Z-I-v Summer Contest 2024

Welcome to Z-I-v Summer Contest 2024, hosted by forcednature, Ben Speirs, and extraordiberry! In this contest, the hosts will announce a new theme each week, and it's up to the participants to make simfiles that fit the theme! Then the participants will play all of the simfiles and vote to find out whose are the best!

This year, the main contest will run for 6 weeks, meaning 6 different themes, with a break between weeks 3 and 4. At the end of these 6 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 2024!

The contest itself will be run on the Z-I-v Contest Discord. The category in Z-I-v will still be used for simfile submissions, but the themes and rating submissions will all be handled in the Discord. In fact, if you prefer not to use Z-I-v at all, you can even send your simfiles to Ben Speirs, forcednature, or extraordiberry via Discord direct messages (DMs) instead!

To enter into the contest, join the Discord by clicking the icon below and send a message in the #signups channel under the Z-I-v Summer Contest 2024 category letting us know you intend to join!

What has changed from last year?

1. The main contest will now be running for 6 weeks instead of 8, as already mentioned above.
2. Simfiles will now be awarded points if they place in the upper 2/3rds of a given week, rather than in the top 1/2.
3. Repeat pairings in collaborations are no longer allowed. You may still collaborate 3 times throughout the first 6 weeks of the contest, but each collaboration must be with a different person.
4. The hardest chart rated 13 or lower AND all harder charts must follow the theme wherever applicable, similar to Battle Royale 2024.
5. In the VIP Room, points awarded to simfiles will work much more similarly to the system used for Battle Royale. See below for further details.

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 either uploaded to the Z-I-v Summer Contest 2024 simfile category, which is linked above, or sent to one of the hosts via Discord DM.
5. Entries MUST be uploaded or DMed to one of the hosts via Discord by the submission deadline (Sundays at 6PM UTC / 2PM EDT). If there were difficulties with this, contact Ben Speirs, forcednature, or extraordiberry.
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:

Choe choe magica [t7r]
Choe choe magica [Princess Pamela]

7. When uploading a simfile to Z-I-v, if you intend to autogenerate the ZIP rather than uploading a custom ZIP, ensure that all file names and its title name on Z-I-v are the same and contain only alphanumeric English characters. If the title of the song you input on Z-I-v is different from any file names listed in the simfile's metadata, Z-I-v will modify your simfile's metadata to match the Z-I-v song title, even if that song title contains special characters which cannot occur in file names. This could potentially break your simfile. If a song's title is in a language such as Japanese, you can use an English transliteration or translation for the file names. The full original title can still be included in the simfile metadata. For example:

Original song name: ちくわパフェだよ☆CKP
Song title on Z-I-v: Chikuwa parfait da yo CKP
File names: Chikuwa parfait da yo CKP.sm, Chikuwa parfait da yo CKP.ogg, Chikuwa parfait da yo CKP.png, Chikuwa parfait da yo CKP-jacket.png, Chikuwa parfait da yo CKP-bg.png, Chikuwa parfait da yo CKP.mp4

8. If you've been banned from a contest in the past, we reserve the right to reject your entry into the current contest.
9. If you edit or delete your simfile during the judging period, we reserve the right to disqualify that simfile.
10. 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.
11. When judging the simfiles, please respect the effort the authors made toward creating them by playing/viewing them from start to finish in fully compatible software. Modern versions of StepMania, OutFox, or ITGMania are ideal. Step-editing software such as ArrowVortex will not display visual modifiers or split audio which may be critical parts of a simfile's play experience.

