There'll be a lot to talk about within your rounds, about your topics, and about your expectation/excitement/fear about the rounds to come.
The Schedule:
Times are done in EST -- so your topic will be posted at midnight EST on the date shown. Midnight on the 12th/12:00AM EST on the 13th, when I'll post the topics for Round 1 is: 5AM on the 13th for Reffy, 2PM on the 13th for Dragon, and 6PM on the 12th for Zovo. We're likely not to be super strict about getting your story in by exactly that time, since James is in Kiwi-Time anyway (midnight for me is 4:00PM the next day for you, James), but if the day on your calendar is the last day of the round, you're probably going to want to get it up ASAP or at least make a note in the discussion thread that it'll be up soon.
Round 1, 6/13 - 6/17
Round 2, 6/19 - 6/23
Round 3, 6/25 - 6/29
Round 4, 7/1 - 7/5
Round 5, 7/7 - 7/11
Round 6, 7/14 - 7/18
Round 7, 7/19 - 7/23
Round 1: Dragon v Silver, Injin v Taed, Jor v Kaez, Ink v Reffy
Round 2: Dragon v Taed, Injin v Kaez, Jor v Reffy, Ink v Silver
Round 3: Dragon v Reffy, Injin v Silver, Jor v Taed, Ink v Kaez
Round 4: Dragon v Kaez, Injin v Jor, Ink v Taed, Reffy v Silver
Round 5: Dragon v Injin, Jor v Ink, Taed v Silver, Kaez v Reffy
Round 6: Dragon v Jor, Injin v Ink, Taed v Reffy, Kaez v Silver
Round 7: Dragon v Ink, Injin v Reffy, Jor v Silver, Taed v Kaez
*Bold = Zovo Judges, Non-Bold = James Judges
Everyone is judged by each of us at least 3 times and no more than 4 times, so the judging is unbiased (But so you know, I've got Jor, Taed, Reffy, and Dragon 4x -- James has Zovo, Injin, Silver, and Ink 4x).
James, meet me in the Forbidden Zone to discuss topics and planning.
The rest of you: you know who you're up against in every round, you know who's judging you in every round, you know the times they're happening...
... feel free to talk amongst yourselves, and good luck.
Some History:
The Cup has a long and proud history here on AWR. The original 2010 Cup was a 16-writer, single-elimination tournament. Blood and Reffy made the semifinals but were eventually eliminated in favor of a Taed-Meleta championship which Mel pulled away with by a single point margin of victory. In 2011, we had a 26-writer 3-judge word war that opened with eight matches of 1v1v1 or 1v1v1v1 format. It was massive and insane. James and Manny Nhaims wrote carnival stories and, for the second year in a row, the margin of victory was just one, single point -- in James' favor.
The 2013 "Megachallenge" Cup was a 12-writer, 2-division set-up judged by Reffy and myself. The Group of Death and the Group of Cake resulted in semifinals of Zovo v Orom and Allya v James -- and neither Zovo nor Orom found the time to get entries in, leading James' victory over Allya as the de facto championship, giving him his second AWR Cup title.
2014:
This year, with 8 writers scheduled, it's the smallest number of authors we've ever had for a Cup. But that's not a handicap. In fact, it allows us to do something really awesome that we've never done before: a league tournament. There's no, "You lost, you're out." The rounds don't need to be fought into: everyone writes every round. Individual head-to-heads don't determine your fate, your record through the season as a whole does. Furthermore, every writer will face off against every other author. This is an awesome and unique feature of this Cup and it means that no self-conscious writer is going to get stuck going up against a seasoned veteran and just be screwed and out -- everyone is on equal footing in terms of who they write against, because everyone writes against the exact same people the same amount of times in a context of equal importance.
What to Expect:
It also allows James and I, as your judges, to craft topics specific to the authors. Dragon v Zovo's Round 7 topic might be "Colonial Islands". Jor v Taed's Round 4 topic might be "Space Pope". ...okay, maybe not either of those, but you get the idea. You're not going to be able to stay in your comfort zone. Write four first-person character dramas back-to-back and we're going to throw you out of your element. Cling onto war stories and we will make your topic "Hugs and Cuddles" whilst up against Reffy. And of course, we're going to try to make the constraints complex and varied: genres, topics, perspectives, opening sentences, etc. It's all on the table.
We want to get the full range out of everyone and will do our best to let you each write what we know you like and are good at and in other rounds challenge you to get as far out of your element as possible. If you're going to write against 7 very different authors, we're going to strive to have you write 7 very different stories. And, hopefully, by the end of it, you're going to be more refined in your craft and will have had some good fun along the way. Since there's no elimination system, you'll know who you're facing and when you're facing them. You'll be perfectly aware that you're facing someone on a 4-0 win-streak next round and you'll know that we still haven't given Silver a war story to write and it might just be his time to shine when you're up against him. There'll be a lot to talk about within your rounds, about your topics, and about your expectation/excitement/fear about the rounds to come.
The Schedule:
Times are done in EST -- so your topic will be posted at midnight EST on the date shown. Midnight on the 12th/12:00AM EST on the 13th, when I'll post the topics for Round 1 is: 5AM on the 13th for Reffy, 2PM on the 13th for Dragon, and 6PM on the 12th for Zovo. We're likely not to be super strict about getting your story in by exactly that time, since James is in Kiwi-Time anyway (midnight for me is 4:00PM the next day for you, James), but if the day on your calendar is the last day of the round, you're probably going to want to get it up ASAP or at least make a note in the discussion thread that it'll be up soon.
Round 1, 6/13 - 6/17
Round 2, 6/19 - 6/23
Round 3, 6/25 - 6/29
Round 4, 7/1 - 7/5
Round 5, 7/7 - 7/11
Round 6, 7/14 - 7/18
Round 7, 7/19 - 7/23
Round 1: Dragon v Silver, Injin v Taed, Jor v Kaez, Ink v Reffy
Round 2: Dragon v Taed, Injin v Kaez, Jor v Reffy, Ink v Silver
Round 3: Dragon v Reffy, Injin v Silver, Jor v Taed, Ink v Kaez
Round 4: Dragon v Kaez, Injin v Jor, Ink v Taed, Reffy v Silver
Round 5: Dragon v Injin, Jor v Ink, Taed v Silver, Kaez v Reffy
Round 6: Dragon v Jor, Injin v Ink, Taed v Reffy, Kaez v Silver
Round 7: Dragon v Ink, Injin v Reffy, Jor v Silver, Taed v Kaez
*Bold = Zovo Judges, Non-Bold = James Judges
Everyone is judged by each of us at least 3 times and no more than 4 times, so the judging is unbiased (But so you know, I've got Jor, Taed, Reffy, and Dragon 4x -- James has Zovo, Injin, Silver, and Ink 4x).
James, meet me in the Forbidden Zone to discuss topics and planning.
The rest of you: you know who you're up against in every round, you know who's judging you in every round, you know the times they're happening...
... feel free to talk amongst yourselves, and good luck.
| WINS | LOSSES | |
| TAED | 5 | 1 |
| INK | 4 | 2 |
| KAEZ | 4 | 2 |
| JOR | 3 | 3 |
| REFFY | 2 | 4 |
| DRAGON | 2 | 4 |
| SILVER | 2 | 4 |
| INJIN | 2 | 4 |
