Unacclaimed IV Announcement and Rules

[whuntva]

It's that time of year again...

There were a lot of great songs added to the unofficial update. But once again, we can celebrate those that JUUST missed the cut. There are so many underrated gems out there, and this is their time to shine.

First, a recap of tournaments past.

Past Winners:

I: Nina Simone-Sinnerman (de facto) def. Curtis Mayfield-Right on for the Darkness (results unknown)
II: Kashiwa Daisuke-Stella def. The Pointer Sisters-Going Down Slowly 11-6
III: Shiina Ringo-Soretsu (Funeral) def. Seatbelts/Yoko Kanno-Tank! 10-9

Also, despite my past referendum, I decided to keep the World Cup format used for Unacclaimed II and III, because it feels like the best compromise between those who want a quick tournament and those who don't want instant eliminations.


Eligibility Rules
1) The song cannot be listed on AM, including bubbling under.
2) The song cannot be from an album listed on AM, including bubbling under.
• If said song was only on a re-release of an acclaimed album, it IS eligible, but please specify this in your nomination.

These are basically the holy tenants of Unacclaimed.

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3) It has to be at least a year old from today’s date. This way we can ensure everything here had a chance to be acclaimed.
4) It cannot be a song nominated for a previous Unacclaimed. If you need help, nothing from here, here, or here.
5) I’ll just be blunt and say no Classical. I know there’s stuff like “Stella” that blurs the lines, but there’s usually a reason why they aren’t on AM. Re-interpretations of Classical works are eligible, though, and a single piece of a film soundtrack—like a Morricone you like—are also acceptable.

Also, in a decision taken to referendum, acclaimed artists ARE allowed. But I would say as a soft recommendation and not an actual rule, please refrain from at least the Top 100 unless you are absolutely certain your choice is as unacclaimed as possible.

Nominating Rules
1) Please PM me a list of up to ten nominees following the above criteria.
2) I will start by qualifying all the ones, then all the twos, etc., until we have a final pool of 128.
3) Songs mentioned more than once have priority, meaning they get grouped first.
4) Songs will receive a number based on when they were selected. High-priority songs receive a higher number. This is done for bracketing purposes.
5) It’s all first come, first serve. If you want to get more songs in, submit early!

Voting Rules
1) Round one is in “World Cup” format, each song is grouped randomly into a pool of four.
2) Each voter must rank the songs 1-4, with four points going to the top, one point to the bottom of each ranking.
3) Voters are allowed to skip groups, but if they say they will come back to a group later, they have to vote before the deadline.
4) Ties in group play are broken by first-place vote totals
5) Top TWO from each group advance
6) Brackets are on Two-week rotation, meaning songs from week one will face songs from week three and so on in the elimination rounds.
7) Thirty-two songs will play each other in single-elimination
8) Winner of group faces runner-up in another.
9) Voters must now vote for ONE song they choose to advance. Each vote is one point.
10) Ties go into sudden-death overtime. One vote is enough to clinch it in this round.
11) The game is played until one song remains and is declared the winner of the tournament.

And I'll be sure to keep the names of the submitters this time. I will reveal all the lists at the end.

Since this is late into the month, I'd say a whole month is good for nominating. Send me a list of up to ten by Oct. 1 at 23:59 Forum Time. Because this is a larger tournament, ten songs seems more reasonable than last time.

Providing a YouTube link is not mandatory, but recommended if you want a specific version to be included.

Oh, and at the end of this one, I was thinking of hosting an Unacclaimed "greatest hits" tournament. In this one, you would rank up to 50 or so of your favorite songs from all four tournaments and we rank them like a traditional poll. Once again, I may need help with the spreadsheet, but it seems like a good idea.

[Moonbeam]

Woo hoo!!! Thank you so much for hosting this. I also love the idea of an Unacclaimed greatest hits!

Just to be clear, will this feature 128 songs (as mentioned in the Update thread) or 64?

[whuntva]

128 songs. I fixed the rules to reflect this.

This means 32 distinct groups and a bracket round of 64. May prolong it by a few months, but it is a price I am willing to pay.

[Moonbeam]

128 songs. I fixed the rules to reflect this.

This means 32 distinct groups and a bracket round of 64. May prolong it by a few months, but it is a price I am willing to pay.

Awesome! Expect my list tonight.

