Individual Tournament Rules:
- 3 minute time limit with 10-second-grace-period, no props, no musical accompaniment, no costumes.
- 5 Judges, high & low score dropped, 3 median scores added to give the poet their score.
- .5 point deduction for every 10-second interval the poet gives over time.
- 4 poems needed to win. 2 Poems for Preliminaries, 2 for Finals. No repeats.
- No repeating poems between Team & Indie Bouts.
- Preliminary Rounds Format:
- All Poets Perform in 1st Round.
- Top 6 Poets Perform in the 2nd Round, high to low score.
- Clean Slate Scoring, top 4 poets advance to finals.
- If there is a tie for 4th place, all tying poets will advance to finals.
- Indie Finals Format:
- All Poets will read in both rounds.
- Random Draw Order for both rounds.
- Cumulative score determines champion.
- The Judging Panel will score both Indie & Team Finals, unless a judge needs to be traded out, that will happen between Indie & Team Bouts.
- Individual Grand Prize is Winner-Take-All of total Indie registration fees. $400 Minimum
Team Tournament Rules:
- Team Preliminaries will be 3X4, 3 teams x 4 rounds
- 2 Preliminary Bouts, 1st & 2nd place finishers of both bouts will advance to finals.
- 3X4 Bouts will follow National Poetry Slam Prelims Bout Rotation Rules.
- 3X4: ABC/BCA/CAB/BAC
- Each bout is 4 rounds, 3 minute time limit*, no props, no musical accompaniment, no costumes.
- *We will uphold the 10 second grace period for all teams.
- Prelim Bout Draw will be held On-Site at Tractor Brewing Wells Park on August 9th, 5:30 PM.
- Group Pieces are allowed and encouraged. However, all teammates (excepting a 5th member) must be represented throughout the bout rotations in both writing & performance.
- Finals Format:
- 4X4 Bout: ABCD/CADB/DCBA/BDAC
- Team Finals will follow National Poetry Slam Finals Rules & Bout Rotation.
- 3rd place teams from preliminaries will perform the Sacrifice Poems.
- No repeating poems between Team & Indie Bouts.
- No repeating poems between Team Preliminary & Finals Bouts.
- The Judging Panel will score both Indie & Team Finals.
- 1st – 4th Place prizes will be a tiered split of total Team registration fees.
- In the event of a tie, teams have the option to accept the tie & split the prize, or they can break the tie with a 5th poem, which is applicable to the no-repeat rule.