Twisted Tournament Rules & Guidelines

Competition Overview

Twisted Tournament is a peer-judged writing competition structured as a contest of skill where participants create original short stories across three rounds. Each round features unique prompts, themes, and tropes designed to challenge and showcase participants' creative writing abilities.

Tournament Structure

• Three Writing Rounds: Participants create one original story per round with different word counts. The usual structure is listed below but it can change contest to contest:
  • Round 1: 500 words
  • Round 2: 250 words
  • Round 3: 100 words
• Two Competing Groups: Participants are divided into two separate groups that compete independently.
• Peer Judging: Stories are evaluated by participants from the opposite group.
• Awards and Recognition: Prizes awarded based on writing quality and adherence to prompts.

Eligibility & Registration

Participant Requirements

• Open to writers 18 years of age or older.
• Valid email address and PayPal account (for award distribution) required.
• Registration and payment of entry fee must be completed before the contest deadline.
• By registering, participants acknowledge they are entering a skill-based competition.

Registration Process

• Complete the registration form on our website.
• Pay the entry fee (one-time payment for all three rounds).
• Receive confirmation email with contest details.
• Gain access to the contest forum and submission portal.

Participation Requirements

Writing Requirements

• Participants must complete all three writing rounds to be eligible for overall contest awards.
• Each submission must be original work created specifically for this contest.
• All submissions must adhere to provided prompts, themes, and word count limits.
• Submissions must be made within the designated timeframe for each round.
• All entries must be submitted anonymously - no identifying information in stories.

Judging Requirements

• Participants must complete the judging phase for each round they enter.
• Each participant will judge 5-7 stories from the opposite group.
• Judging must be conducted fairly, following provided evaluation criteria.
• Participants may provide optional constructive feedback to authors.
• Participants must complete judging within the designated timeframe.

Content Warnings and Judging Preferences

• Participants can set preferences for content they'd rather not judge in their profile settings.
• We will attempt to avoid matching you with stories that contain your specified content/trigger warnings.
• However, we cannot guarantee you won't encounter potentially objectionable content during judging.

Content Guidelines

Permitted Content

• Original fiction created by the participant.
• Content that adheres to provided genre, theme, and prompt requirements.
• Creative interpretation of prompts is encouraged.

Prohibited Content

• AI-generated content is strictly prohibited.
• Extreme violence or pornographic content.
• Plagiarized material from any source.
• Content containing hate speech or discrimination.
• Personal identifying information within stories.

Evaluation Criteria

Stories are evaluated based on the following skill-based criteria:

Judging Approach

As a peer-judged competition, we encourage judges to evaluate stories based on what they personally consider to be the most important aspects of good writing. There are no mandatory scoring categories - judges should use their own literary sensibilities and preferences when evaluating submissions.

Example Evaluation Considerations

While judges are free to use their own criteria, here are some aspects that may be considered:

• Prompt Adherence: How well the story incorporates the required prompt, theme, and any special elements.
• Technical Writing: Grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and overall writing mechanics.
• Storytelling: Plot development, character depth, and narrative structure.
• Creativity: Originality of concept, unique approach to the prompt.
• Impact: Emotional resonance, memorability, and overall reading experience.

Special Recognition

In addition to overall rankings, judges may award special recognition in categories such as:

• Most Creative Use of Prompt
• Best Character Development
• Most Emotional Impact
• Most Unique Perspective

Awards & Recognition

Award Structure

• Round Awards: Participants can earn awards for outstanding submissions in each individual round.
• Overall Tournament Awards: Awards for cumulative performance across all three rounds.
• Special Recognition: Additional recognition for exceptional qualities in specific categories.

Award Distribution

• Awards will be distributed via PayPal to the account associated with registration.
• All awards are skill-based recognitions for writing excellence.
• Recipients are responsible for any applicable taxes on awards received.
• Award amounts are as specified in the tournament announcements.

Rights and Usage

Intellectual Property

• Participants retain all rights to their submitted work.
• Participants grant Twisted Tournament permission to share work with contest judges for evaluation purposes.
• Publication on our site or promotional materials is optional and requires separate permission.
• Participants may publish their work elsewhere at any time after the judging phase is finished.

Success Stories

We celebrate when our participants achieve publication success with their tournament entries. Multiple stories from our tournaments have been published in literary magazines, further validating the skill-based nature of our competition.

Terms and Conditions

Payment Agreement

By submitting payment and registering for this contest, participants acknowledge and agree that:

• This is a skill-based competition where outcomes are determined by participant ability and effort, not by chance or luck.
• Payment covers contest entry and participation rights.
• Success depends on writing skills and ability to meet contest requirements.
• Results are determined through peer evaluation of written submissions.
• No refunds will be provided after the contest begins.

Disqualification

Twisted Tournament reserves the right to disqualify participants for:

• Failure to complete all contest requirements.
• Submission of prohibited content.
• Submission of non-original work.
• Use of AI-generated content.
• Attempts to manipulate the judging process.

Forum Rules

Improve the Discussion

• Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the conversation in some way, however small.
• If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.
• The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too.
• Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

• You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That's fine. But, remember to criticize ideas, not people.
• Please avoid:
  • Name calling
  • Ad hominem attacks
  • Responding to a post's tone instead of its actual content
  • Knee-jerk contradiction
• Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

• The conversations we have here set the tone for everyone. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be.

Be Respectful

• Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness. Please ensure that:
  • Be civil. Don't post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
  • Keep it clean. Don't post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
  • Respect each other. Don't harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
• It is vital that you respect other members of the forum. You must be professional at all times.
• Please ensure that any disagreements are explained clearly, not targeting other members in a negative way.
• These forums are an open space for all users to have a fair discussion around the topics listed.

General Conduct

• Treat all members with respect and kindness. No hate speech, harassment, or personal attacks.
• Constructive criticism is encouraged, but be courteous and helpful in your feedback.
• Do not spam in the forum. Spam is constituted as posting numerous posts of the same kind or aiming to disrupt the forums. Spam also constitutes commenting on posts with no relevance to the post.
• Do not argue with judges or moderators publicly—address any issues through private messages.

Moderation Policy

Moderator Rights

• Moderators reserve the right to remove or edit posts that violate these rules.
• Repeat offenders may be warned, temporarily banned, or permanently removed from the forum.
• If a discussion becomes too personal or heated, moderators may step in to de-escalate.
• Ganging up on or excessively criticizing a single contestant is strictly prohibited. Healthy discussion and feedback are welcome, but excessive negative comments or repeated attacks on a contestant will not be tolerated.
• Moderators and administrators reserve the right to temporarily mute or permanently ban users for behavior that is deemed detrimental to the forum or community, even if not explicitly covered by these rules.
• The determination of what constitutes "bad behavior" is at the discretion of the moderation team, with the primary goal of maintaining a positive, respectful, and productive community environment.