[Romain]

It's done.

A huge thanks for this tournament.

[Bang Jan]

List sent

[Krurze]

Just sent my list!

[whuntva]

And to clarify a few ambiguities:

Unacclaimed covers of acclaimed songs are eligible, given of course that the cover is unacclaimed.

Remixes/Mashups are eligible, but this is at the discretion of the voter.

Also, when checking yourself, we are going by the spreadsheets in this topic. So review that list when making your selection. Just making it clear and reminding you the site's front page is now technically out of date.

[sonofsamiam]

Mine is sent.

[andyd1010]

I sent mine as well

[BleuPanda]

I sent mine. I feel kind of guilty having my top two songs come from the same source, but they are separate works that happened to gain greater prominence when featured on the soundtrack to my favorite video game. It's interesting how being featured on a soundtrack can bring to prominence a totally unknown band from a decade before.

[Moonbeam]

A minor point, but one worth mentioning, I think. The original Unacclaimed didn't have an official victor because it lost steam with repeat matchups. "Right on for the Darkness" and "Sinner Man" did actually face off, and "Right on for the Darkness" emerged victorious: http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/static/ ... 5&cmd=show

[whuntva]

A minor point, but one worth mentioning, I think. The original Unacclaimed didn't have an official victor because it lost steam with repeat matchups. "Right on for the Darkness" and "Sinner Man" did actually face off, and "Right on for the Darkness" emerged victorious: http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/static/ ... 5&cmd=show

That may be true.

But the way I remember it (if you dig around the new forum, you may find the semifinals somewhere), We did eventually get to a Nina-Curtis final. Nina beat Verlaines and Lal Waterson in the side bracket to rematch Curtis. But the final was lost to history.


"Sinnerman" is considered a de facto winner by its performance in the songs poll in 2012 and 2015.

[Moonbeam]

A minor point, but one worth mentioning, I think. The original Unacclaimed didn't have an official victor because it lost steam with repeat matchups. "Right on for the Darkness" and "Sinner Man" did actually face off, and "Right on for the Darkness" emerged victorious: http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/static/ ... 5&cmd=show

That may be true.

But the way I remember it (if you dig around the new forum, you may find the semifinals somewhere), We did eventually get to a Nina-Curtis final. Nina beat Verlaines and Lal Waterson in the side bracket to rematch Curtis. But the final was lost to history.


"Sinnerman" is considered a de facto winner by its performance in the songs poll in 2012 and 2015.

Yes, Nina and Curtis were staged for a final that never happened (my PhD got super intense toward the end of that poll).

I'm thinking about the timing of the Unacclaimed poll. I wonder whether it will make sense to do it after this game concludes. If you run Unacclaimed IV on a weekly basis with 16 songs per week, it would take 18 weeks. If you start in mid-October, that takes us to about mid-late February. By that point, Henrik may have the official update ready, which would open up eligibility for Unacclaimed V.

Maybe a poll in March would be a good way to whet everyone's appetite for Unacclaimed V, which could start in April or May, update pending? By the way, I think the poll should go at least 100 deep - we're looking at 320 total songs at this point, and I've certainly really liked at least a third of them!

[whuntva]

Yes, Nina and Curtis were staged for a final that never happened (my PhD got super intense toward the end of that poll).

I'm thinking about the timing of the Unacclaimed poll. I wonder whether it will make sense to do it after this game concludes. If you run Unacclaimed IV on a weekly basis with 16 songs per week, it would take 18 weeks. If you start in mid-October, that takes us to about mid-late February. By that point, Henrik may have the official update ready, which would open up eligibility for Unacclaimed V.

Maybe a poll in March would be a good way to whet everyone's appetite for Unacclaimed V, which could start in April or May, update pending? By the way, I think the poll should go at least 100 deep - we're looking at 320 total songs at this point, and I've certainly really liked at least a third of them!

I am not entirely sure what you're saying.

Do you want me to postpone Unacclaimed IV or just hold two in rapid succession? The latter sounds pretty taxing.

I CAN postpone the tournament and everyone who submitted already is welcome to change their lists to reflect an official update in that time, if that is what you meant.

[Moonbeam]

Yes, Nina and Curtis were staged for a final that never happened (my PhD got super intense toward the end of that poll).

