Starship Smashup
a/k/a “Ultimate Starship Challenge”
OSFest 4.0 – Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 11:00 PM
(click HERE for a printable version of the rules)

Rules

1.   Bracketed Starship Competition.  A bracket will be created for a competition including sixteen (16) starships. The starships will be placed in the initial brackets randomly by drawing the names of the entries out of a hat.

2.  Voting.  The panel will include five panelists, each with a vote as to the winning starship in each skirmish.  The audience will collectively have one vote determined by a majority vote of the audience present.  The host will vote only (1) in a tie of either the overall votes of the panel and audience;  or (2) a tie of the collective audience vote.

3.   Entries.  The competition will include a total of sixteen (16) starships.  Each panelist may submit an entry.  Entries will also be taken via the Internet through the OSFest forums and Facebook page.  The audience may submit any remaining entries by submitting them to the host and the submissions will be pulled randomly from a drawing out of a hat.  Panelists are encouraged to research the starships they’d like to enter. The ten entries are as follows:

4.  Restrictions on Entries.  Additional entries must be starships.  If the entry would likely be confused as being a moon when viewed from a distance by a young Jedi, then that’s no starship, that’s a space station.  The panel may vote on whether an entry is actually a starship.

5.  Considerations for Starships.  For the competition, each starship is deemed to be (1) fully crewed with her normal captain; (2) fully armed with its normal complement of weapons; (3) in perfect operating order; and (4) without any support craft  (for example, the Executor would not have its complement of TIE fighters, nor would the Enterprise have any shuttlecraft).  Only Exception:  The Serenity may be assumed to have a howitzer bolted to its hull and a spacesuited gunner.

6.  Skirmishes.  There will be four rounds of skirmishes.  Each skirmish will be limited to five minutes of discussion and voting.   Each skirmish will include two starships.  The voting procedure will determine the winner of each skirmish.

7.  Second Round: Captains.   After the first round, the remaining eight ships will be randomly assigned captains from names pulled from a hat. The ships will retain their assigned captains for the rest of the competition.

8.  Third and Final Rounds: Battlefields.  After the second round, each skirmish will be randomly assigned a location.  The names of the locations shall be pulled out of a hat.  The locations may include a void, an asteroid field, the upper atmosphere of Coruscant, inside a Dyson Sphere, etc.

9.  Object of the Competition.  The goal will be to have fun.  Our secondary goals will include wrecking starships until only our champion remains and hopefully getting it all done in 90 minutes. 

10.  Presenter Contact Information.  Matt McKeever, mckeeverlaw@aim.com or legal@osfes.org, 402-980-0313. 

Agenda

I.  Introductions (5 minutes)

II.  Starship Entries (5 minutes)

III.  Round One (40 minutes)

IV.  Round Two (20 minutes)

V.   Round Three  (10 minutes)

VI.  Final Round (10 minutes)