Z-I-v Summer Contest 2023

Time for Z-I-v Summer Contest 2023, hosted by Ben Speirs and t7r! The Summer Contest is an annual contest where participants are given a week to create each simfile in accordance to a given theme. Each week, the theme is revealed, and it’s up to the participants to create a file that meets the requirements. Then, following that week, while submissions open for next week’s theme, participants rate each file by quality, on a scale of 1-10! The results for that week follow its voting period.

As opposed to last year, the main contest will run for 8 weeks, meaning 8 different themes, with a break in between Weeks 4 and 5. At the end of these 8 weeks, the top 15 participants will go toe-to-toe in the VIP Room, where they battle it out in 3 VIP weeks to determine the winner of Summer Contest 2023!

The contest itself will still be run on the Z-I-v Contest Discord! The category in Z-I-v will still be used for file submissions, but the themes and rating submissions will all be handled in the Discord.

To enter into the contest, join the Discord by clicking the icon below and send a message in the Registration thread created in the #contest-general channel under the Z-I-v Summer Contest 2023 category letting us know you intend to join!

What has changed from last year?

1. 0.5 increments are now allowed in voting, similar to Battle Royale 2023.
2. The regular round will now be running for 8 weeks instead of 10, as already mentioned above.
3. Collaborations (up to two people) may be submitted in all rounds for a maximum of 3 times for each contestant. Repeat pairings are allowed. You may submit a solo file in the same round you submit a collaboration file (the higher scoring file of which will be counted in the rankings). Both authors must be involved in the creation of the charts that follow the themes. Collaborations are not allowed in the VIP Room.
4. The hardest chart rated less than 16 AND all harder charts must follow the theme wherever applicable.

So, what are the contest rules?

1. One simfile per author and/or a collaboration must be uploaded for the week.
2. The simfile must meet that week’s theme requirements.
3. The name of that week’s theme must be entered in the Section field when submitting a simfile for that week.
4. All simfiles must be uploaded to the Z-I-v Summer Contest 2023 simfile category, which is linked above.
5. Entries MUST be uploaded by the submission deadline (Sundays at 6PM UTC / 2PM EST). If there were difficulties with this, contact Ben Speirs, t7r, or forcednature.
6. If a duplicate song upload occurs, please put the name listed in the official spreadsheets in square brackets next to the song title, like so:

Parvati [forcednature]
Parvati [talkion]

7. If you've been banned from a contest in the past, we reserve the right to reject your entry into the current contest.
8. If you edit or delete your file during the judging period, we reserve the right to disqualify that file.
9. You may request for a collab partner in the #looking-for-collabs channel or via sending a DM to the person of your choice. Everyone has a right to make a decision. However, when posting in #looking-for-collabs, you may post ideas you already have, but please ensure to respect all participants by not limiting partner options to top performers only.

How about simfile rules?

1. Steps must not be auto-generated in your file.
2. All submissions must have charts rated on the DDR X scale (1-20).
3. Each file must have at least 1 single (SP) chart. Double charts can be included. However, if your hardest chart is a lv. 16 or higher, a lower chart rated Lv.15 or lower must also be included. Ensure that also the hardest chart of those rated Lv.15 or lower follows the theme too in addition to the ones Lv.16 and up.
4. Songs must be shorter than 2:30 and longer than 1:00 unless the theme states otherwise.
5. All charts must be pad charts, no keyboard charts.
6. Only simfiles not previously released may be entered in this contest. Your file cannot have been previously critiqued. If you are unsure about your file, contact any of the hosts or forcednature about it.
7. If you choose to do an edit of a song that already has official 4-panel charts (i.e. ITG, DDR), it must be a completely unique interpretation, and must NOT completely match the rhythms of the original.

What is the VIP Room?

The VIP Room consists of the final 3 weeks and final 3 themes of the contest. Only the top 15 participants which include the weeks’ winners or runners-up if there are repeat winners as well as the remaining high-scoring participants once the main 8 weeks have ended participate in this final battle. In the VIP Room, everyone starts back at 0 points, so if you make it in, give it your all to get the highest point total in these 3 weeks and claim victory!

How do I rate files and submit my file ratings?

Once a voting period starts for a week (which starts immediately following the submission deadline for that week), participants then start playing/looking through the files and rating them based on personal judgment of quality. Participants go through each file (that isn’t their own) and rate each file on a scale of 1-10 (with 0.5 increments now being allowed). These ratings then will be sent to either Ben Speirs, t7r, or forcednature through Discord DM.

DO NOT PUBLICLY RELEASE YOUR FILE RATINGS PRIOR TO THE VOTING DEADLINE AND DURING THE LIVE RESULTS REVEAL. This could lead to the disqualification of your file.

Prior to the voting deadline, you may adjust ratings by contacting the person you sent your votes to, and letting us know what you intend to change.

If you submit a file for a week, you must submit ratings for the files for that week. Otherwise, your file will be disqualified for that week. If you don’t submit a file for a week, you may still submit file ratings. This applies in the VIP Room as well.

How is file scoring handled?

When the voting period for a week ends, the average of all ratings for each file will be calculated to 2 decimal places (the average of all ratings you gave to other files will also be factored into your own file score to prevent abuse of the rating system). 1 point will be awarded to you for every 0.01 that your file scores above the overall file median score of that week.

For example, if your file gets an average of 7.72, and the overall median score ends up being 7.42, you will end up with 30 points for that week.

This also means that if your file score falls below the median score for that week, you will not be awarded any points. Put in your best effort!

What does the schedule look like?

The contest’s first week starts on June 4th! Here’s the schedule:

- Regular Rounds -
June 4-11: Week 1 submissions
June 11-18: Week 1 voting, Week 2 submissions
June 18-25: Week 2 voting, Week 3 submissions
June 25-July 2: Week 3 voting, Week 4 submissions
July 2-9: Week 4 voting
July 9-16: Week 5 submissions
July 16-23: Week 5 voting, Week 6 submissions
July 23-30: Week 6 voting, Week 7 submissions
July 30-Aug 6: Week 7 voting, Week 8 submissions
Aug 6-13: Week 8 voting
Aug 13: Regular Round Results

- VIP Room -
Aug 13-20: VIP1 submissions
Aug 20-27: VIP1 voting, VIP2 submissions
Aug 27-Sep 3: VIP2 voting, VIP3 submissions
Sep 3-10: VIP3 voting
Sep 10: Final Results


The deadline is always on Sundays at 6PM UTC / 2PM EST.

That should be everything! If you have any questions, be sure to DM any of the hosts or forcednature on Discord!

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EDIT: The contest has finally concluded. Congratulations to forcednature! Results spreadsheet has been updated.

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Not competing but pumped for the sims.

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So excited to compete in my first summer contest in years!

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If it wasn't clear already, count me in. ;)

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Yeah, I'm sitting this one out. I've been feeling extremely unmotivated to do anything DDR-related lately.

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#3 on the top 50 in Finland. From the same national selection (UMK) for Eurovision that brought you Cha Cha Cha.
It managed to get second place at UMK behind Cha Cha Cha. I doubt this will have the same fate in the Z-I-v Summer Contest...but I can hope, right? ;)


Has over 20 staircases on the expert chart and plenty on the difficult chart as well.

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