The Rules

Welcome once again to Fantasy American Idol. The season is about to officially begin so there are a few matters of business that we need to discuss. Please make sure to subscribe to this blog so you can get all of the important updates when you need them.

Here are the things we need to talk about …
1. Joining the League / E-mail list
2. Pre-Hollywood Bonus Picks
3. THE RULES (how to play the rest of the season)
4. Other things to know

I will try to be brief and not waste your time – but it is important that you read this stuff so you know what to do.

1. JOINING THE LEAGUE / E-MAIL LIST
If you are playing this year and have not e-mailed me – please do so. (If you do not know “me” then leave a comment and beg to become grafted in to this fabulous network of geniuses). 99% of the communication for this league will be on this site. Occasionally, however, there might be times where I need to send e-mails to the whole group.

I also plan on sending an e-mail to everyone letting you know who the teams are. We don’t typically use our real names on here to ensure that we have freedom to speak the truth (and to not ruin any chance we might have of working with any of the people we might make fun of). So if someone leaves a comment with actual names on it, I reserve the right to remove the comment.

Other than sending me an e-mail message to join the group, the only thing you have to do is have an account (preferably with your team name) that will allow you to leave comments to the posts on this site. I think it is a google account or something like that.

2. PRE-HOLLYWOOD BONUS PICKS
We added something new this year in an attempt to get people involved before Hollywood came along. We call this new event the “Pre-Hollywood Pick”. You need to pick a contestant that actually made it past the initial auditions to Hollywood that you think will go farthest in the competition. I know we didn’t actually get to see everyone who made it through to Hollywood – so I don’t want to hear anyone whining about not having enough information. We all have the same information. Just pick someone you think will do well. (see the earlier post about Pre-Hollywood Bonus picks to see how the picks will be scored).
To ensure an even playing field, know that there are sites on the internet that claim to know who made it past Hollywood. Feel free to do research there for your Pre-Hollywood bonus pick. It is like an open book test.
YOU MUST MAKE YOUR PICK BEFORE THE SHOW ON TUESDAY!!!!!
I will create a new post for this pick and you can just leave your pick as a comment on that post.

3. THE RULES
Here is the way things will work this year. Please keep in mind that those tricky folks at AI change things around every year, so we have to adapt the rules to the show. So just pay attention to the posts on here and you will be fine.

Once Hollywood is over, if this year is anything like last year, they will narrow the contestants down to 12 guys and 12 girls. Then they will have the guys perform on Tuesday night, the girls Wednesday night, and then to vote off two guys and two girls on Thursday. Sometime before the Tuesday night performance, I will make a post on this blog telling you who the twelve male contestants are (you should probably already know) and telling you to make your PRE-PERFORMANCE PICKS.

As a comment to that post, you should rank all twelve contestants from 1-12 points – giving 12 points to the person you think is MOST LIKELY to be voted off and 1 point to the person you think is LEAST LIKELY to be voted off. When a contestant is voted off, you get the amount of points you allotted to that contestant. Here is an example from last year.

12. Paul Kim
11. Sundance Head
10. Sanjaya Malakar
9. AJ Tabaldo
8. Jared Cotter
7. Nicholas Pedro
6. Blake Lewis
5. Rudy Cardenas
4. Chris Sligh
3. Chris Richardson
2. Phil Stacey
1. Brandon Rogers

That week, I believe that Rudy Cardenas and Paul Kim were voted off. This team got 12 points (Paul Kim) + 5 points (Rudy Cardenas) for a grand total of 17 points from the PRE-PERFORMANCE PICKS.

After the performance, but before the results are announced on Thursday, you have a chance to make BONUS PICKS. These bonus picks are a way to make an informed decision after seeing how well the contestants did on performance night. For these first rounds, you get 4 bonus picks worth 8,6,4 and 2 points. Since the Thursday show announces two girls and two guys getting voted off, you can assign these bonus picks to ANY of the 24 contestants. If they get voted off, you get the points you assigned to them. I will make a separate post after the last performances of the week for the BONUS PICKS. You can leave your picks as a comment to that post.

This is basically how the scoring will be structured throughout the season, but as I said before – we have to change some details as the season goes along to coincide with changes that they make on the show.

It is IMPORTANT that you submit your picks before the deadline each time. There is a time stamp to the comments you leave online so we will be able to keep track of that. If for some reason you don’t have access to the website, you can e-mail me your picks, text them to me, or call them in. If you need my cell number, you will have to e-mail me directly for it.

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW

Rules will change throughout the season. If you have a good idea for an addition to the rules or scoring system, please feel free to let me know. My goal is to make it as fun and competitive as possible.

Feel free to make comments about the contestants along with your picks. Trash talking is also heavily encouraged.

My team is going to win.