Mod Referees

[referees]

This is the mod information post for the Sports Anime Shipping Olympics.

Contact

E-mail: ANIME.ESPN@GMAIL.COM

• This is our preferred contact method. This method works for any questions or concerns you may have, no matter what they are.
• Usual response time of 24 hours or less. If the question is particularly convoluted it may take several days for the mod team to discuss, in which case we'll send you a reply saying it's taking longer.

Dreamwidth: Private Message

• The dreamwidth is where the event actually happens. We only post bonus rounds, main rounds, voting, etc. style posts here. It's not where we talk about the event.
• To track the DW, follow our DW RSS feed. You can use feedmyinbox to get RSS updates sent to your e-mail inbox.

Tumblr: Askbox

• The tumblr is our announcements blog, where the mods will post rules/event clarifications, announce when rounds are open/closed, explain mod rulings, etc. If the mods need to say something and it's longer than 140 characters, it's on the tumblr.
• To get updates easily, follow our tumblr RSS feed. You can use feedmyinbox to get RSS updates sent to your e-mail inbox.

Twitter: animeESPN

• We use twitter to give fast small updates, field questions, promote main round entries who have made it through voting, and also run little memes like #baitmesaso.
• Participant questions can be answered in under 60 seconds on the twitter, so it's great if you need an answer fast. You can DM or @ us. If it's a more complicated question, it may take longer for the mods to discuss it.

You can also leave a (signed-in or anonymous) comment on this post. Comments are screened/private. Anonymous comments will be unscreened so we can reply to them.

If you have a time-sensitive issue or need help immediately, please include the word "Urgent" in your subject; if you're not sure, include it just in case. Use "Urgent" also if you contacted us previously and received no reply.

Please give us 48 hours to respond, but after that time assume we didn't receive it and contact us again!

Mod Team

Kite

outstretched. ENFP; she/her; GMT -5. Over 15 years of experience running events of various shapes and sizes. I ship everything, especially ot3s, and have a catchers/setters/ace assists problem. Haikyuu, Chihayafuru, Ookiku Furikabutte, Eyeshield 21, Daiya no Ace, Free, Kuroko no Basuke, Yowamushi Pedal, Love Live, Hikaru no Go, Food Wars, Yuri on Ice, Keijo, and Ping Pong the Animation.

Indigo

hurristat. ENFP; they/them; GMT -5. Codermod! I've been running/managing fandom events and forums for roughly five or six years! But I've fallen deep into sports anime as of late. Daiya no Ace, Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke, Ookiku Furikabutte, Yowamushi Pedal, Ping Pong the Animation, Free!, Baby Steps (i know), Giant Killing

Icie

hqqt. INTJ; they/them; GMT +12. Codermod! Very into Haikyuu!! and increasingly into daiya, Chihayafuru is my one true love but I also greatly enjoy Love Live! and Baby Steps (shhh, the manga is solid). I will shove ladies in everyone's face. I was a mod here last year and had a blast so I'm looking forward to the same again!

Cap

capsoumako. INFJ; she/her; GMT -7. Graphics mod! Freestyle shipper and rare pair hunter, at your service. I'm into Free!, Ookiku Furikabutte, Haikyuu!!, Love Live!, Kuroko no Basuke, Prince of Stride, and Chihayafuru. I look forward to having a great event with all of you!

Whit

arranjar. she/her; GMT -4. Sports anime is my jam these days, namely Haikyuu!!, Daiya no Ace, Free!, Kuroko no Basuke, Yowamushi Pedal, and Love Live!, with many others on my list. Can be convinced to ship pretty much anything. Always up for talking about meta. I'm excited to help out!

Psiten

psiten. ENFP; they/them; GMT -5. Newbie to hanging out in fandom and modding, but puttering around anime since the dark days of VHS. In alpha order: Angelic Layer, Chihayafuru, Eyeshield 21, Free!, Haikyuu!!, HikaGo, TeniPuri, Princess Nine, YowaPeda. Also, even in sports anime, I can't escape CLAMP's gravitic pull.

