BlogChamps Season 6 Format & Rules

BlogChamps Season 6 will start May 1st with the Qualifiers, which will last for 2 weeks. After the Qualifiers, there will be a knockout tournament of 16. Whoever wins this knockout tournament will be crowned the winner of BlogChamps Season 6.

THE QUALIFIERS

The Qualifiers will begin on May 1st and will last for two weeks. This is a two-part qualifier, like seasons 1 and 2. We will be sending through the top 8 bloggers for the first week based on our rankings and scores. Those 8 bloggers will be the top 8 seeds in the knockout tournament. But after that, in the 2nd week of qualifiers, everyone who failed to make the top 8 will have another chance to qualify by finishing in the top 8 of all remaining bloggers. Those 8 will join the knockouts ranked 9-16. We are removing the third week to expedite the qualifiers a bit and make it easier for our judges, but now you will have only two chances to qualify. If you make it, you advance. If not, then season 6 will come to an end for you.

Qualifier rankings will be determined by the judges' scores given to each submitted blog on a scale of 1-10. Every judge will provide a score to a particular submitted blog on a scale of 1-10, and then we will be averaging out the scores, and then rank the bloggers in the competition. 

At the end of The Qualifiers, we will select a participant who did not advance to be a substitute for anyone who potentially withdraws in round 1 of the knockouts. At the end of round 1, the highest-seeded player who was eliminated will be a substitute for round 2 if someone withdraws. Then the highest-seeded player who was eliminated in round 2 will be a substitute in round 3. We will do this for each round, so nobody should get a free win.

THE KNOCKOUT TOURNAMENT

Ok, so we're going to bring back the og format for the knockouts from the first two seasons. There will be 16 participants in the knockouts rather. We will be having a 1v1 format for the knockouts. As previously mentioned, the top 8 rankers from the first-week qualifiers will be the #1 to #8 seeds for the knockouts, and the top 8 from the second-week qualifiers will be #9 to #16 seeds for the knockouts. All these 16 potential bloggers will be divided into 8 groups of 2 bloggers each. This is how it will work- In Group A, the #1 seed will be paired up against the #16 seed, in Group B, the #2 seed will be paired up against the #15 seed, in Group C, the #3 seed will be paired up against the #14 seed, and so on. The groups will be named A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. 

For the Round 2 knockouts, 8 people out of 16 will advance, the winners of Groups A and B will face each other, winners of Groups C and D will face each other, winners of Groups E and F will face each other, and winner of groups G and H will face each other. 

For Round 3 knockouts, 4 bloggers will advance. The winner of Group A vs Group B from Round 2 will face the winner of Group C vs Group D from Round 2. For our next matchup, the winner of Group E vs Group F from Round 2 will face the winner of Group G vs Group H from Round 2.

In the end, we will have the championship. Two of the best bloggers of season 6 will face each other which will determine the season 6 BlogChampion.

A full bracket will come soon...

Only one can be crowned Season 6 BlogChampion. The winner will be recommended to become a Top Blogger and will be offered a spot to join Season 7 as a judge, as well as getting a spot in the BlogChamps Hall Of Fame.

BASIC RULES & GUIDELINES

• All blogs submitted in this competition must be new blogs. You may not submit an old blog. The blogs you choose to submit must be published after the submission forum is posted.  You may not copy an old blog in a new post and submit that. And you may not steal other people's blogs. If you want to show you have what it takes to be a Top Blogger, you've got to show us you have what it takes. You can start by writing your own, brand-new blogs for this competition. All blog submissions must be posted on time, before the end of the week. You'll have 6 days to submit your blogs each week - the 7th day is for the bloggers to judge.

• You must respect the judges and your competitors. Show good sportsmanship. Do not argue with the judges when they make decisions during the competition. Win gracefully, lose gracefully. And be kind and helpful to others. In addition to the competition, many are here to learn.

• If you would like feedback from @alphaous (or other judges) on any blog you submit, just send him a message and he will give you his honest thoughts and opinions on your blog and tell you how to make it better. Just know that, if you ask for feedback, he will be completely honest with you, good and bad, so be ready for that.

• As previously mentioned, the winner will be officially recommended to chess.com to be an official Top Blogger. Now, we cannot guarantee that they will let you become a Top Blogger of course. It will give you a pretty good chance at least, and it will put you on their radar. They'll have their eye on you at least, but we cannot promise you anything. If you do win this competition, I assure you you are fully worthy of being a Top Blogger and will be one in due time regardless.

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In addition to all that, we'll hopefully be continuing our own BlogChamps Awards (which will be further expanded on in a future forum), and I (@alphaous) will write power rankings each week.

Alright, that's it. That's all I've got for you. If you have any questions, please let me know so I can try to help you out. Make sure to register, if you haven't done so already. Thank you for your interest and support in BlogChamps. Let's hope our season 6 goes well! Good luck!