This contest will be run in two distinct parts: a seeding round and a bracket competition.

Initial Seeding Round
Each participant has submitted 8 songs for consideration. Anyone on FE can then listen to the given playlist and vote for their TOP 3 favorites. At the end of the designated time period (not more than two weeks), the songs will be ranked based upon the total number of votes received. If there is a tie for a position, a random draw will determine the order.

Bracket Competition
The top ranked songs from each participant will then be placed into a bracket with the ordering determined by their initial seeding. The brackets will be setup in such a way that songs from the same participants will not meet until the very end of the bracket. Each bracket round will feature two songs going head-to-head to determine which song will advance to the next round. Voting will again be open to anyone on FE that chooses to participate, and the designated time period will not be more than one week in duration. The head-to-head match-ups continue until only one song remains, at which point that song will be crowned "FE's Favorite Song" for this competition.

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For this edition of the competition, the identity of the person who chose the song will be known. This may change for future competitions.

Enjoy some new (to you) music, relax or rock out to some classics, and most importantly, have fun!

Rules for the Bracket Round

The remaining songs in each region will be listed in a single poll and provided in a single playlist. You will be asked to vote for your favorite song in each head to head matchup, for a total of 8 votes in the 1st Round. Please only vote for one song in each matchup!

Each round will be open for one week (Saturday through Friday), and the winners will advance to the next round. This process will continue until a winner is crowned.

Deadline for Round 1 voting: Friday October 16th at 8 pm CT
Deadline for Round 2 voting: Wednesday October 21st at 10 pm CT
Deadline for Round 3 voting: Saturday October 24th at 8 pm CT
Deadline for Regional Finals voting: Monday October 26th at 10 pm CT

In the event that any head-to-head matchup ends in a tie, the tiebreakers will be as follows:

1. The song that received the most votes in the seeding round will advance.
2. If still tied, then random.org will be used to select the winner.

Minor Update For Episode 2

In the Seeding Round, you will vote for your FIVE favorite songs.

Deadline for voting in the seeding round is one week from today -- Monday November 23rd around 10 pm CT.
Deadline for voting in the first round of the bracket is Saturday November 28th at 10 pm CT.
Deadline for voting in the second round of the bracket is Tuesday December 1st at 10 pm CT.
Deadline for voting in the third round of the bracket is Friday December 4th at 10 pm CT.
Deadline for voting in the fourth round of the bracket is Sunday December 6th at 10 pm CT.


In the event that any head-to-head matchup ends in a tie, the tiebreakers will be as follows:

1. The song that had the higher seed will advance (seeds #1-5 determined during seeding round)
2. The song that received the most votes in the immediate previous round will advance.
3. If still tied, then random.org will be used to select the winner.

Rules For Episode 3

For Episode 3, I am eliminating the seeding round. Thus, all songs make the initial 32-song bracket. All songs were randomly sorted into the bracket, which means a single person may have two songs going against each other as early as the first round. Because there is no seeding, I'm going to use a double-elimination bracket. This means, any song that loses any match-up, will have at least one more chance to advance.

Winner's Bracket match-ups will be ~48 hours in length*
Consolation Bracket match-ups will be ~24 hours in length*
*some modification may occur over the holidays

All songs were submitted anonymously, so please don't ruin the surprise by claiming your songs before the bracket ends.

The Blues bracket will open on Wednesday December 16th.
The Electronic/Dance bracket will (likely) open on Thursday December 17th.

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Episode 3 tie-breakers:
1. Winner's bracket songs win all ties against Consolation Bracket songs (will only be possible in the final match-up)
2. Total votes received in the previous round, continuing back rounds until a winner is determined
3. If still tied, random draw will select the winner

Episode #4 will operate very similarly to that of Episode #3. However, tie-breakers need to be slightly modified, due to the format.

Episode #4 tie-breakers:
1. Winner's bracket songs win all ties against Consolation Bracket songs (will only be possible in the final match-up)
2. The song that has received the highest average number of votes per match-up will advance.
3. If still tied, random draw will select the winner