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A multi-round, multi-genre writing challenge brought to you by The Talent Pond. |
  WELCOME TO THE TALENT POND TENNIS TOURNAMENT! This is the main event for The Talent Pond's Spring/Summer activity series. It is a multi-round writing competition designed to challenge you to compose a variety of (short) written works. That's right ... this isn't just for short stories or flash fiction or poetry; if you want to win the Talent Pond Tennis Tournament, you're going to have to demonstrate your mastery of the written word through product reviews, nonfiction, analytical writing, opinion pieces, (and yes, fiction). Each round of the competition features a completely different type of writing assignment! Indeed, the winner of this tournament will have to be a master of the written word in many of its various forms.  THE FORMAT Don't worry, you don't have to know how to play tennis in order to participate... we're just borrowing the tournament structure of most tennis tournaments (and maybe some sports lingo to keep it interesting  ). Here's how it works: This tournament is a single-elimination format, which means that in every match in every round, there's someone who wins and someone who's eliminated. The winner advances to the next round; the eliminated player will collect a prize and, unfortunately, be out of the competition. There are no re-dos, second chances, or make-ups, so those entries need to be the best they can be! Each "match" is a competition between two writers, and two writers only. The judges' pick for the better entry will advance to the next round (and a new competitor), while the other writer will be eliminated from the tournament. Like in a tennis tournament, the main draw (all the competitors) will be divided in half. For this event, the "top half" of the draw will be experienced and advanced writers; the "bottom half" of the draw will be newbies or less experienced writers. Each round will consist of several matches between pairs of competing writers, and since everyone in each half of the draw will be at approximately the same writing level, it should allow writers of all levels the chance to advance in the tournament and win bigger and better prizes.  In order for this event to work, we need a specific number of participants. We need at least 8 competitors at the very, very minimum, and this will work better if we can get 16, 32, or dare we hope for 64 competitors to make it really interesting. Unfortunately, that means we only have a specific number of slots available. Please see below for information about qualifying. As each round progresses, the match winners advance and the losers are eliminated, cutting the number of competitors in half after every round. Each half of the draw will ultimately whittle the number of competitors down to the quarterfinalists (final four in each half of the draw) and semifinalists (final two in each half of the draw). The semifinalists duke it out, and the winner of that match goes on to the championship/final. NOTE: Based on this format, the only way the two draws (advanced vs. newbies) meet is in the finals, when the best of each side of the draw competes in the championship/final. Also just like a tennis tournament, prizes are awarded and increased with every round. The further you make it in the competition, the bigger the prize pot... but everybody will leave with something! THE RULES While each round will have its own set of criteria, the general rules for this event are as follows: 1. The deadline for entries each round is 11:59 PM WDC time on the date specified. 2. Only one entry per person, per round. 3. Post your entries as bitem links in the forum below. Ex: {bitem:XXXXXXX}, where the X's are replaced with your item's number. 4. Spelling and grammar count. While a typo or two will not disqualify your entry, proofreading is an important part of the writing process. Frequent errors and/or poor readability are likely to affect your chances of winning a match. 5. New items only. This is a writing challenge, and as such, all entries for the main draw should be newly written for this event. 6. You may edit your stories at any time. However, they may be judged at any point after the contest deadline, so there are no guarantees that any changes you make after the deadline will be read. 7. The judges' decision for each match is final. 8. If your assignment is not submitted by the deadline, incomplete, or does not follow the prompt, you will forfeit your match and be eliminated. Your competitor will receive a walkover into the next round. If both match participants are eliminated, we will give a Qualifier the opportunity to take the winner's place in the next round. QUALIFYING We will do our best to make sure everybody who wants to compete, can. But since the format only works with a specific number of competitors, we have to narrow it down to exactly 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. participants in each half of the draw (newbies and advanced). Which means that if we have 35 people sign up, three of them won't be able to participate (because we can only have 32). If we have 26 people sign up, ten of them won't be able to participate (because we can only have 16). We really, really don't want to tell people they can't participate, so please help us make sure every slot in the draw is filled! Entry