On the first day of the festival, Sunday the 8th, the Festival events in Liggs were still fairly sparse. Many game stalls were setting up, and the lines at what few food vendors had opened shop thus far could be a bit intimidating. All the same, cameras were set up to broadcast one of the Festival's biggest upcoming events, and a small crowd gathering at the foot of the Contest stage.

"Ladiiiiies and gentlemen!" a booming male voice sounded from the stage. "We would like to announce our latest annual Star Festival Contest! As such, allow me to introduce to you your host for the event! You all know her, you all love her! Give it up for this year's lovely Star Festival Princess!"

As the stage curtains pulled apart, the crowd of Liggs natives burst into a mixture of cheers and laughter as their beloved Fighting Gym Leader struck a strong pose and put on a shit-eating grin, wearing the usual attire of the contest's host.

"What can I say~? I lost a bet!" Despite her embarrassing attire, Mia Kearney was as outgoing as ever, grabbing a nearby mic and throwing out her free arm as she shouted out loud. "Now, who's ready to hear what we've got in store for you this year~?"

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CONTEST DETAILS

OOC INFORMATION
While IC dates are listed below, these are solely to help you place the contest in your personal timeline if need be. OOC, any section of the contest can be posted in between the April 1 at 12:00am and May 15 at 11:59pm, site time. OOC, winners will be revealed in late May or June 1 at the latest.

Each section-- Appeals, Battle, and Performance-- will have its own individual 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place rewards, plus a 40 Mun participation prize for all entries, meaning there are lots of chances for prizes! You do not need to participate in every round, or do them consecutively. If you want to do only the Performance round, or only Appeals and Battle, etc, that's fine, and you might win what round you participate in on an individual basis!

Note: As you are free to only compete in part of the contest rather than being required to post in all three rounds, you are also allowed to claim that ICly your character did compete in the other rounds. You won't get a score for them, but if you only have time for one thing OOC, you can still say that IC they totally did something (off-screen) and it just didn't place.

There will also be Overall Contest placements made by compiling the scores from all three rounds. As such, even if you didn't win (or possibly even place) in individual rounds, you may still win the entire contest for having a generally good score, depending on the participation of other characters!

Reminder that characters of the Coordinator class earn double any prizes won from contests unless otherwise noted!

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ENVIRONMENT

The Contest will be held in central Surface Liggs in an open-air, amphitheatre stage, and will start after sunset each day to give a clear view of the comet above. There is no rain scheduled in Liggs for the week of the Festival, so no need to worry about your act or your audience getting wet!

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APPEALS

The Appeals Round will be held on Wednesday, April 11. An Appeal can be thought of almost as a "Mini Performance", with a bit less pressure, but performers can still go all-out if they want to. Something "short and sweet" may get a better response than a full-length opera, however!

An Appeal is also intended to be your first time meeting the crowd. Try and get their attention, make sure all eyes are on you for the future rounds! You can show off a talent with your Pokemon, just address the crowd generally, or put on a true mini-performance to give them a real taste of what's to come.

The Appeal round is not required to follow any specific theme. Make it personal and show the audience who it is they're rooting for!

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BATTLES

Split between Thursday the 12th and Friday the 13th, the Battle Round pits you and another performer against one another in a Double Battle. Winning the battle does not guarantee victory here, as judges will be reviewing how enticing your battle was to the eye. Aim more to enhance the visuals of your own posts, working off your opponents, and trying to limit their own potential to show off! There is no set theme for battles.

Once partnered up, participants need to achieve at least 4 battle posts each with their partner to be properly judged; try to minimize pre-battle flavor, but one or two post rounds of coming out on stage, greeting each other, etc will not be counted against you. It just won't count for your 4 minimum either.

To prevent quick posters from outshining other contestants solely by merit of sheer content, battle rounds are limited to 10 posts each maximum. If a battle-winner is not decided by then, it will be treated as a timer reaching zero and the battle called a draw. (Post-battle flavor is also allowed, just don't go overboard; you can always start a new thread to go in-depth into after-battle stuff with your partner!)

To reiterate: 'winning' your pairing's battle will not necessarily benefit your overall score, and losing will not detract from it. Scores are decided individually, so two people from the same battle could both place in the top 3 if they're both good enough!

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PERFORMANCE

The Performance Round is your grand finale, taking place on Saturday the 14th, the final day of the Star Festival itself. The theme for this year's performances is 'Stardom', meaning you can follow the 'idea' of stardom, or use songs that relate to the word. Much like appeals this can be anything you want, but is typically a long display of your Pokemon set to music, and are intended to be much grander in nature than your appeal. The crowd already knows who you are, time to really put on a show!

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OVERALL GRAND PRIZES

The overall Contest Winners will also be announced ICly on Saturday the 14th of April, after the final performance and an hour or so break to compile the scores. Contestants will gather back around the stage and the crowd will pile in to hear the grand prize winners!

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PRIZES

The participation prize is 40 mun per round, making for a nice chunk of change if you do them all!

For each separate round (that is, the following prizes will be given out 3 times each), participants can earn these prizes for placing:

3rd - 60 Mun, 1 Star Ball, 1 Starfruit
2nd - 80 Mun, 2 Star Balls, 1 Starburst
1st - 100 Mun, 1 Star Ball, 1 Galaxy Ball, 1 Starburst, Secret prize #1

Meanwhile, the Overall Grand Prize Places will receive:

3rd - 50 Mun, 1 Galaxy Ball, Secret prize # 1
2nd - 100 Mun, 2 Galaxy Balls, Secret prize # 1
1st - 150 Mun, 2 Galaxy Balls, 1 Starburst, Secret # 1 AND SUPER DUPER ULTRA SECRET PRIZE # 2*

(*SDUSP#2 cannot be doubled with coordinator bonus)