Contest Rules

These are subject to tweaking at any time for whatever reason. I'll announce any major changes. Visit our Discord Channel for the latest updates and announcements.

Objective:

Write the best feghoot.

Time Frame:

• Contest Starts:

  Submissions folder opens Friday, June 14th at 8pm Pacific Time (11pm Eastern Time). Stories submitted before this time are not eligible for the contest, but can still be added to the pre-contest folder.

• Contest Ends:

  Submissions folder closes Sunday, July 14th at 11:59:59pm Pacific Time (July 15th, 2:59:59am Eastern Time. If you PM Super Trampoline and beg him, you might get a short extension. Don't abuse that though.

• Results:

  Contest results announced Saturday, August 3rd at BronyCon. More specifics coming soon.

Entries Allowed:

Up to three. Must be submitted to the correct contest folder by the deadline.

Story Length:

• Minimum is 100 words. Stories under 1000 words should go in an anthology, with that anthology added to the correct contest folder. Remember to specify in your story description or author notes which story or stories in your anthology is/are for this contest.
• Maximum cumulative words among all of your entries is 10,100 words. This is a HARD limit. So if you submit an 8,000 word entry, anything else you enter needs to be under 2,100 words. And remember, the longer the feghoot, the more is expected of the pun at the end.

Content Restrictions:

Stories must be rated Everyone or Teen. No Mature stories. All warning tags are okay except the "Non-Con" one. While it's true that almost anything can be funny in the right context, I and others do not want to read sexual assault puns. If you're unsure of something, ask here or via PM or in the Discord Server.

Judging Protocol:

First Round:

Each story is judged by four different judges on the following four whole-number point scales:
1-10: Pun Quality
1-5: Build Up Quality
1-5: Overall Story Quality
1-5: Overall Writing Quality

Thus, each judge will assign each story a score total between 4 and 25. The four judges’ scores for each story will be added up and converted to a percentage, so each story will receive a percentage score between 16% and 100%.

Second Round:

(If there are 32 or more total submissions)
The top 16 entries by percentage score (17 or 18 or ??? if there’s a tie for 16th place) will each be read by four more judges. Their scores will be added to the first set of four scores, for a total score of between 32 and 200. For the sake of consistency, this will be divided by two to get a new percentage of 100.

Final Round:

The top six to ten entries, depending on where there’s a clear cutoff point, will be voted on by at least 12 judges in a ranked-choice voting system. Note that it is possible for a story with a lower percentage score than another could end up higher in the final rankings, because with ranked choice voting, the stories are being compared to each other rather than being graded independently in a vacuum.

Results:

Votes are tallied and the winners, runner ups, and honorable mentions are declared.

(Note: more detailed judging rubrics, examples, criteria, etc. will be made available in a few weeks.)

Judges:

30 right now, but a few more may come aboard or dip out as the contest progresses. Judges will not be assigned to stories which present a conflict of interest for them for whatever reason.See the full list of judges here.

Platform:

FimFiction. Judging will be taking place off-site in a super-secret location high up in the REDACTED mountains.

Prizes:

Thank you, anonymous, for your gracious $100 contribution to the prize pool.

Cash Prizes:

• $100 first prize
• $40 second prize
• $25 third prize.
• $5 Honorable Mention
• $5 Honorable Mention
• $5 Honorable Mention

Prizes will be paid through PayPal, VenMo, Cash App, or in person at BronyCon.
Want to sweeten the pot and get prominently listed as a sponsor? PM Super Trampoline to discuss donating to the prize pool!

Other Prizes:

More details coming soon!

Have questions about the rules? Ask them in the comments below!

Test for ST #1

Edit: test successful

Quick question! I don't see anywhere in these rules a specification that entries must be first published after the start date of the contest. Does this mean older stories are fair game?

I ask because I wouldn't be surprised to find out that that's an oversight, but one of my favorite stories I've worked on is a two-ish-year-old feghoot collab I'd love to enter, so I thought I'd ask just in case.

Is there a prize limit per entrant, or could someone theoretically win first, second, and third prize?

6891902
Oh hey, you’re the really good Dazzlings author!

While the folder names are clear; you’re right, the rules were ambiguous. I have corrected this. While a previously published story would not be eligible to join the contest, you are welcome to rewrite it into something new which is published during the duration of the contest. Hope that helps!

6892348
Authors can place up to three times, however each author can only receive one cash prize. So if, for example, someone got first place and third place, that third-place prize would go to the fourth place winner.