I'm thinking about the timing of the Unacclaimed poll. I wonder whether it will make sense to do it after this game concludes. If you run Unacclaimed IV on a weekly basis with 16 songs per week, it would take 18 weeks. If you start in mid-October, that takes us to about mid-late February. By that point, Henrik may have the official update ready, which would open up eligibility for Unacclaimed V.

Maybe a poll in March would be a good way to whet everyone's appetite for Unacclaimed V, which could start in April or May, update pending? By the way, I think the poll should go at least 100 deep - we're looking at 320 total songs at this point, and I've certainly really liked at least a third of them!

I am not entirely sure what you're saying.

Do you want me to postpone Unacclaimed IV or just hold two in rapid succession? The latter sounds pretty taxing.

I CAN postpone the tournament and everyone who submitted already is welcome to change their lists to reflect an official update in that time, if that is what you meant.

Sorry for the confusion. My question was in regard to the timing of the greatest hits of Unacclaimed poll, not Unacclaimed IV.

I definitely would not postpone Unacclaimed IV. If anything, I'd cut off the deadline for submissions to October 1st and start a bit earlier.

I was just looking at potential timelines, and it seemed like a lot of work for one person to host:

Unacclaimed IV: October-February
Unacclaimed Poll of first 4 editions: March?
Unacclaimed V: start in April or May, depending on the update? Maybe later in the year if it feels like we would burn out.

It's up to you, of course, how you'd like to proceed. I love this game so much (and given the number of nominations you already have, it seems others do as well), that I'm eager for Unacclaimed IV. I'm happy to help host either the poll or Unacclaimed V, but we can cross those bridges when we get there.

[whuntva]

Ok. Deadline has been pushed forward to and including 10/1.

However, I have something else to report. And it is a tad embarrassing.

I was saving the lists to my Google Drive, but I accidentally deleted some lists in both my inbox and on the Google Doc..

Fortunately, it was only three. But Sweepstakes Ron and andyd1010 will have to resubmit. Heck, I lost the sheet with my own list. So I need to resubmit.

[andyd1010]

Resubmitted! My messages always like to sit in my outbox for a while, so let me know if you haven't gotten it by tomorrow.

[spiritualized]

Blimey it feels like you could need a bit of help with Microsoft Project to manage this tournament....

[whuntva]

Bumping as sort of a two week reminder.

As of now I have 14 lists. More than enough for the competition, but every little bit helps.

[BleuPanda]

Hm...I think I didn't realize we doubled the size of the field from 64 to 128. I remembered only two of my picks getting in last time so I only submitted 4 because I didn't see the point in going any higher. But now I don't want to add more and lose priority...

[Toni]

Sent my list, too

[whuntva]

Just a friendly reminder that we pushed the deadline up to Oct. 1.

I may just do what I did last year and post the lists anonymously before revealing them at the end so people can check for errors.

I have about 20 lists so far, and surprisingly no dupes.

[Krurze]

I may just do what I did last year and post the lists anonymously before revealing them at the end so people can check for errors.

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of that. I think it could be fairly easy to guess the user who submitted a certain full ten song list, definitely moreso than with single songs. Objectively, of course, it shouldn't matter who submitted a certain song (and especially in this forum I think it wouldn't), but then why the anonymity in the first place and not just open nominations like in other games?

Then of course there's still the benefit of error checking as you pointed out, whuntva. Anyway, I am curious to hear what others are thinking!

[Romain]

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of that. I think it could be fairly easy to guess the user who submitted a certain full ten song list, definitely moreso than with single songs. Objectively, of course, it shouldn't matter who submitted a certain song (and especially in this forum I think it wouldn't), but then why the anonymity in the first place and not just open nominations like in other games?

Then of course there's still the benefit of error checking as you pointed out, whuntva. Anyway, I am curious to hear what others are thinking!

I agree Krurze, anonymously or not, it's too easy to see who submitted a list.

[whuntva]

Last call!

Submissions period ends on Saturday.

I have decided not to make final lists public. but still check to see if the qualified songs are at least eligible. Last year, one almost slipped by, so this stuff does happen. Remember, we are using Henrik's temporary spreadsheets for this one.

[Henrik]

Mine sent!

[Bruno]

Sent my list.

[whuntva]

Deadline has passed.

It will take me a few hours to select songs, randomize them, and publish the groups, so hang tight.