Rules

These are the rules of the tournament, as they are found in the journal entry Rules.

• • • Rules for Everyone • • •
These are rules that everyone should read and follow!

• Please read all of the rules applicable to you before joining SMOCT. Failure to read and follow rules may lead to a denial of acceptance or expulsion from SMOCT. The SMOCT officials are not responsible for any time, effort, or competition lost due to not reading the rules.

• First and foremost: Be kind to each other. Constructive criticism is allowed, but intentionally malicious or hateful speech is not. If you have a conflict with another member, please see the section on Conflict Management below.

• SMOCT has three-strike policy in regards to malicious behavior. If the administration receives three (3) validated complaints about your behavior within a six month period, you will be removed from SMOCT permanently.

• The rules, regulations, and decisions made by the administration are not open for debate. We realize that this is a significant change for our older members, when the rules of SMOCT were not written down in full and thus were sometimes open to interpretation. If a rule is unclear and needs explanation, please do not hesitate to leave a comment on this page. Keep in mind that outside of what has already been outlined, there are very few exceptions to the rules; do not expect special treatment.

•Suggestions and user input are best left for the suggestions page. Suggestions and user input left on the rules page will be hidden, to keep the rules page on-topic.

• All skill levels and art styles are welcome here. We do not care if you're new to art or a seasoned pro, an anime artist or a cartoonist, you are welcome here with open arms. However...

• No tracing allowed. If you are caught tracing, you may be banned from SMOCT permanently. • A word on Out-of-Character Vs. In-Character:

• What you know, as a person, isn't always what your character knows. For example, you, as a person, may know that Character A is evil and shouldn't be trusted—but that doesn't mean that your character does. Unless your character has evidence to the contrary (for example, witnessing Character A tie Character B down to some railroad tracks, kicking a puppy, etc), they can't simply "know" something about a character unless they're a mind reader, which happens to be something we frown upon.

• Don't take In Character (IC) reactions personally. For example, if Character A hates your character, it doesn't necessarily mean that the owner of Character A does. This is especially important when it comes to Tournament battles—if your character gets beaten silly by another character, it doesn't mean that character's owner has it out for you.

• Please try to keep other people's characters in, well, character. If you're not sure how a character would react to a situation, it might be better to ask their owner than just guess. In addition, please don't make other characters look "bad" to make yours look "good" — that's classic Mary Sue behavior and nobody likes a Mary Sue.

•As a competition, we are constantly changing and evolving to better suit our competitors, spectators, and fans. Some rules may be subject to change mid-competition, but any and all changes to the rules will be announced in a timely manner via journal update.

• • • Rules for Conflict Management • • •
Why can't we all just get along? If you're having a problem with another member of SMOCT, follow these rules!

•If you have a problem with another member of SMOCT:

•Do not leave a comment/note to the person you are having issue with, or otherwise get yourself involved in the problem. Instead, please contact the administration by noting the group. This will keep the problem from escalating.

• In your note, please state the problem you are experiencing. If possible, please provide screen caps or links to the offending behavior.

• If is a behavioral problem (such as bullying or malicious behavior), an administrator will deal with the offending party.

• If it is a disagreement or argument, an administrator will serve as a impartial mediator between the two parties.

• If it is a rules issue, the administrator will inform them of the rule breaking via note.

• An administrator will be in contact with you as soon as possible. Please give up to 48 hours for conflict resolution, however, as all of the administrators have lives outside of DeviantArt.

• Please understand that the administration always has the final say in conflict management and thus once we have reached a decision it is no longer open for discussion.

• • • Rules for Competitors • • •
These are rules you need to follow if you plan to participate in the Tournament or the Tasks.

• By entering, you agree to all SMOCT rules and regulations.

• All auditions, round entries, and contest participation should be turned in on or before their due dates. Because we typically have several international entrants, we allow a 24 hour grace period. No more, no less. Any entries received after this time will not be considered, with no exceptions.

• All auditions, round entries, and contest participation must be posted to DeviantArt.com and to the group #SMOCT, or otherwise be accessible to the public, in its entirety by the time of judging otherwise your entry will be considered forfeited.

• If a circumstances arrives that you are physically unable to upload your entry to DeviantArt (traveling, severe illness, family emergency, etc) but it is completed, you may arrange to send your finished pages to a judge via email by the set deadline, so long as you can agree to publish your entry to DeviantArt by or before the end of the judging period. If by the end of the judging period you have failed to upload your comic, you will automatically forfeit.

• Please keep in mind that this is a public competition, with hundreds of viewers. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of your entry being viewed by the public, then this is not the competition for you.• If you need to contact the administration for any reason, please do so by noting the group, not the individual judges. This way, all administration has access to your communication, and can serve you faster and more efficiently. If you fail to do this, your note will be forwarded to the group anyway, and will only delay the turn-around time it takes to help you.

• If you need to contact the administration for any reason, please do so by noting the group, not the individual judges. This way, all administration has access to your communication, and can serve you faster and more efficiently. If you fail to do this, your note will be forwarded to the group anyway, and will only delay the turn-around time it takes to help you.

• If you plan to forfeit, bow out, or quit competing:

• You must note the group as soon as possible, as early as possible. If it is feasible (within the first three days of the new round), we will try to match your competitor with another opponent.

