Team Registration and Qualification Trial Guide

[Christoph]

Now that you’ve gotten your character approved and found a partner, you will need to register your team and submit a Qualification Trial.

Team Registration Template:

Team Name

Team Members

Links to characters

Arena Exclusion (if applicable -- see the ToC Rules and Regulations thread for more details)

Qualification Trial

Your final step on the road to the Tournament of Champions is to submit a brief combative exchange between the two characters on your team as a roleplaying trial. It is essentially a short set of posts, between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, designed to serve as an example of your roleplaying and writing abilities. This should be posted in the same thread as your team registration.

There are a couple reasons for this requirement. First, it’s a good way to get some extra practice roleplaying with your partner. Second and most importantly, it will serve as a preliminary qualifier and will determine who is placed into the first round. Depending on the total number of entries, the number of teams accepted into the first round brackets will either be 28, 40, 56, 72, 88, 104, 120, or 136. Naturally, if we miraculously land on one of those numbers, nobody will be cut. The accepted teams are contacted on January 2nd and given 48 hours to respond before their spot is given to a runner up.

Each team’s trial will be judged by a number of three-person panels formed from the Tournament judging team under the direction of Ataraxis, the Head Judge. The entries will be graded using a modified version of the main rubric. The categories are Story, Character and Writing Style and each are worth 5 points (there will only be one score for both participants). At the end, the highest scoring will make it into the first round. The deadline is the closing date for team registration, December 30th.

It cannot be stressed enough: there will be a limited number of spots available in the tournament. Your trial is crucially important and should be your best effort. If you don’t manage to pass the qualifiers, fear no! There will be a number of opportunities to earn a place in subsequent rounds by winning Fate Points in the multitude of side events. More information on side events can be found, naturally, in the Side Events forum. More information about fate points can be found in the ToC Rules and Regulations thread.

[Cassandra]

Does it matter what venue my partner and I use to write our battle? I mean, does it have to be done on the forum or can we use I? IM would be easier and faster for us and we still write in full sentences with proper spelling and grammar and the like.

[Christoph]

So long as its final form is presented with the team registration in play-by-post format and consists of between two and four posts, it doesn't matter where you wrote it or what method you used -- it's all about the final product. Just keep in mind that this is a traditional PBP forum and that every trial will be gauged accordingly and equally.

[Christoph]

An important note: It is allowed and highly recommended that teams start on their trials as soon as possible. You need not wait until team registration opens, and it is advised that teams not wait until the last minute.

[Zieg dil' Tulfried]

So do you want us to start posting them now? Or just start working on them...

[Christoph]

Just start working on them.

[Lord Saladin]

Perhaps I am being a little dense here, but do we need to first have our individual characters approved before making registration for the team? Also, where do we register teams? Is there a specific place, or just within the same forum as the character registrations?

[Christoph]

You need to have your individual characters at least posted before you can post a team registration. There may be a specific sub-forum created just for team registrations and trials, but we may decide to just have them posted in the character registration area. We'll let everyone know when that time rolls around.

[Lord Saladin]

Alright, thank you for clearing that up. Much appreciated.

[Inkfinger]

Couple quick questions for ya! In regards to this bit here:

Qualification Trial

Your final step on the road to the Tournament of Champions is to submit a brief combative exchange between the two characters on your team as a roleplaying trial. It is essentially a short set of posts, between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, designed to serve as an example of your roleplaying and writing abilities. This should be posted in the same thread as your team registration.

Does this exchange need to be our characters fighting against one another, or simply combat that involves both of them?

The deadline is the closing date for team registration, December 24th.

Is this still the deadline? Looking at the subforum from the main page, it seems that the opening date is Sunday morning, but I've noticed some people have started their team registrations - have I missed something in some thread somewhere? Just wanna make sure before I start sticking things up.