Best OST Contest 4

[BOST] Best Official Soundtrack Contest 4 - Nominations

After much deliberation, and despite starting considerably further into the calendar, Best Official Soundtrack Contest will be taking place. Starting today, Saturday Jan 24, and continuing until Friday Jan 30, nominations will be accepted for the best soundtracks of all video games.

If you miss a day because you didn't find this topic on Satuday, don't worry! I'm letting you make up for lost time this year. Number of nominations is still limited to one-per-day-so-far in order to encourage diversity and maintain interest throughout the nomination period.

Support votes will extend beyond the close of nominations. I'll probably give you through the following Monday. As with all things, I reserve the right to change my mind.

Important links: THE SPREADSHEET - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoS8GGHS9FDGdFR4Vi1KNUdxVGs1T2x4T28xVXdyV0E#gid=0 The spreadsheet contains all of the existing nominations, and all support votes as tallied so far. It's a lot of work to keep track of, so it may lag behind a little, but it should make it easier to see everything nominated.

Previous year's spreadsheets for reference: Year 1 - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoS8GGHS9FDGdFprRGpQa3ZtRGcwTTM5VTQ2SWViUGc&usp=drive_web#gid=0 Year 2 - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19KmZ_2B9FaOcWuZBMlfLNl3gGM8rBSDCgoCaKPIeOSs/edit#gid=0 Year 3 - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoS8GGHS9FDGdC1VSUJVTGthTS01R0QtQmpWSWR6QWc&usp=drive_web#gid=0

Previous winners are Ar Tonelico II (over Guilty Gear XX), Shatter (over Ace Combat: Assault Horizon) and Atelier Ayesha (over Dynasty Warriors 7).

That should about cover it, so now for the big long boring list of rules...

Nomination Phase

1. During the days that nominating is open, users will be welcome to submit nominations. Please check the list of current nominations to not accidentally duplicate an existing nomination. (Exception for alternate setlists, see below.) Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoS8GGHS9FDGdFR4Vi1KNUdxVGs1T2x4T28xVXdyV0E#gid=0 2. When a nomination is given, the user must also provide six songs. All songs must include a link to the song. I strongly prefer YouTube. See example below. 3. All songs must be original to *that* video game. Remixes are acceptable. Mere arrangements are not. Licensed material that is effectively original to the game or that should be an obvious exception will be accepted. (Examples: Braid's soundtrack, Mass Effect's M4 Part 2, Professor Layton's theme used in a sequel.) The music must be findable from the game somehow, even if it’s not heard during a normal playthrough. 4. Game choices will be limited to one game, not a series. Expansions and official add-ons count as part of the base game. If a game is episodic, (Umineko, .hack,) the episodes will count as one game. "Not a game" games that are frequently accepted on Board 8 like Homestuck and visual novels will be accepted. 5. Any version of a game may be nominated. If the SNES port of a game is superior to the Arcade edition, or if a remake offers superior renditions of old 8-bit music, you do not have to go with the original version of the game. Please specify in your nomination if it is not the original. You may not mix and match. All songs must be from the same version. All nominations for the same game still count as the same entity for support vote and bracketing purposes. 6. The following games are “retired” due to past success and may not be nominated: Ar Tonelico II - Melody of Metafalica, Shatter, Atelier Ayesha 7. Users are limited to one nomination per day. NEW THIS YEAR: if you miss a day, you may still post the nomination for it on a later day. Thus, you could post seven nominations on the last day of nominations, however, you may not have (for example) more than three nominations on the third day. 8. There are no requests this year to avoid games you have previously nominated. 9. Nominators may change their setlist up until the point that games are chosen for the bracket.

Alternate setlists:

If a setlist for a game is not up to your standards, it is your responsibility to talk to the nominator and try to work with them to get it changed. If for some reason this proves not possible, you may re-nominate the game with a second alternate setlist.
 * Alternate setlists will not be accepted on the day the game was originally nominated. Please talk to the nominator first.
 * Alternate setlists will count as your nomination for the day.
 * When an alternate setlist is proposed, all existing support votes will count for both lists. In this specific instance, retracting support votes will be allowed.
 * All future support votes for the game will count toward both unless they specify one list or the other.
 * The setlist with more support votes will preclude the other(s). In the event of a tie, the original (or oldest) list will prevail.

''TLDR version: Pick a game. Pick six songs you want it to feature during the tournament. Give an extra song as an alternate. Give YouTube links.''

Sample nomination: 

''Nominate: Street Fighter II (SNES, Turbo edition) 1. Guile - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8gIvHhloNg 2. Ken - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFYK8sL5BHI 3. Vega - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQwoKgM-mso 4. Balrog - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5vkbe17Fwk 5. Chun Li - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFXDYBvdVJY 6. Blanka - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mbPzv42k4c Alt. Staff Roll - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdU6nWATKaw''

I heavily encourage nominators to put your best song first for people who are listening through the nominations.

Voting and Selection Phase

Beginning during the nominating period and extending for several days afterwards, users will be given the option to “support vote” (SV) the nominations. Games with the most SVs will be placed in the bracket, and possibly given preferential placement.

To support vote, simply make a post stating that you support a game. You may support as many games as you like, and you are encouraged to support more than one game at a time. Keep the actual voting portion of your post simple and direct.


 * You may not retract support votes. This is petty and creates unnecessary work. Exceptions will be made for radically revised setlists.
 * Conditional votes ("I'll vote if the nominator does XXX") will not be tracked.
 * Support votes by the nominators will not be counted. It’s assumed you support your own nominations.
 * At the conclusion of support voting, the games will be ranked first by number of support votes, and then by the order they were nominated. The top 64 games will be entered into the bracket, and seeded accordingly.

Please try to give all the games a fair chance, and not just the ones you've heard of!

Sample support vote post: 

''Support: Chrono Cross Chrono Trigger Umineko VVVVVV Mega Man 2 Crazy Bus''

Main Tournament Phase

Upon announcement of the bracket, several days will be given for users to make bracket predictions. Following this, the tournament will begin.

1. The order of the songs on the playlist for each game will be randomized at the start of the tournament. 2. Two matches will run per day, for a period of 24 hours. Once the first round of the winner's bracket (WB) has finished, the second match each day will be from the loser's bracket (LB), until the WB finishes and both matches come from the LB. 3. During each match, voters will be asked to choose between the songs representing the games in the matches. Song 1 on each setlist (as determined post-randomization) will be used in the first round, song 2 in the second, etc. Voters MUST vote on the songs and not on other criteria. 4. The game represented by the song with more votes advances. In the event of a tie, a rematch will take place using the “alternate” from each game’s setlist. Further tiebreakers will be decided based on the situation. 5. Games that lose will be placed in the loser’s bracket. At the conclusion of the first round of the main tournament, one match from each day will be a pairing from the LB. Loser’s Bracket matches will (generally) use the first tier of songs that both games have not yet played in a match. 6. In the LB, each game will receive a number of byes equal to the number of rounds they won in the WB. Additionally, the WB final four will receive an extra bye. The songs played in the rounds of the loser's bracket will be numbers 2-3-4-5-1-6-5-6. 7. The finals of the tournament will be a best of three format, using either all three odd-numbered songs or all three even-numbered songs. The alternate will replace any song pairing that represents a rematch. If the LB champion wins the first set, the other grouping will be used for the follow-up. The LB champion must win both since the WB champion must lose twice to be eliminated.