The purpose of the tournament is to have a series of "death matches" between fictional characters from any media. Any author can participate by nominating competitors or writing stories which will determine the winner of a particular match. The rules are designed to make it as easy as possible to write a story for the tournament, and to "standardize" each match.

Several different "division" tournaments will be run, depending on the genre that the competing characters are drawn from. The seven categories that I have thought of so far are: Fantasy/Medieval; Old West/Frontier; Modern-Day; Vehicle Combat; Super-Heroes; Science Fiction; Starship Combat.

Authors can nominate competitor for any of the divisions by posting in the appropriate forum thread. Authors will post to the forum with characters they would like to see in the tournament.

Once the tournament administrator has several nominations, he will pick competitors and seed them into a sports-tournament style bracket, and will post it to another topic in this forum. Authors will then request specific matches to write by emailing the administrator, who will then assign matches to authors.

The setting for each story is up to the story's author. It is recommended that the setting be drawn from a famous story in the same genre as the match (ex. Mutara Nebula for Starship Combat, Death Star throne room for Sci-Fi, Amon-Hen ruins for Fantasy, etc.) The setting may be populated by third-party characters, but these characters may not treat either competitor differently from the other (ex. if the Death Star is crewed, the crew must either help or fight both competitors. They will not help Darth Vader and attack Luke Skywalker during the same match)

The story will begin with both competitors resolved to kill one another. In-depth character development isn't needed, but characters won't be mindless automatons, either. For example, Superman will believe that killing his opponent is what's best for truth and justice, Neo will believe that killing his opponent will save Zion from the machines, etc, but you don't have to go into why they believe this. I have a five-to-ten page story in mind, but any length could work.

Write a story detailing the combat between the two characters in your match, and ending with the defeat (by death or otherwise) of one of the competitors. You have complete freedom to decide who the victor of your match is, as long as the characters in your story do not act out of character, or use abilities which they do not have.

Once you've finished the story, post it to this site as normal, and email the administrator with a link to the story. He will then post a link to the story on that division's forum topic. He or another judge will check the story for quality control, but as long as you take the story seriously and the competitors don't act out of character, it should be fine.

Once all the stories in one round are completed, the administrator will update the tournament bracket and stories will be written for the next round in the same way. If you have any questions, feel free to email the tournament administrator.

1. Forums are not to be used to post stories.
2. All discussions, language and content, must be suitable for teens.
3. The owner/moderator(s) of this forum is solely responsible for content posted within this area.
4. All forum abuse must be reported to the moderator(s).

1. Forum admin/moderator
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