INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the official PXFIRE Season 2 Information and Rules Thread! This should answer most of your questions, but if you have any or just want to chat about the event, you can do that right here at [PXFIRE] Season 2: Chat, Notices, and Q&A!

If you're new to PXFIRE, no worries if you weren't around for Season 1 because everything that's happening here is fresh and brand new. Everything here's a new experience to try!

WHAT IS PXFIRE?

In a nutshell, PXFIRE is a team-based competition where players create and join teams to compete in various sections like art, writing, battling, and so on. More detail on these later! Winning and performing well in these areas will earn you and your team points, and the team with the most points at the event's conclusion is the winner! Last year, The Gracidea Order won and had a whole forum skin made to reflect the team's Shaymin theme! Maybe your team will get to enjoy that kind of honor as well! Other fun bits include tokens, great fun, prestige, and of course the glory! ;)

If you like that idea (who wouldn't!?), then step on in and join us! We've love to have you!

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

Joining in on PXFIRE is easy. You just need to be a member of a PXFIRE team, and that can be done by creating one or joining one! Once you are on a team, you can compete in any section you like! Do your best, help your team win lots of points, and be a great team player! To identify what teams are participating in PXFIRE, all you need to look for is the [PXFIRE] prefix in the thread title. Each team is different and will have their own themes, layout, setup, entry form, and so on, so check them all out and see which one you like best, or just create your own and build it from the ground up!

PXFIRE TEAM RULES

Just a few simple rules on how PXFIRE Teams are created and how they work!

To register your team, you will need to follow these:

  • The team needs to comply with all PXR rules. Easy money. So nothing that would offend anyone or have anything vulgar.
  • There is no minimum member requirement. You can register to be a part of PXFIRE as soon as your team is created!
  • Your team can be about anything, but it should have a theme and have goals. It can be good, neutral, or evil, such as Team Rocket striving for world domination, Team Aqua trying to flood the world, a team of Pokémon Rangers trying to help and protect Pokémon, and so on. Just note that in the Role Play section, your team will materialize to be a part of the storyline, along with whatever themes, goals, and traits your team has! These are just things to consider while you craft and come up with ideas for your team.


When you're ready to register your team, you can do it right here at [PXFIRE] Season 2: Team Applications!

And some more nitty-gritty team components that may or may not apply to your PXFIRE Team:

  • Teams are in charge of their own recruitment practices and standards. Unlike last PXFIRE, there aren't any drafts going on. Members are free to choose which team they'd like to be a part of, so it's up to you as a Team Leader to decide how much or how little recruitment and team promotion you want to do! In past team-based events, teams have created graphics, icons, and have enhanced their team threads to draw in more of a crowd! If you want to strive for a high number of members to help you win, you may want to consider doing that to appeal to more people! Also, there's no limit on how many members your team can recruit, so get the word out across PXR and beyond! But if you'd rather keep your team small and stick by either yourself or a close-knit group of friends to see how well your squad can do, that's acceptable too!
  • Teams can be created at any time. Late to the party? No problem! You can totally create a new team even while PXFIRE is up and already running! You may be at a point disadvantage compared to teams that have been active since the event's start, but if that's not a problem with you, it's not a problem with us!
  • Teams can decide if and how they want to accept new members. You can allow your team to be open to everyone and anyone, or you can keep it to yourself or a close-knit group of friends who want to see how well they do as a small group of buddies. You can also accept and reject member applications, as long as it's within reason (rejecting because of a poor sign up or because you want to keep your team small is understandable, but rejecting someone just to tease and troll them isn't cool).
  • Team Leaders can organize co-leaders and member rankings however they wish. Some teams may want have co-leaders or "elite" members based on how they organize the team. It's up to you as a Team Leader to decide if and how you'd like to do this. If you wish, you can also change team leadership over to another member.
  • Any points won belong to the team. Team members win points for the team, so if they happen to leave the team later on to join another, they don't take their points with them.
  • Teams can merge, provided there will be at least three teams on the field after the merge is complete. Much like forming an alliance or joint operation, teams can merge during the course of PXFIRE and points both teams have won will be combined. How the merge resolves in terms of what the new merged team's identity will be is up to those involved.


For members joining teams:

  • You can only join one team at a time. I figure you'd be aware of this, but it never hurts to make sure!
  • You can switch teams at any time. If you feel things don't feel right with your current team and you're just not comfortable, you are free to switch teams, but any points you earned for your team stay with them. Note that if you hop from team to team too often, that might cause Team Leaders to have doubts about you and that would be a justifiable reason not to accept your applications. Consider your choices carefully!


PXFIRE SEASON 2 SCORING AND JUDGES

PXFIRE has a six week duration. These six weeks are broken down into a week by week basis, meaning that for most of the sections, there will be a new challenge and new theme to follow each week, and scoring is also performed on a weekly basis.

Every section will have a Judge, and this Judge will set the rules for the PXFIRE section they are the Judge for. If applicable, they will also set the themes, the nature of each week's challenge, and any fun extras. For each week, the Judge will have 100 points to distribute among all entries.

If you want to be a Judge, you need to sign up for it in [PXFIRE] Season 2: Judge Applications, though once a Judge has been selected, they're the Judge for the remainder of the event.