• In your note, please tell the judges why you are forfeiting—for example, family emergency, lack of time, etc. We worry about our competitors, especially when they just disappear on us.

• In addition, the reason why you quit may determine what activities you can participate in at a later date. (For example, someone who forfeits due to illness may be allowed to compete in side contests, but someone who leaves simply because they no longer feel like competing would not.)

• Please don't lie to the judges about your forfeiture. For example: If you say you can't participate because you've broken every bone in your drawing hand but you post drawings to your account on a near-daily basis after quitting, the legitimacy of your excuse may be called into question. We like to promote honesty here at SMOCT, so lying about why you quit the competition may result in a permanent ban. • By quitting, you will not be able to compete in the main SMOCT tournament until the following year. You will, however, be welcomed to continue in SMOCT as a spectator.

•You must provide a canonical reason why your character has quit the competition in the letter you write to the judges. (Example: She went back to her home planet, got sick, etc.) Failure to provide a reason in your resignation letter grants your opponent the right to come up with one for you. Neither the administration, nor your opponent, may be held responsible for out-of-character behavior committed by your character if you fail to provide a canonical reason upon noting the administration that you've decided to call it quits.

• If a replacement match cannot be made, your opponent will be encouraged to present a “pass” comic, which illustrates your character surrendering the match to them. This comic may be of any length, but the losing opponent must be kept in character if at all possible.

• Failure to provide a "pass comic" when your opponent has quit (and you have not been reassigned a new opponent) will result in your elimination from the tournament.

• If your opponent has quit and given us a canon reason why her character has forfeited, you must use it. Failure to use the reason will result in your elimination from the tournament, considering the already lenient requirements for pass comics. •After you have quit, your opponent may choose to finish a complete round featuring your character, but this is not mandatory. By quitting, you agree that any comic featuring your character by your opponent is gift-art and thus is not subject to critique by you. • Incomplete entries will still be considered by the judges, but with heavy penalty. Overall, we would prefer to see some effort than no effort.

• As a competitor, you are welcome to participate in any side contests or activities that you would like, so long as they do not interfere with your actual round entry. This includes gift art and additional spectator entries.

• • • Rules for Administrators • • •
Not even the administrators are above the law! All administrators must adhere to the following rules.

•All judges and administration must be professional in their interactions with members. Failure to behave professionally within the context of SMOCT will result in a probational demotion for one month. (For example, flaming a member as a judge will revoke your judging rights for that round.)

• Three occurrences in a six month period will result in your permanent ban from SMOCT, just as any other member would be.

• If a situation arises in which you cannot trust yourself to be professional, please remove yourself from it and alert another administrator to intervene in your place.

• Please conduct all SMOCT-related correspondence in the group’s note section, so that all administration can see and have access to it. This is to promote transparency.

• If you receive a note to your personal account related to official SMOCT business, please forward it to the group account and kindly remind the sender to note the group in the future.

• Administrator responsibilities include:

•Character References: If you have a character or characters you would like to use for SMOCT, the quality of your reference must be on par with that of our entrants. Incomplete sketches (rough pencil sketches, poor scan quality, no color, etc) and bios (incomplete profile, one-word answers) may be submitted if you must, but please keep in mind that such characters will not be used for any plot purposes until they are updated to acceptable quality. • Example of an acceptable administrator character reference: here.

•Communication!: If you're not going to be around for an extended period of time, please let the rest of the administrators know. Not only does this let us pick up your slack, but we're a team, we should care about each other! No senshi gets left behind!

•Judging: If you are responsible for judging a round, contest, or activity, we expect you to do so in a timely manner. Your judging should be received in its entirety no less than one week (7 days) after the deadline for the competition.

•If you know you will be unable to judge during this time frame, please let us know in advance (at least 7 days before the beginning of judging) in order to get a replacement judge lined up.

•Failure to submit your judging (without giving us prior notice of your absence as mentioned in the bullet point above) is not something to be taken lightly. Please keep in mind: •It means you give up your right to judge for that round, and you give us permission to post results without your input.

• After two occurrences in any given year of SMOCT, you will be permanently removed from position as judge and someone else will take your place, as it is clear you no longer have the time it takes to be a judge. You will not be able to resume your position until the following year. This change will be announced publicly.

•Personal Plots: The Administration Characters are here to let the contestants and spectators of SMOCT shine. In no way should contestants ever be expected or otherwise obligated to carry out plot lines that feature the administrative characters as the main focus. If you, as an administrator have a plot line that you would like to see done (for example, the wedding of administrator characters Sailor X to Tuxedo Y) - you must do it yourself in comic or story form.

•For any of our members reading, we still love fan art of our characters as much as the next person - we just promise, in SMOCT3, that you will never be forced to include our characters in order to win a round or competition.

•Work! It’s that simple. If you want to reap the rewards of being a SMOCT administrator (i.e. having an awesome year of SMOCT!), you’ve got to pull your weight around here. At the end of every month, there will be a “check in” notice passed among the administrators through notes. Tell the rest of the administrators what SMOCT-related tasks you did this month, and what you plan on doing for next month. This way, we keep SMOCT on-task, effective and free of dead weight.

• Be honest with yourself: If a couple months pass and you haven't contributed to SMOCT, perhaps it’s time to step down as moderator and follow SMOCT as a spectator. We understand that life gets busy, and people get burned out, so there’s no shame in this!