ESC Big Brother 2013 – Across The Sky! (HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED!!!)

So, our favourite ESC game is back very soon (15th March during the evening) and it’s better than ever! Before the actual game will start, I decided to describe a game for everyone who will play this game for the first time.  The threads will be opened during 15th March. Please read the first paragraph before reading the rest of the article.

Firstly, I would like to point out 2 things: 1. the official forum rules still apply here, so don’t think that we will tolerate breaking of any rules (but we will be more tolerable to the drama as long as the forum rules are followed), 2. the purpose of this game is not to evict the worst songs until we get some ranking, this game was created with the main objective to keep your favourites in the game (e.g. your favourites are Germany and Denmark and you’re trying to keep them in the game by voting for some other countries, with what your favourites have bigger survival chances). This game was created to be dramatic and bizarre, so you can know what to expect in most of the rounds. So, please answer to these questions: Do you get mad when people try to find you in Hide And Seek? Do you get angry when someone is beating you in any game (e.g. Mario Kart or any other game)? I understand that this game isn’t for everyone and that some people will not be able to stand all the drama and pressure (or your favourites getting eliminated from the game), so please take part in this game only if you are sure that this issue will not cause any problems for you.

The main word in this game is strategy and everything is based on that. The most important thing in this game is to play smart. So, if your favourite is eliminated, SEEK REVENGE and play smart, but if you refuse to play strategically and get upset about your favourites being kicked out early in the game, you can blame only yourselves for not playing smart.

The most important part of this whole article is to understand the rules, so I will try to explain some general rules and guidelines here. It’s very important to read them before taking part in this game because they’ll help you understand what is allowed and what is forbidden.

1. In order for your votes in the poll to count, a minimum post count of 20 is required. That’s not a high number, so check out our forum and contribute to our success. There is a reason behind this rule, so complaining about it won’t make it go away. Everyone with less than 20 posts who will ignore my 1st warning and continue to vote in the game will be banned from taking part in this game without the possibility to take part in the rest of it (even if they will have at least 20 posts). So, if you want to take part in the game, please try to have at least 20 posts and do not ignore my warnings.

2. Every member can cast only 1 vote per round. Please vote out the song that you want to eliminate (so do not vote for your favorite unless you have a unique strategy). Please don’t forget that the official forum rules apply here as well, so don’t forget that only 1 vote per 1 IP address is allowed. I’m very strict on 1 vote per 1 IP address rule, so please try no to break it.

3. At the end of each round 3 songs/countries with the highest number of votes will be nominated and are up for eviction. After the list of nominated songs is posted, every member chooses 1 song for elimination.

Explanation of 1 round:

Day 1 – All (remaining) songs are up for nomination and every member can nominate only 1 song per round. At the end of the first day three songs will be nominated and are up for eviction. If there is a tie between 2 or more songs, the song with more votes in the previous round will get nominated / eliminated. If there is still the tie after that, the earlier round will be used to break the ties. (the number of nominated songs can depend on the ties in the beginning of each semi-final / final, but that number will not be higher than 3 later)
Day 2 – Nominated songs are up for eviction and every member can choose only 1 song (per round) they want to eliminate. At the end of the second day the song with biggest number of votes will be evicted. (if the “Power of Veto” is used on a country with biggest number of votes, then next country with highest number of votes will be evicted)

4. Two years ago we have introduced the Head of Household. The Head of Household has the power to nominate one song/country for eviction bringing up the total number of nominees to 3. From last year, the HoH can either nominate a song directly for elimination or save a song making sure even if it receives the highest amount of votes, it would not be nominated. The HoH will be determined by a random draw held every day. If you want more information about this, please check any official ESC Big Brother semi-finals / finals threads (if they are available).

How will we choose the HoH? As I mentioned in one of the previous sentences, in every round the HoH will be determined by a random draw held at the end of every day. The HoH will be chosen between posts posted between 2 parts of each round (one part of the round is the part where people vote for either the song they want to nominate or eliminate). There will be only one HoH per every semi-final / final round. Only the members who made the posts in the specific threads (semi-finals / final) can become the HoH or PoV.

5. As I mentioned before, in every round three nominated songs are up for eviction. At the end of the round the entry with the highest number of votes will be eliminated from the game.

6. Once we start with the game the “Power of Veto” will be brought back which created a lot of excitement and drama the previous years. This is a really important power because the one who has the veto can save one of the nominated songs from getting eliminated.

