Euphoria's Song Contest | Rules

[LRN]

Here are the rules for the contest. Sorry that there are so many, but I have tried to make them as clear as possible to avoid any confusion for new players and new forum members. Please read and respect them
Also, please note that some of these rules are likely to change. New rules and changes to current rules will be bold and underlined.

Choice and ownership of countries

• Any existing country that is widely recognised as an independent country is welcome to compete in the contest. For this reason,  Kosovo is welcome to compete as it is widely recognised as independent; however,  Northern Cyprus is only recognised by  Turkey and so is not eligible to compete.
  
  
• You do not have to live in the country you wish to confirm with, nor have any roots or links to that country.

• If you wish to join the contest, you must pick a country that is free (not already taken by another player). Once you confirm with that country, it belongs to you, and you have priority over that country in each edition (meaning no-one else can steal it from you). You can keep that country for as many editions as you wish, and you can withdraw during the confirmation period of any edition. Once you withdraw, that country no longer belongs to you and can be claimed by another player. You can also swap your country for another, as long as it isn't taken. If you do this, the country you had previously owned will then be free for another player to confirm with and keep.

• If the country you wish to confirm with had participated in the previous edition of the contest and the player to whom it belongs has not yet confirmed, you must ask for their permission to confirm with that country. However, if they withdraw from the contest or swap their country for another one, then you may confirm with the country they had previously owned.
  
  
• Players who have been suspended from an edition have to miss out on it. Once suspended, that player will lose their country which will then be free for you to confirm with and keep.
  

• Players who did not vote in the previous edition (and didn't let me know in advance that they couldn't vote) will have to re-confirm with their country in the current edition if they wish to keep it. Unless they do, their country is free for others to confirm with and keep.

• The deadline for confirmation will be decided by me and may change.

• If the confirmation deadline passes and there are players who have neither confirmed nor withdrawn, they will lose their country.
  

See the list of taken countries here.

Picking an entry

• The song you choose to submit must not have already competed in any previous editions of EuSC, and should preferably not be overused (meaning it would be better if the song has not been submitted to several other contests already).

• Only studio versions of songs will be permitted – no live performances are allowed, in the interest of giving each song an equal chance in terms of performance quality.

• (Junior) Eurovision Song Contest songs are not allowed; however, songs from ESC national selections are allowed, as long as the NS a song is from has already finished, or that song has been eliminated. They must also be studio versions and not live performances, as stated above.

• Cover songs are not allowed.
  
  
• Remixes are allowed, and the remixer does not have to be from the country the song will represent.

• The song may be sung in any language, but it must include vocals for a decent duration of the song.

• Songs must be at least 2 minutes long, and no longer than 6 minutes long. If a song you wish to submit has multiple parts to it ("Another Brick In The Wall" by  Pink Floyd, "Love The Way You Lie" by  Eminem, and "Weight Of Living" by  Bastille are examples of this), you may only submit one part, and that part must fit the time limit stated. You may not submit all parts as one entry.

• Artists must either live in/originate from the country you wish to have them represent, or have parents living in/originating from that country. If the song you wish to send features more than one artist, at least half of the artists must live – or have parents living – in the country they are representing. The same rule applies to bands and groups.

• Certain micro-states and very small countries may borrow artists from nearby countries; however, it is preferred that you send artists who are from the country itself. The following borrowing rules are in place:  
  • San Marino may borrow from  Italy
  • Monaco may borrow from  France
  • Luxembourg may borrow from  France and  Germany
  • Andorra may borrow from  Spain
  • Liechtenstein may borrow from  Germany

• I will ban certain songs or artists as I see fit. For example,  Justin Bieber and  The Wanted are banned.
  

• You can either choose your entry internally (by yourself), or hold your own National Selection (see 'National selections' heading below).
  
  
• Artists may not represent more than one country at the same time, even if they have roots to all of these countries. Artists with roots to more than one country may represent different countries in different editions.

• You do not have to reveal your entry as soon as you confirm, but it is preferred that you do. When you reveal your entry, you must include the following in your post:
  
  • your country of choice,
  • the artist(s) who perform(s) the song and the title of the song (as well as an embedded YouTube video of the song, or a link to the video)
  You do not have to include a time slot, but if you wish to do so, please include both a 20-second and 25-second time slot, as the length of the time slot I'll use will depend on the number of participants.
  
  

• The deadline for choosing an entry will be decided by me and may change.

National selections

• If you wish to hold a national selection, you must create a thread in the 'EuSC National Selections' board, which can be found at the top of the page, inside the 'Euphoria's Song Contest' board. You can give it a special name if you wish (e.g.  Sweden's National Selection for Eurovision is called 'Melodifestivalen',  Estonia's is called 'Eesti Laul', etc.).

• The thread can either be a poll thread or a regular thread. You may choose how people can vote in your NS. You may wish to look at other national selection threads for inspiration on rules and format. You can either create your own recap video containing snippets of the songs and include it in the thread, or simply embed or add links to the YouTube videos of the songs you want to have in the NS.

• Once I have announced the confirmation deadline, you must ensure that your NS ends before the deadline.

Voting

• The voting period will start as soon as I have uploaded the recap video to YouTube and posted it in a new thread in this board. I will also provide a link to a YouTube playlist of all of the songs in case you would rather listen to the full songs.

• You must vote in "Eurovision style" by giving 12 points to your favourite song, 10 points to your second favourite song, and 8-1 points to your 3rd-10th favourite songs. Once you have decided on your votes, please send them to me via PM on the forums. You must not reveal your votes to anyone else on the forums. You may post in the voting thread stating that you have voted, if you wish.

• Once I announce the voting deadline, it is up to you to ensure that I receive your votes in time. If you know that you won't be able to vote, please let me know before the deadline so I can find a replacement voter and not make everyone wait longer than planned for the results. In some cases, I will find a backup voter for any inactive players before the deadline, but I will only use the backup votes if I don't receive votes from the players.
  
  

• If you fail to vote before the deadline without letting me know that you can't vote, you will receive a warning, and you will have to re-confirm in the next edition if you wish to keep your country. After you have received 3 warnings, you will be suspended for 1 edition. 

• To make the new rule more fair for players who have been with us for a while, players who have been suspended from taking part in edition 9 or below will not be suspended again until they have received more than enough warnings to make up for the number of times they have previously been suspended. The number of warnings/suspensions received by each player will be kept track of in the Taken Countries/Player Stats thread.

Results and post-results

• Once I have received votes from every country, I will post the results in the form of a scorewiz scoreboard in a new thread (I don't have the time, nor have the ability, to make a results video ). You may then post your reaction in the results thread if you want to, but you must use the spoiler tool if you are revealing any results.

• The winner will be able to choose the host city and slogan for the next edition. If the winner has been suspended from the next edition for not voting, 

• When I am ready to start the next edition, I will create a new thread and tag everyone who participated in the previous edition. You may then confirm with the same country or a different country, or withdraw if you wish.
  

Thanks for taking the time to read the rules. Have fun!