Duelcon2025

IT’S TIME TO D-D-D-D-D-DUEL!!!

_{You guys like YGO, right? Right????}

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Team Despair (despair2025)

Members:

Entries

Welcome to DuelCon2025! It’s been a bit since we hosted a competitive writing event, so we’ve decided to make it the ultimate competition! Here’s how it works:

Description

This contest features two teams, one focusing on the advancement and success of mankind and the human spirit, and the other focusing on the inherent despair that the desolate world of the Backrooms inflicts on humanity. These teams will battle it out to determine which force of the ultimate tension within the Backrooms is the one to rule them all!

Now, you may be wondering, “TS Staff, how will the rewards work? Will the entire winning team get the Contest Winner role, participate in choosing features, and the ultimate prize of bragging rights?” NOPE! Well, except for that last part.

The 4 highest-rated entries from the winning team will be awarded the typical prize of choosing one of the monthly features for the July feature cycle, and will be given the cyan-blue Discord “Contest Winner” role, though the whole winning team will be given bragging rights.

Rules

Each person may only post one (1) entry for their team!
You may upload a page that was in development prior to the initial contest announcement.
While co-written entries are permitted, each team must upload at least a number of entries equivalent to half of their member count (10 members -> 5 required pages)! If the teams have an odd number of members, the page requirement will be rounded down (9 members -> 4 required pages). If not enough pages are uploaded, the team will be disqualified! However, collaborative pages are NOT permitted for this contest.¹
Rewrites may NOT be posted for this contest.
As per usual, participants may only submit their entry during the designated posting period. Any pages that are submitted early will be deleted, and the author may face disciplinary action.
Every member of a team must contribute to at least 1 page. If an author does not contribute to a posted page by the time the posting period ends, that author will be disqualified.
Contest entries do not require a greenlight or clear to post. See “Participation” for more details.
The winning team will be decided by the average of all participants’ entries for that team.
Contest entries will not be deleted, even if they fall below the deletion threshold, for the duration of the voting period. Once the voting period concludes, all remaining pages that are below the threshold will be deleted. The exception to this rule is if a page violates our Site Rules, in which case the page will be deleted immediately and the author will face disciplinary action.
While participants may sign up or drop out of the contest all throughout the writing period, sign-ups will close when the posting period starts and the teams will be finalized!
We'd like to remind all users that using AI to generate pages or to critique pages is not tolerated in any capacity whatsoever. While spellcheck resources such as Quillbot ARE permitted, using ChatGPT or other forms of generative AI is not allowed, and the user will face a 1-month ban minimum if found to be using AI. If you have any questions about what resources are allowed, please feel free to ask a staff member!

Participation

Participants will sign up in pairs! You must pair up with one of your peers and decide between the two of you who will join each team. Once you decide, please make a post in the discussion forum of this page using the following template:

My User (Wikidot/Discord):
My Partner's User (Wikidot/Discord): Username
My Team: [Hope/Despair]
Partner’s Team: [Hope/Despair]

While only one person of the pair needs to make a post, we ask that their partner reply confirming that the information in the post is true.

If you do not have a peer to sign up with, that's okay! Simply fill out this template:

My User (Wikidot/Discord):
My Team of Preference: [Hope/Despair]

Note that while we will certainly try to assign you to the team of your preference, nothing is guaranteed if you don't sign up with a partner, and we may need to assign you to the other team to make things even.

When the posting period rolls around, as previously mentioned, you do not need a greenlight to post! Simply just use the password duel2025 to post your page during the posting period, and contact a staff member to check it over for any rule-breaking content and to move it out of submission! Make sure to also tag the page with the duel2025 tag!

Dates

June 16^th, 2025

[CURRENT] Participants may sign up and start writing!

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July 16^th 2025

The posting period begins and teams may start posting and voting on pages, or can keep writing. The teams are finalized and no one else may join the contest.

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August 1^st 2025

All pages MUST be posted by this date. The voting continues.

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August 16^th 2025

The voting is concluded and the winners announced!

The Teams

Team Hope (hope2025)

Members:

"The world can be harsh and cruel, but it is imperative that we never let the flicker of determination inside us burn out. No matter the struggles, no matter the cost, humanity will always prevail in the end. Always."

Entries

None yet!

Team Despair (despair2025)

Members:

"The Backrooms are dark and cruel. No matter what the wanderers of this world try, no matter how close they get to freedom, desolation will reign king."