7. The last song standing will be crowned “Big Brother 2013”.

I’ve also prepared the little Strategy Guide which can help you in understanding how to plan your moves and it can give you some tips about playing smart.

1. There is no rule on who you should or should not vote for, but voting for your least favorite could actually hurt some of your favorites at times, so just consider some of the strategical suggestions I’m throwing out there.

2. You are not required to reveal your votes in the thread, but you are allowed to share your vote and encourage members to vote with you (or even form a clan like Team San Marino from last year’s ESC Big Brother).

3. Check the thread on who people vote for because that could give you an indication who is in danger and who is not (of course that you will nearly never know for sure because the majority of players do not reveal their votes).

4. Base your vote on voting patterns and trends because your favourites can have bigger chances to survive.
Example: You hate Germany’s entry and also dislike the Slovenian song. While you would rather see Germany go, it may be a better idea to vote for Slovenia first if you can see a lot of members want to get rid of it first. If you have a feeling Germany will not get enough votes, you may just be throwing your vote away, so maybe going for a different song until the opportunity arises to get rid of Germany would be the smart thing to do.

5. Get with your friends and buddies and vote in groups to increase your chances to nominate/evict a song (but don’t forget that the board and game rules still apply here and that you are not allowed to break them).

6. Don’t forget that the HoH (and PoV later on) play a big part in this game, so be sure to use them wisely if you have this unique power instead of just throwing it away by nominating something you know won’t go home at this point. If you know the person who has won the HoH or PoV power, you can know which song would that person nominate or save, so you can base your vote on that as well.

So, to sum up the most important parts, the most vital things here are understanding of the rules and strategy, but I have to point one more time, board rules still apply to every part of this game and any breaking of the rules will not be tolerated.

ESC Big Brother 2013 has three big parts : pre-game (from 19th February to 14th March), two semi-finals (2nd semi-final from 15th March, 1st semi-final from 17th March and both semi-finals will finish on 29th March) and the big final (from 29th March to 13th May). Pre-game is a little introduction to the main part of the game and it usually doesn’t include any novelties, semi-finals are equal to the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 semi-finals (e.g. the songs from 1st ESC semi-final are in 1st semi-final in the game, etc.) and they include novelties (if there are any). The Final includes prequalified countries (the BIG 5 + host country) and 10 qualifiers from each semi-final and it will finish a few days before the actual Eurovision semi-finals. The last standing song in the final will be crowned with “ESC Big Brother 2013” winner award. Both semi-finals and final include special twists which are invented with the main goal to make this game more interesting for everyone. Some of the twists are:

1. Coup D’Etat – A member can overthrow the nominations and choose 3 songs or their liking/disliking for eviction. This can be used only once. The winner of this twist will be determined via the little guess game (I will choose 1 term which can be anything – country, city, foreign word, celebrity, character, etc.) and the name of the winner will not be revealed until he/she will decide to use the power.

2. Double Trouble – Every now and then the HoH can nominate AND give immunity to a song instead of having to choose one or the other. The last year, the winners were decided randomly, but this year I decided to give you 2 different ways of winning this twist. The first way is as same as last year’s one – randomly via the list of posters in one part of the round (1 – 3 times), the second way will be via 1 quiz and I’ll most likely prepare 5 – 10 questions which I’ll ask some HoH winners (not all) a few times during the game.

3. Awesome Sauce – Three members have the chance to have their votes counted twice (for example, if they voted for Ireland, it’ll be like they voted for it twice). Winners of this twist will be decided randomly via the list of posters in one part of the round and this twist will be used 2 times during semi-finals and 2 times during the final (total: 4).

4. [NEW TWIST!] Petit Coup D’Etat (name TBC) – Basically the smaller version of Coup D’Etat. The winner will be able to overthrow 1 nominated country and choose one song of their liking / disliking for eviction. Since this twist is smaller, it will be used more than once in the game. The winner(s) of this twist will be decided via Top Answer Game which is the game that requires strategy as well. The main goal of the game is not to give the correct answer and it is more important to give the answers which could be used by as more people as possible. There is also the possibility to earn extra points on the questions which will be randomly asked during this game (the person who will answer first and correct will get points). I’ll host the results after the end of the game and the winner of this game will also be the winner of this twist.

+ a few more twists are possible (but that is not known yet)

At the end, I have to point out that I’ve mentioned just some things that are more important, I’ll inform you early enough if there will be any additions. The official rules will be added to the official ESC Big Brother 2013 semi-finals / final threads, so stay tuned for that as well!