Top 30: General Information and FAQ

[Airan]

We're three days away from the submission deadline for all applications. As we near the end of the first stage of the contest, I figured it would be a good time to go ahead and post up the general information in regards to the next phase: The Top 30. As we have many newcomers in our midst for this contest, I'm going to start by explaining the general process of what is to come for those who are unaware.

The Top 30
After the submission deadline, and after every application has been properly judged and given a score, the Top 3 applications from each category will move on to the next stage of the competition. Here they will move from the private judging panel to a public stage, where anyone and everyone will be allowed to read them and critique them. During this period, you will be able to cast your votes for which character from each respective category is your personal favorite. The winner of each category will proceed to the next stage as the Top 10 and will officially join Mekai on her quest to save her village in Mossflower Odyssey V.

Wait. You said Top 10 but there are only 9 Categories, what gives?

So, one of my original plans for the contest was to have a tenth category, but as you can tell, that clearly has not come to pass. However, there will still be a tenth character who makes the roster. How, you may ask? Well, to explain, I need to first talk about the applications I've received. Unlike previous contests I've coordinated or been a part of, the competition here is incredibly fierce. Every application I have received has been good, and, for once, I cannot possibly predict who will win their category. So, with 43 applications as of this writing- and likely more to come- that is a lot of potential characters that, in another timeline or universe, would have likely won the contest had they not been cut. So, with that said-

The tenth category in question will be a Wildcard Category, comprising of a select number of applications that were initially cut from their respective categories. Consider it like a second chance. While all of these characters will have been initially beaten out in their categories, they will all still be worthy contenders who were scored highly by the other judges and I, and nominated to have another shot at making it into the story itself. I have not decided how many I will select, though the number will likely be 3 for simplicity's sake, but all of them will be from different categories- meaning I will not select two Guardians or three Hunters or anything like that. So, keep in mind, that you are no longer competing with just the members of your applied category, you are now competing with everyone from every category for one of those coveted second chance spots.

Once the Wildcards are selected, you will be able to cast your votes just like for any other category, it'll just be interesting because it'll be something like a Duelist vs. a Seafarer vs. an Assassin.

Okay, so, now that I understand that, I've got some questions:

Okay, shoot.

Can a writer have more than one application in the Top 30?

Of course. If your applications were good enough to beat out their respective competition, then by all means, you can have two or even three of your applications in the running to be an official cast character. Of course, only one of them will be allowed to move forward into the official contest- but having two or more in the running gives you an even bigger chance of making it in, so pat yourself on the back.

If a writer were to win a category, but lose in another, what happens to the character that lost?

They will be cut from the competition so as to allow room for more writers. In essence, this just means, if you win only one category, all of your other characters will be theoretically removed, even if they got second place, and the third placer in each category will now be the new "second placer."

What happens if a writer gets the most votes in multiple categories?

In the event that someone wins multiple categories, they will usually receive a PM from myself asking them which character they would prefer to write of the winning entries. Whichever one is NOT picked will be cut, and the runner up from that category will be selected to move on instead. There is an instance where I will not allow someone to make a choice between their characters and will instead choose for them- but that is only if a choice would potentially leave us with an unfilled category due to how all the authors are spread out, who won other categories, and all that other nonsense. This happened in MO3 where the writer of Brother Bogdan and Scully Craws won both the Prisoner and Cabin Boy categories, but if he was allowed to choose Bogdan, then there would be no Cabin Boy and there would be less writers as a whole.

What happens if two applications tie in their category?

I will break the tie. These are the only instances where I will ever vote- and is mostly done to keep the contest on schedule. Doing a runoff vote just takes too much time, in my opinion.

Alright, hopefully some of this was informative to the new crowd. If there are any more questions that you may have, or if I was unintentionally confusing about the process moving forward, please feel free to post more questions in this thread so I can better clarify everything moving forward.