SIMFILE RULES

1. Only one chart is required for a simfile. Only Singles charts are required. Doubles and/or lowers are a welcome addition!
2. The DDR X-Scale (1-20) will be used to rate chart difficulties for this contest.
3. DDR difficulty slot rating limits are enforced: Challenge may not go above 19, Expert may not go above 18, Difficult may not go above 16, Basic may not go above 13, and Beginner may not go above 9. No 20s.
4. If your simfile's hardest chart is rated 14 or higher, it MUST have a lower that is rated 13 or below.
5. Songs must be arcade length (under 2:30).
6. Simfiles must be pad files. No keyboard charts. ITG tech elements are allowed in charts, but note that this contest is oriented toward DDR-styled charts.
7. No auto-generated steps.
8. You must submit new simfiles for this contest. No previously released simfiles.
9. You must submit a simfile that has not previously been criticized / given any feedback. If in doubt, ask one of the hosts on Discord.
10. Submitted simfiles must not be critiqued / given any feedback until voting week begins. This is so that no one gains any unfair advantage. The one and only exception to this rule is asking for help with regards to Difficulty ratings.
11. Graphics are not required, but they are recommended. If you can't make graphics and don't have someone to make them for you, placeholder graphics are provided. (See Main folder at the top of the post)

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 at the end of the first 6 weeks will participate in this final battle. These participants will be the weeks’ winners, the runners-up if there are repeat winners, and the remaining high-scoring participants. In the VIP Room, everyone starts back at 0 points, and unlike the first 6 weeks, your simfile will be awarded points even if it is last place! 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 simfiles and submit my simfile 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 simfiles and rating them based on personal judgment of quality. Participants go through each simfile (other than their own) and rate them on a scale of 1-10, including 0.5 increments. These ratings then will be sent to Ben Speirs, forcednature, or extraordiberry through Discord DM. (Though it is not required, it is very helpful to sort votes in the same order as the order of the song names in that week's spreadsheet.)

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

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

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

How is simfile scoring handled?

For the main 6 weeks:

When the voting period for a week ends, the average of all ratings for each simfile will be calculated to 2 decimal places (the average of all ratings you gave to other simfiles will also be factored into your own simfile score to prevent abuse of the rating system). 1 point will be awarded to you for every 0.01 that your simfile scores above the top simfile of the bottom 33% of simfiles for that week.

For example, if your simfile gets an average of 7.72, and the top simfile of the bottom 33% gets an average of 7.42, you will end up with 30 points for that week.

This also means that if your simfile score falls within the bottom 33% for that week, you will not be awarded any points. Put in your best effort!

For the VIP Room:

The average of all ratings for each simfile and your own voting average will be calculated to 2 decimal places, just like the first 6 weeks. What is different is that, much like in Battle Royale, this average will simply be multiplied by 100 to determine the points awarded for each simfile. Every simfile will be awarded points in this way, even if they place in the bottom 33%.

However, this is where the median becomes relevant again -- depending on how many places above median you rank, you can receive bonus points! Bonus points will be calculated by multiplying your number of places above median by 4 up through 3rd place, and then adding 5 or 10 to that for 2nd or 1st place respectively.

For example, if your simfile gets an average of 7.72, the overall median score ends up being 7.42 at 8th place, and you got 5th place (3 places above 8th), you will end up with 772 points + 12 bonus points (3 x 4) for a total of 784 points at the end of that week. Let's say that 2nd place got 8.41 and 1st place got 8.98 -- the total points for 2nd place would be 866 (841 + 25) and the total points for 1st place would be 928 (898 + 30).

What does the schedule look like?

The contest’s first week starts on June 16th! Here’s the schedule:

- Regular Rounds -
June 16 - June 23: Week 1 submissions
June 23 - June 30: Week 1 voting, Week 2 submissions
June 30 - July 7: Week 2 voting, Week 3 submissions
July 7 - July 14: Week 3 voting
July 14 - July 21: Week 4 submissions
July 21 - July 28: Week 4 voting, Week 5 submissions
July 28 - August 4: Week 5 voting, Week 6 submissions
August 4 - August 11: Week 6 voting
August 11: Regular Round Results

- VIP Room -
August 11 - August 18: VIP1 submissions
August 18 - August 25: VIP1 voting, VIP2 submissions
August 25 - September 1: VIP2 voting, VIP3 submissions
September 1 - September 8: VIP3 voting
September 8: Final Results

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

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

I think I'll play.

Sign me up!

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GOOD LUCK ALL VIP CONTENDERS!!

Not sure if I'm one of the only ppl who closely follows the contests purely as a spectator and sim-leech, but I really appreciate the early pack downloads. Beats the hell out of clicking each link individually. I'm usually following right from week one, but somehow the summer contest escaped my notice this year?

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