into this tournament is on a first-come, first-serve basis. However, if you sign up after all the draw slots are filled, you will be wait-listed for possible competition should any match result in both competitors being disqualified (in which case they would take the winner's spot in the next round). The downside is that you may not get to compete... the upside is that if you do, you'll have skipped a round or two and are entering the tournament at the higher tiers! If you'd like to help us make sure we have enough competitors, please help us out by challenging a friend! All you have to do is send out one of our handy cNotes to any friends (or enemies!) you'd like to compete against. cNotes are free to send, except for the 250 GP processing charge from WDC (per group of up to 5 recipients). If you'd like to send a cNote but do not have the funds to do so, please contact Jeff  
THE PRIZES In descending order, here are the prizes you're competing for. Please note that prizes are NOT cumulative. You will only receive the prize specified for the tier in which you are eliminated. In other words, if you lose in the quarterfinals, you get the prize listed under quarterfinals. If you lose in the final, you get the prize listed under finalist. You must submit a qualifying entry to receive your prize. If you are disqualified, either for not submitting an entry on time, or for not following the contest rules, you will be eliminated from the competition and forfeit your prize... so make sure you get those entries in! CHAMPIONSHIP/GRAND PRIZE: 64,000 GPs, plus 50K Awardicon AND appropriate MB. (124,000 GPs total value!) FINALIST/RUNNER UP: 32,000 GPs, plus 25K Awardicon AND appropriate MB. (67,000 GPs total value!) SEMIFINALISTS (2): 16,000 GPs, plus 10K Awardicon AND appropriate MB, each. (36,000 GPs total value, each!) QUARTERFINALISTS (4): 8,000 GPs, plus choice of 10K Awardicon OR appropriate MB, each. (18,000 GPs total value, each!) ROUND 2 (8): 4,000 GPs each. ROUND 1 (16): 2,000 GPs each. THE WRITING CHALLENGES Specific instructions, prompts and deadlines will be given at the time of the matches, but here are the general assignment forms for each round. You will have approximately one week (specific deadlines forthcoming) for each match/assignment, and the amount of writing required will generally be as many or as few words as you feel you need to communicate your point. We're not looking for any NaNoWriMo-worthy output or term papers here ... you should have ample time to finish each assignment. FINAL/CHAMPIONSHIP: Short story. SEMIFINALS: Persuasive Essay or Speech. QUARTERFINALS: Short Play or Short Screenplay. ROUND 2: Nonfiction Journalistic Report/Article. ROUND 1: Product Review. THE MATCHES If you're interested in seeing the entire draw sheet, you can find it here: "Talent Pond Tennis - Main Draw"  The results of the last round are as follows. Please note that "def" is short for "defeated," and "Retired (ret'd)" means that a competitor was disqualified for not submitting an eligible entry. If you have a "bye," it means you have no competitor. As long as you submit a qualifying entry, you automatically move on to the next round. But you must submit an entry to collect your free pass! CURRENT ROUND: CHAMPIONSHIP For the Championship, your match assignment is as follows: Write a story about the relationship between an aging, highly accomplished professional athlete and a talented new up-and-comer. It can be any real-life competitive sport you want (sorry, no fictional sports... and it must have some kind of championship/tournament structure where accolades can be earned), and they can have any dynamic you choose... passing the torch, arch-rivals, competitors in a single game/match, etc. (Yes, I'm borrowing this prompt from Beyond The Water's Edge... because I like it, no one entered it, and it fits this contest!  ) Your entry will be judged on five criteria: storyline (including concept), characterization, dialogue, structure, and technical/style. You'll be judged on your originality, realism, accuracy of portraying the sport (we will look into this!), ability to set and maintain a tone, quality and consistency of character and story arcs, etc. There are no other restrictions as far as locations, cast of characters, genre, etc., so really push yourself to write a unique, engaging sports story about an old pro and the next generation's most promising prospect!DUE DATE: Saturday, July 24th, 2010 @ 11:59PM WDC time. DETAILS: Between 1,000 words and 2,500 words. Create a static item in your port, and a bitem link to it in the forum below. If you have any questions about linking, or do not have the space in your port to create a static item, please contact Jeff . Make sure you don't wait until the last minute if you have questions! SPECIAL NOTE: The results of the Championship match will be broadcast LIVE on Wednesday, July 28th at 10:00PM WDC time! If you're around, and get the Talent Pond Tennis Channel on your cable or satellite provider, make sure you tune in as Jeff and Brooke  bring you play-by-play commentary of the championship match! You can watch all the excitement unfold right here:
The In & Out will be open shortly, and will include tennis terminology and general rules of the game, for anyone who wants to follow along, but isn't terribly familiar with the sport.
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