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Points? Heats? How does this thing work?

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Dogmafrog View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dogmafrog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Points? Heats? How does this thing work?
    Posted: 01 Feb 2017 at 9:19pm
I'll be honest, I leaped a bit without looking when I entered this contest. It seems like fun, but I can only find vague references to points, etc. how do we actually progress? From what I've gleaned, the judges give each story a score based on deductions from a starting perfect score (is it 30 points?). But after that, I dunno. Does the highest score from each heat move on, and others don't? Does everyone move on and the winner is determined by total points from the rounds? I looked at the FAQs but - unless I missed it (in which case please jus say "dumbass" and give the link) I don't see an actual explaination.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dogmafrog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Feb 2017 at 9:25pm
Psssh never mind, found it http://www.nycmidnight.com/Competitions/SSC/Official%20Rules%20and%20Participation%20Agreement%20SSC2017%20v3.pdf

Dumbass.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote plkphoto Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Feb 2017 at 10:32pm
For the short story competition, we don't see the points, but the top 5 or 4 (depending on the round) stories from each heat advance to the next round. They'll tell us the top stories and list a few honorable mentions, but no points. They'll also send out comment-based feedback from the judges, but we don't get to see the scoring system the judges used to rank the stories. 

In the Flash Fiction version of the challenge (held in the second half of the year), everyone who enters is guaranteed two challenges. So they give points to the top 15 stories in each heat, then add up the points from the two challenges to see who advances to the semi-finals. But that only happens in Flash, and those points are independent of the specific scoring system they use to rank the stories.
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Ch1 Gr62 -- The Other Side of the Coin (Thriller)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wendy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Feb 2017 at 3:01pm
Do we know how many people entered the challenge? For this year or past years?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Feb 2017 at 3:54pm
Originally posted by plkphoto plkphoto wrote:

For the short story competition, we don't see the points, but the top 5 or 4 (depending on the round) stories from each heat advance to the next round. They'll tell us the top stories and list a few honorable mentions, but no points. They'll also send out comment-based feedback from the judges, but we don't get to see the scoring system the judges used to rank the stories. 

In the Flash Fiction version of the challenge (held in the second half of the year), everyone who enters is guaranteed two challenges. So they give points to the top 15 stories in each heat, then add up the points from the two challenges to see who advances to the semi-finals. But that only happens in Flash, and those points are independent of the specific scoring system they use to rank the stories.

This process is also used for the Short Screenplay Challenge.
The feedback I have received from and have given on the forums has been more helpful than most of the feedback I've received from the judges. For me, the process of thinking through what works and what doesn't while reviewing someone's story has really helped my writing.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote plkphoto Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Feb 2017 at 6:03pm
Originally posted by Wendy Wendy wrote:

Do we know how many people entered the challenge? For this year or past years?

This year's short story challenge is the biggest yet, with 3031 participants. They used to cap the contest at around 2100 and only went up to 60 heats max with 35 people per heat. It's been growing, and last year quite a few of us were unable to enter because they hit the maximum. The year before that, we only had 48 heats with around 35 people each. 

That's when I joined, but I'm sure it's been steadily growing for a while. 
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