IWPS Rules & Slamoff Format for 2010

[admin]

Each regular (1st, 3rd & 5th Monday) slam between now and August 30 is a qualifying slam. The IWPS slamoff is on September 13.

Poets will be awarded a set number of points per slam,determined by where they finished in the top 5. They will amass these points cumulatively over the course of the qualifying season.

The point system for each night will look like this.

1st place - 16 points
2nd place - 9 points
3rd place - 4 points
4th place - 1 point
5th place - 0 points

The top ten point-getting poets from the qualifying season will be invited to participate in the slamoff. If they decline, we will go down the standings asking the next highest ranked poet to compete until we have 10 participants.

In the points system rankings, ties are broken first according to who had the higher finish, and second by points. So, for instance, if at the end of season Poet A had one second place finish, they would have 9 points, and if Poet B had two third place finishes and a fourth place finish, they would also have 9 points. Poet A would receive the higher ranking because Poet A finished higher in a slam than Poet B ever did. But if Poet A and B both had one second place finish, and both had 9 points, and they were tied for the final slot to go directly to playoffs, the tie would be broken by who had the higher score on their second place finish.

SLAMOFF FORMAT

On September 13, poets competing in the slamoff will need to be prepared to do 1, 2, 3 and 4 minute poems. In the first round, we will have 10 poets doing 1 minute poems. There will be two sacrificial poets doing 1 minute poems, who will help to warm up the room and mitigate the effect of having to go first. After this round, the poets with the two lowest scores will be dropped from the competition. UPDATE: THERE IS NO TEN SECOND GRACE PERIOD IN ANY OF THE ROUNDS.

In the second round, 8 poets will do 3 minute poems. After this round, the poets with the two lowest cumulative scores will be dropped from the competition.

Then there will be a break.

After the break, there will be a 4-minute sacrifice, and then 6 poets doing four minute poems. After this round, the two poets with the lowest cumulative scores will be dropped.

In the fourth round, 4 poets will be doing 2 minute poems. Whoever finishes the night with the highest cumulative score will represent Vancouver at IWPS in Philidelphia, October 13-16, 2010! UPDATE: IWPS HAS BEEN MOVED TO CHARLOTTE IN EARLY DECEMBER. see Lisa's message below.

Updated Standing and Scores for the Summer Qualifying Season can be found here:
http://vancouverpoetryhouse.com/forum/smf/index.php/topic,1141.0.html

[Lisa]

For those poets hoping to represent Vancouver at IWPS, take note!

IWPS will no longer be taking place in Philadelphia in October. Instead, IWPS will occur in Charlotte in early December.

Letter from Scott Woods below:

Dear PSi members,

We have had a change of venue for iWPS 2010.  Due to unavoidable circumstances we are unable to provide you with the level of quality you’ve come to associate with our events in Philadelphia with what time we have left on the calendar.  To ensure that the event continues to move forward and succeed we are moving iWPS 2010 to Charlotte, where we’ve had great success with iWPS in the past.  The host city team will largely consist of the same crew that gave us successful events before, and will be utilizing resources and venues we’re familiar with.

The date for iWPS will conversely be switched to early December dates.  We will have that information for you very soon.  Also, registration will likely open one week later than we planned, but still well before the end of August.

Those of you who have been around a while know that these things sometimes happen.  Sometimes we can’t get every resource lined up the way we’d like to ensure the kind of event we’ve been able to provide in recent years, and we waited as long as we could before making this decision.  We will continue to do everything we can to alleviate this type of change in the future.

We thank you for your patience and support, thank Sherod and Philly for their efforts to date, and look forward to seeing many of you at what will be an awesome event in Charlotte this December.

Scott Woods
President
Poetry Slam, Inc.