End of year information - important!

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

Hey folks! This is the LAST SUBMISSION PERIOD of the year! Here's some information about how the end of year stuff is going to work.

Last submission round

To give us enough time to really focus on culling down our current primary round winners, we're going to wrap up the last two months of the year with just voting. So, round 18 will end submissions in two weeks. Then we'll JUST be voting on these submissions for another two weeks.

What about submissions through the end of the year?

Unless anyone has any other ideas on how to do this, my plan for now is to allow submissions through the end of the year, after this round, but they will not be voted on until the first two weeks of next year. I'll simply open a temporary form for folks to submit sims in, which will remain there until January 1. Ratings will be allowed. Somehow, we'll cull down the list to 10 sims, and then vote on them in the first two weeks of the year. If you have other ideas, or comments on how this can be done fairly, post here.

How will run-offs work?

I had to cut out the last planned round of this year to allow for the extra sims as a result of tie votes we've had. In the future, there will be no more tie votes -- just runoffs. (Not sure what we'll do if there's another tie in a runoff, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.) As such, final runoff round 1 will begin voting 11-03. (This info is all available on the Challenge Calendar.)

What I will do is list all the sims that have moved into the runoff phase. I will give each of them a number, with the first sim to win this year being #1, and the last sim to win being #20. I will then use the Random.org tool to choose a number between 1 and 20. This sim will be the first option in the first runoff round poll. I'll continue this way until we have ten sims in runoff round 1. If a number is selected twice by the random number generator, I'll simply request another number until a new number is chosen.

These ten sims will be posted in a poll similar to what we've done for each round. Links will be provided to each sim. Everyone will then vote on the best sim. The winning sim then advances to the final round.

For runoff round 2, I will re-number the remaining sims as #1 through #10. I will again use the Random.org tool to choose a number between 1 and 10. This sim will be the first sim in the second runoff round. I will continue this way until the order of the remaining ten sims have been chosen. (Doing this to ensure there is no bias in the way the sims are placed in the poll.)

Again, these ten sims will be posted in a poll. Everyone will vote, and the winning sim then advances to the final round.

How will the final round work?

In the final round, there will simply be two sims posted in a poll. I will use the Random.org tool to flip a virtual coin. The winning sim from runoff round 1 will be "Heads" and the winning sim from runoff round 2 will be "Tails". The winner will be the first option in the poll.

Voters will have the whole month of December to vote on the final two sims.

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

Round 1 Runoff Information:

Here's the list of sims by their number, duplicates include, which is why they don't correspond directly with the contest they won in:

1. "Stinging Truths" by Sidney Riley & Quinn Reynolds

2. "Monkey Work" by Ethan Brice

3. "Listen..." by Tyr Waltas

4. "LtCmdr. Ben Walker" by Ben Walker

5. "Officers at Work...Almost" by Jackford Kolk

6. "Life With Wheeler" by Jefferson Reed

7. "Murder Ballad": Danny Wilde and Jhen Thelev

8. "It's Not All Great Being Engaged" by Heath West & Toni Turner

9. "Beneath the Surface" by Jackford Kolk & Karynn Ehlanii

10. "The Wedding" by Idril Mar, Danny Wilde, and friends

11. "Nightmares Revealed" by Arista Devar & Emirry MacGowan

12. "WildeFinger" by Idril Mar & Danny Wilde

13. "Rebellion" by Lily Ventu and "Death Throes" by Will Rogers

14. "Ritar, Fourth of the Father - Entertain the End" by Lily Ventu

15. "No one can hurt you" by Hugh Barnes

16. "What We Owe" by Sidney Riley

17. "Tonight, We Will Argue (part 1)" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice

18. "Intensity" by Cura Assanti & Jacen Fanel

19. "Achilles: Dinner and a Screaming Hissy Fit" by Idril Mar

20. "Explorations of Partner-ish- ship" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice

Per the procedure listed above, I then came up with this order:

3. "Listen..." by Tyr Waltas

19. "Achilles: Dinner and a Screaming Hissy Fit" by Idril Mar

8. "It's Not All Great Being Engaged" by Heath West & Toni Turner

14. "Ritar, Fourth of the Father - Entertain the End" by Lily Ventu

5. "Officers at Work...Almost" by Jackford Kolk

7. "Murder Ballad": Danny Wilde and Jhen Thelev

2. "Monkey Work" by Ethan Brice

20. "Explorations of Partner-ish- ship" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice

6. "Life With Wheeler" by Jefferson Reed

18. "Intensity" by Cura Assanti & Jacen Fanel

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

Changes to the end of year procedure:

Because "Death Throes" by Will Rogers got lost in the shuffle (it was part of a tie vote), I am splitting the last runoff round into two polls. Six choices in the first section, five choices in the second section. Everyone will need to pick one in each of the two sections. Those two selections will advance to the final round to create a total of four sims.

How will the final round work?

In the final round, there will be four sims posted in a poll. I will use the Random.org tool to choose the order of the sims.

Voters will have two weeks in December to vote on the final sims.

The order of the last sims is as follows:

Section 1

- "Nightmares Revealed" by Arista Devar & Emirry MacGowan

- "Rebellion" by Lily Ventu

- "No one can hurt you" by Hugh Barnes

- "Stinging Truths" by Sidney Riley & Quinn Reynolds

- "WildeFinger" by Idril Mar & Danny Wilde

- "What We Owe" by Sidney Riley

Section 2

- "Tonight, We Will Argue (part 1)" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice

- "LtCmdr. Ben Walker" by Ben Walker

- "Death Throes" by Will Rogers

- "The Wedding" by Idril Mar, Danny Wilde, and friends

- "Beneath the Surface" by Jackford Kolk & Karynn Ehlanii

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

Apparently, we're an indecisive bunch. Even as I expanded the last rounds to give us a four, instead of 1 or 2 top sims, we can't seem to decide! So now the final round will include FIVE sims (*grumblegrumble*), because Runoff Round 2 had three winners. Anyway, here's the list of the finalists:

1. "It's Not All Great Being Engaged" by Heath West & Toni Turner

2. "Explorations of Partner-ish- ship" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice

3. "What We Owe" by Sidney Riley

4. "Tonight, We Will Argue (part 1)" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice

5. "The Wedding" by Idril Mar, Danny Wilde, and friends

I ran these through the Random.org tool, and here's the order of the final five:

3. "What We Owe" by Sidney Riley

5. "The Wedding" by Idril Mar, Danny Wilde, and friends

2. "Explorations of Partner-ish- ship" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice

4. "Tonight, We Will Argue (part 1)" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice

1. "It's Not All Great Being Engaged" by Heath West & Toni Turner

We can talk about maybe having some rules about only have one sim in the final round next year, but for this year, that's the set. Please head on to the poll and vote!