K8

lemon. INTJ; she/her; GMT -5. Your resident spicy mod for this year. All Out!!, Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke, March Comes In Like A Lion, Oofuri and Yuri On Ice are my sports jams. I love rarepairs and AUs that can make me cry. Looking forward to working with everyone this year!

Seren

luckycricket33. ravenclaw; she/her; GMT -4; referee. Yowamushi Pedal, Daiya no A, and Prince of Tennis mainly but will also show up for Chihayafuru, Haikyuu, Oofuri, Ballroom e Youkoso, and others. I wrote my first fanfic ever for a SASO 2015 BR and hope you get to try something new this year too!

Bonus Round Valkyries

Our thanks to the people who help us check bonus rounds! Our current Valkyries are:

crescenttwins, multilinear, tacticalvisors, and yrindor

Code by bannertech.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm asking this question on behalf of several SASO participants who are quite confused about the rules. We hope that you can give us a satisfying explaination so that we can understand better.

In MR2, Team Miyuki Kazuya/Miyuki Kazuya submitted an absolutely beautiful and stunning entry but it is a mystery to us how submitting 5 comic pages with 4000 words of fic is not a rule violation.
Some people said they had problems in the past with even one comic page among their 5 allowed pictures in a fic and art combination with 4000 words limit. Plus, how can it be that doujin entries are only allowed 8 pages but when you combine 4000 words of writing and comics you're still allowed 5 pages. That sounds extremely unbalanced.

We know that Team Miyuki Kazuya/Miyuki Kazuya put a lot of effort into their entry and the result is amazing so we hope that us asking this question won't offend them in any way. We all appreciate and love what they made, we just want to understand better.

Some of us struggled a lot during MR1 because of the image/word cap and had to cut a lot of things that they wanted in their entry. We feel like posting 5 comic pages instead of just 5 drawings is a pretty big way around the limit. If you wanted to make this fair, then every panel (or at least every second panel) should count towards image limit.
The entry is impressive but we feel that a big part of that is because they were allowed to use more visuals by using the comic format.
If that is allowed, then please make it clearer next time since many people didn't know and they regret not doing the same thing in their own entries. It feels very unfair.

[referees]

Hello, we’re sorry that you and any other participants feel that we’ve handled entries unfairly, but we would like to point out that the entry you’re speaking about does fall within the main round limitations as set up in the rules and as clarified in the FAQ. Specifically, here are the relevant sections:

“You can combine media types. For example, an entry of 4,000 words and 5 images could have two cosplay photos, one photo of a sculpture, one static illustration, and one gif. However, each individual piece of media must conform to its specific limitations.”

“Comics (with or without words): 1 (min) to 8 (max) pages. There are no size limits or word limits. However, if you integrate a comic into a larger entry, it becomes beholden to the combination entry limits (see below). ...

• Words embedded in an image (for example, dialogue in a comic) count towards the word limit, and should appear in the script your team submits. If you mean for the audience to read those words, it counts towards your word limit and should be included in your script.”

We state here that the images in combination art/writing entries can be any kind of image, they just need to conform to their specific limitations. Comic pages have no limitations outside of page count— however, when included in a multimedia entry, the word count must be factored in. Team Miyuki Kazuya/Miyuki Kazuya’s entry follows these limitations: they do not go over the image count or the word count, as all the words in the comic pages are included in their script, and their script in its entirety is less than 4,000 words.

It should be noted that these main round limitations are different than those implemented during the 2015 SASO. However, they have been in effect for the entirety of the 2016 SASO, and have not been changed at any point throughout the event. We understand that the limitations can be frustrating to work with, but we’ve been adamant about making sure they’re applied equally to every team. We also believe that the limitations force participants to think creatively about how to convey their message within certain constraints, so it would run counter to our intent to penalize a team for working within the limits in an unconventional way.

The particular entry you’ve pointed out does follow the limitations, so we feel it has been created and judged fairly. If you feel there have been other instances of us judging entries unfairly, you are welcome to let us know. You are also free to leave any concerns or complaints about the main round limitations as feedback at the end of the 2016 SASO. We hope this answers your present concerns.