As some of the notes and rules for Judges:

  • You can distribute the 100 points however you choose among the entries, with the best entries receiving the bigger share of points. However, each entry must receive at least 1 point, but beyond that, it's up to you to decide how it goes!
  • Each Judge will need to write their own rules for their section and provide a standard and basis for how they're judging entries and performance. This is so contestants know how to target the Judge's expectations and submit the best qualities entries and performance they can.
  • Judges need to provide feedback for each entry. This in turn will also rationalize your reasons for awarding the quantity of points that you did. Was the entry great and that's why you gave it the largest share of points? Let them know what they did right! But if the entry or performance was lacking, tips and pointers toward what could have helped make the entry better helps contestants improve for the future.
  • Judges can't compete in their own section for points. While someone like the Role Play Judge can participate in their own RP or someone like the Showdown Judge participate in casual battles with contestants, they can't do it for points.
  • You don't have to be on a PXFIRE team to be a Judge. Just want to be a Judge for fun and not really get involved with the team competitions? That's totally fine and we appreciate your hard work either way!
  • Judges earn 20 points each week for their team, provided they submit judging results on time. We understand that you're working hard to run the section and to make it fun. And we also understand that being a Judge for your section means you can't participate in it for points. This is our way of thanking you for your services!


PXFIRE SEASON 2 SECTIONS



PXFIRE Season II: Role Play (Judge: Shruikan) (Active Weeks: 4-6)
In the PXFIRE Role Play, teams and their members come into the action as their teams, goals, themes, and the characters they create now materialize into the story created by the Role Play Judge. Here, teams work together with their characters to plot, fight, and strategize against their rival teams in the battle to achieve their goals. There's no telling what kinds of conflicts, mysteries, and ingenuity will take place, and where and how things will go.

PXFIRE Season II: Creative Writing (Judge: LKWayvern) (Active Weeks: 1-3)
For those who have a knack for weaving words into fine poetry, novellas, and other forms of literary pieces, this section is for you! Each week is a new writing adventure devised by the Creative Writing Judge. See what's in store and let your imagination and writing skills take you there! These writing challenges may or may not be Pokémon-related.

PXFIRE Season II: Humor (Judge: Neo Emolga) (Active Weeks: 1-3)
Have a talent for making people laugh? In the Humor section, contestants use their wittiest, silliest, and most comically creative skills to make the funniest entries they can submit according to what the Judge's theme for the week is. Whether you're participating or not, you can always drop on in for what's bound to be a great chuckle-inducing competition.

PXFIRE Season II: Caption Contest (Judge: EmeraldSky) (Active Weeks: 1-6)
In the PXFIRE Season 2 Caption Contest, you'll be presented with a series of anime screenshots, and it's up to you to come up with the funniest and wittiest caption you can for them!

PXFIRE Season II: Drawn Art (Judge: Pokemon Trainer Sarah) (Active Weeks: 4-6)
PXFIRE Drawn Art is the art arena for those skilled with creating freehand drawings and character-created images where special program-created rendering, filters, or other special effects are excluded. Images may be drawn on paper and then scanned, or drawn using a computer program, as long as it is clear no special effects, filters, or renders were used in the creation of the final art.

PXFIRE Season II: Graphic Art (Judge: Chakramaster) (Active Weeks: 4-6)
PXFIRE Graphic Art is the area for computer program-created art like Photoshop, Gimp, Paint Shop Pro, or other similar program. Here, you're allowed to go all out with your art submissions! Just as long as you're not plagiarizing someone else's creation.

PXFIRE Season II: Pixel Art (Judge: K'sariya) (Active Weeks: 4-6)
Like working with pixels and making 32-bit character images? This is all you, then! PXFIRE Sprite Art is the competition for making pixel-based art and images like the sprites used in video games and so on.

PXFIRE Season II: Comics (Judge: Nekomata) (Active Weeks: 1-3)
Here's a chance for you to blend great story-telling and artwork, and that's what the PXFIRE Comics section is for! Whether you're inspired by Marvel and DC comics or by a favorite manga, you can craft your own comic creations in here in that style that's uniquely yours!

PXFIRE Season II: Showdown (Judge: Bulbasaur) (Active Weeks: 1-3)
Using Pokémon Showdown, a Pokémon battle simulator, here is where you can build your team of competitive battle Pokémon to take on members of other teams in epic and climatic matches!

DURATION AND SUBMISSION PERIODS

PXFIRE Season 2 will last six weeks. Note that some sections are active during some weeks and not others. Like the summer Olympics, which has swimming and diving events during some weeks and track and field events during others, PXFIRE follows a similar pattern where some sections will be around and then will rotate in and out with others. This is to encourage more participation in sections and to challenge everyone to give those a try when ordinarily they would have passed up on it!

Sections are judged and moderated on a week-by-week basis, which means you have six weeks to win as many points for your team as you can! So if you didn't do well Week 1, you've got lots of additional chances! And hey, section rotation gives you great opportunities to use that extra time to try events and sections that you might not have had the chance to participate in before due to time crunches!

The weekly deadline for submitting entries or completing performance for events is:

SUNDAY 2pm PDT (Los Angeles)
SUNDAY 5pm EDT (New York)
SUNDAY 10pm BST (London)
MONDAY 7am AEST (Melbourne)

The weekly deadline for judging is the following Wednesday/Thursday (Same time and time zone as above). Judges, if you want those 20 reward points, you need to keep this in mind!

With all that said, good luck! Cheers and good times to all!