COORDINATING CONTEST GUIDE

[m a n c y ♥]

Alright, so, as a frequent contest judge and the designer of the coordinating class itself on IL, I consider myself as an "expert" of sorts on the going-ons with coordination contests. And, as an expert (but, more importantly, as a mama bear) I have been watching these contests, judging when I can, and analyzing the trends that you people seem to do. Also, overall quality and whatnot.

What I have been alarmed to note is that ever since the second coordination contest, the overall quality of the posts have been going down. This, erm, completely destroyed my purpose of coordination contests and my starting theory ("these first few contests will be rough, but once people have examples to follow and learn about their judges, they'll be fine!").
Instead of getting better, we're getting worse. And it's the same. Damn. Mistakes. Over and over and over again.

So what are we to do? Well, first, I blame myself - I should have foreseen some confusion and written something like this in the first place. It would also help if I actually stopped being a loser and started informing you on exactly what we should see for contest posts.

So that is the purpose of this guide. Now, stress the word "guide." Please don't take every thing in here as word of god advice and refuse to not follow it or something stupid like that. Merely take the information, and with it figure out just what the hell you're supposed to be writing.
Also, I do not guarantee that this will necessarily ensure that you win, but I do think it will make the contest system a little more easy to work with.

That all said, let's get down to business.

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GENERAL GUIDELINES:

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o1.) First and foremost, know your judges. If you see "MANCY, SUSHI, AND KATTY" - you know you're going to get judged by Nathan, Yu, and Luke. All of these judges have specific likes, dislikes, and other such that can easily be gleamed from previous contests or their profiles.
This is the real first step. If you don't choose a Pokemon that a judge is compatible with, or a theme that a judge will take kindly to, your score can face depletion due to in-character bias.

o2.) On that note, have an idea of what you're going to do for your contest before or as you sign up. Don't sign up and then kill yourself because you unwittingly put yourself up with a tackling, growling, tail whipping, and biting Ratata and don't know how the fuck you're going to swing with it. Have a clue. Make a plan.

o3.) Be sure to know basic coordination rules (easily accessible from the Poke'Gear), and do look at your sign-ups for any changes. Don't use more than one Pokemon unless sign-ups say that three are required (or whatever); don't bring a music-based set into the Hall if the sign-ups say "STORYBOOK THEMED ONLY, PLEASE," - etc., etc. Do your research.

o4.) Check trends (will be completed when Mancy gets off her lazy ass).

o5.) Check the due dates, and be sure that you can post by that time. Don't sign up otherwise - it just creates more work for the judges in the long run. There are penalties for lateness.

o6.) ALWAYS reread and spell-check your posts. Judges don't like sloppy posts, and we do dock points.

o7.) Take pride in your work! Don't post something knowing that it sucks. Chances are that if you think it's terrible, our judges will too - and they have to dissect the damn things. NEVER look at your own contest post and say "this is shit." Showbiz doesn't take kindly to modesty. ;3

o8.) Contests are about the POKEMON, not the COORDINATOR THEMSELVES. Obviously, portions of a character's personality and how they deal with things should leak into the performances, and your characters can have a large role in the performances - but they should never outshine the Pokemon. There is a delicate balance. I'm sure you can work with it and find it.

SHOWING GUIDELINES:

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o1.) The Showing portion of the contest should really "set the stage" (so to speak) for the rest of the performance. Things from the showing portion should easily and logically connect to the Display portion. You don't, necessarily, have to do this - but it would be better for all sides involved if you just did.

o2.) The Showing portion is all about showing your Pokemon off in an aesthetic manner. In this round, you are not aiming to impress the judges with acrobatics, moves, dramatics, or anything like that. You are there to dress up your Pokemon and show it off to the Judges. They will NOT mark up or down based on stunts.

o3.) You SHOULD (not must, but SHOULD) follow a specific theme with your dress-up that is LOGICAL, CLEARLY DONE, and OBVIOUS. Don't throw on a bandanna and call it pirate themed, put effort into these things.
Showings without theme WILL be marked down.

o4.) Throw in some personal touches here and there, humor, personlization, IC thoughts - you name it, we love to see it!

DISPLAY GUIDELINES:

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o1.) I'm going to be brief here. You're not just here to show off your moves, you're here to give a show. Take whatever theme you might have made in the showing portion and just run with it. Tell a story, do a little dance, sing a little song - whatever. Just be creative! Honestly, there's a lot less specifics here than anywhere else. Be entertaining, be fun, have a theme, and make a show!