Escape Artists
The Arcade => Flash Contest V => Completed Contests => Flash Fiction Contest V - Escape Pod => Topic started by: eytanz on June 10, 2018, 11:48:59 AM
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The 12 groups of round 1 have concluded, and to my great joy, there were no ties, which makes round 2 easy to set up. Round 2, a.k.a. the semi-finals, will start on Tuesday, with 3 semi-final groups coming up at the same time.
For everyone who participated in round 1 and didn't move forward, thank you for your submissions! And thank you for all the commentators and voters so far - as contest runner, I haven't been participating in the discussions, but I've been following and enjoying both stories and comments greatly.
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Ooh, three groups of twelve instead of four of nine? That's going to be BRUTAL!
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Ooh, three groups of twelve instead of four of nine? That's going to be BRUTAL!
I'm amenable to changing my mind on this, but in my thinking there are the following options:
1. Three groups of twelve for semi-finals, 9 stories in the final.
2. Four groups of nine, 12 stories in the finals
3. Four groups of nine, 8 stories in the finals.
Option 3 seems has been used in past contests, but I don't like it - I feel it unfair to have a 2-winner bottleneck, because if the top 3 stories end up in the same semi (and I use a randomiser to sort them, not any sort of seeding, so this is entirely possible), story #3 is screwed.
Option 2 seems to me to make the semis easier, but the finals even harder as all the favourites will clash.
Option 1 makes the choices in the semis harder, but it also makes people have to make fewer choices overall. It also makes the grouping easiest - each group will send 1 story (randomly chosen) to each semi.
Still, if there is general preference to option 2 over option 1, I'm willing to do that instead.
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Option one is good and your reasoning seems sound.
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Fewer choices as a whole seems like a good tactic; I found the first round to be pretty hard work. But then I freely admit to being a wuss.
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I like option 2
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Either works for me, and I think the brutal option is a good choice. I was just confused because you described option 1 in the schedule post. :D
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Oh yes, I did seem to give option 2 there. Huh. That's the problem with running the contest during exam marking season - I barely have enough mental energy left to remember my name, let alone to remember how to run a contest.
I'll see if there are more thoughts in this thread, and will make a final decision on the structure of the semis later today.
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re: exam marking
I FEEL YOUR PAIN
My brain is a wibbly pile of cold porridge now.