The Breakdown (Rules, Timetable, and Official "Topic" Announcement Thread)
Alright. After some working, some reworking, and then a bit more reworking, here’s the breakdown of how this is going to go.
As soon as I implied that this may carry into early September, my PM box filled up. Literally. Again.
It would seem as though there are lots of folks, Rookies and Pros, who will unfortunately be confronted with some issues should this continue past August.
What that means is that this just got a little more interesting. I had initially planned to only have two eliminations after each round, with no elimination after the first one, so as to give everyone time to get acclimated to what we’re doing, here.
It doesn’t look that that’ll be possible now, though, as to do so, even if I bumped up the eliminations to three per round, would still take us dangerously close to the dawn of the 9th month. So here’s the new deal. Trust me, it ain’t exactly FDR worthy, and some of you aren’t going to like it. It is what it is, though.
The first round will start tomorrow, and new rounds will begin every Saturday from henceforth. I figured Friday would be a good choice for this round, as we Yanks have the 4th of July weekend and stuff, and an extra day to kick things off wouldn’t hurt anyone. The new Pros Polls will be compiled and posted on Sundays.
Sunday will also be elimination day, with the first coming next Sunday, July 11th. Yeah, that’s right, we’ll be thinning the herd from the onset. By three.
After every Pros Poll is posted, the guys in the last three positions will be eliminated. That will make this move a bit faster than I had wanted or anticipated, but well, that’s just the way it’s got to be if we want to keep everyone around for the duration and not have it stretch into October because of me having to scramble to cover for all the folks who will be disappearing when August does.
Here’s a more technical breakdown, for those who like that sort of thing.
July 2nd - First Round officially begins
July 9th - First Round ends
July 10th - Second Round begins
July 11th - First Pros Poll and three eliminations
July 16th - Second Round ends
July 17th - Third Round begins
July 18th - Second Pros Poll and three more eliminations
July 23rd - Third Round ends
July 24th - Fourth Round begins
July 25th - Third Pros Poll and, again, three more eliminations
July 30th - Fourth Round ends
July 31st - Fifth Round begins
August 1st - Fourth Pros Poll and still three more eliminations
August 6th - Fifth Round ends
August 7th - Sixth Round begins
August 8th - Fifth Pros Poll and three more eliminations
August 13th - Sixth Round ends
August 14th - Seventh, and Final, Round begins
August 15th - Sixth Pros Poll and three more eliminations, bringing us to our final three competitors. Also SummerSlam Day.
August 20th - Final Round ends
August 21st - Final Pros Poll posted, and our winner determined
And that’s that, as blatant and easy to follow as I can lay it out, there. It’s going to go fast, and it’s going to be rough from the onset. Some of you will have to scramble to keep up. Give it everything you’ve got, guys. NOBODY is out of this at this point.
As to the rules, there are none, really. I designed this contest specifically, in part, to foster a relationship between the main page and CF writers, something that many have said has been lacking for quite some time. I also wanted to give the Pros a reason to look back, a reason to remember where they came from, and how hungry , and talented, the CF is.
This is the Pros’ show. If they want you to write a column in all yellow font using text message speak about the impact of Blitzkrieg on the WCW Cruiserweight Division, well, that’s what you’re going to write. Every Pro is unique, and every Pro will hand out different challenges and obstacles for their Rookie to overcome, as opposed to just one challenge that results in everyone writing , for all intents, the same damn column. That’s part of what will make this unique and, hopefully, exciting.
There will, however, be weekly “topics” handed out, and a few challenges along the way. The reason topic is in quotes, there, is because they are going to be the loosest topics you’ve ever seen. For instance, instead of telling everyone to write about who they think the greatest tag team of all time is, I would instead simply put forth the topic of tag teams. Anything you want to write about tag teams, even if it’s the dudes from Whoomp! There It Is!
This contest is about fostering creativity and talent, not seeing how each guy can approach the exact same shit. With your Pros to guide you, this should give each and every Rookie the opportunity to really show what they can do, with minimal limitations. From me and the NXT Staff, at least.
So, we all clear, here? I hope so. I also hope this timetable is good with everyone. If there are any issues or questions raised by this, don’t hesitate to bring them up.
One final thing. This thread will be the place in which I announce the weekly “topic”. Seeing as how we’re working on a shortened time frame and stuff, I’ll go ahead and make the official Round One topic announcement now. You can start posting your columns tomorrow, and will have until midnight (Central Time) next Friday to get it posted.
Also, all columns are to be posted in the CF proper, not this subforum. One of the goals of this was to hype the CF, get traffic and views and stuff up. That would be hard to accomplish if virtually every writer here is hiding their work away in a subforum. Just tack an (NXT) to the title so everyone knows what to look for.
Your topic for Round One will be:
The 1990s
You don’t have to compile a history of the decade. Unless you want to, or are told to by your Pro. It’s a wide open topic, folks. Just write about something, anything, from the 1990s. Be creative. Work this shit. Impress somebody, dammit.
Best of luck to you all. And thank you, so much, for participating in this. I seriously doubt that you guys could have any concept of what, exactly, this all means to me.
