Rules

## **PARTICIPATION**

1. Any member who has a minimum post count of 30 can participate in the contest.

2. Newcomers and returning members must go through a preliminary stage in the contest, the "Observation Period" ("OP")(see the appropriate section in the rules)

3. Each participant can select any country as their representative, except defunct countries (e.g. Yugoslavia).

4. There can be only one\* person in countries'/regions' juries.

\*With the mutual desire of 2 or more jury members there can be more than one person in countries and regions.

5. Each country can be divided into separate regions if so desired (i.e. Wallonia and Flanders for Belgium; Catalonia, Basque Country, etc. for Spain). In terms of this contest, regions tend to be based on political units such as sovereign states; subnational units such as provinces, counties etc. A region that has no official definition of its area is not acceptable. Moderators reserve the right to decide if the particular country/region is eligible to participate in the contest.

6. Limit of the regions: no more than 5 from each country.

7. Both the region and country can compete with each other in the contest. (i.e. Catalonia can compete against Spain)

8. The regions can only send songs originating from their own regions (based on the singer's origins). Countries can send entries originating anywhere in the country, including any regions represented by other juries.

9. Trans-national regions can be entered into the contest. (i.e. Basque country which spans from Spain to France.)

10. Only trans-national regions shared by 2 countries are allowed to participate in the contest\*

11. Members can move from country/region to country/region after participation in at least 3 editions, if so desired. You must participate in at least 3 editions while being in a specific jury, before you can switch to another. The earliest point you can move to a new region is after the results of the edition before you plan to move.

12. To join the contest, you must submit your application in the form of a Private Message to the WorldVision account (you can find the application in the appropriate topic (click here)).

13. After you have registered for the contest, you will get your own personal topics for your country in the public subforum WorldVision Green Room.

In this public topic, you can communicate with all participants, hold open NFs, give hints for potential entries, and seek advice from other competitors for future entries.

14. The number of participants is limited to 67 countries/regions.

15. There must be at least 11 countries registered for the contest to run.

16. The number of semifinals depends on the number of participating countries and regions:

\*not including PQ entry

\*\*including 1 REJU qualifier

16. Please note that if you fail to send an entry without giving notice before the deadline 3 editions within a 10 edition period then your country/region will become free (and somebody else will be able to pick it) and you will be removed from the list of the participants.

17. If you want to take a break, you should inform the mods about it in advance (you can take 1 or 2 editions break, with opportunity to prolong it by 1 extra edition with keeping your country/region). You are only allowed 3 breaks within 10 editions, anymore and you will be removed from the roster.

18. Failing to send an entry will also now be counted as a 'forced break' and therefore count towards your 3 allotted breaks in a 10 edition period. Should you fail to send an entry after your 3 allotted breaks have been used up then you will be removed from the roster and your country or region become free.

## OBSERVATION PERIOD

1. Observation Period - the preliminary stage of the contest before becoming active contestants with a chosen country or region.

2. Members of Observation period are:

- newcomers;

- returning members - these are members who took part in the contest in the past.

3. OP members are banned from voting and sending entries to the main contest, but are still allowed to take part in the spin off contests held in the spin off subforum (link)

4. OP members can enter contest when there is an available spot. The spot will simply be given to the person who is top of the list. Note that the person should observate the run of contest minimum 2 full editions to have an opportunity to get a spot.

5. It is expected that OP members observe the run of contest to understand how it works for when they join and that they are in contact with the mods in case there will be an available spot. In the event that a spot opens up, the member who were first to send their application and therefore top of the list will be given the opportunity to join as a full member and take an available country or region. In case the member doesn't confirm before deadline of confirmation period, they will be removed from the OP list and the spot given to the next available person on that list.

## ARTIST/GROUP ELIGIBILITY

For an artist or group to be eligible to participate in the contest, they must meet at least one of the criteria below:

* be a natural-born citizen of your country or region; this does not include acquiring citizenship through descent
* be a current resident of your country or region, residence that goes beyond temporary visits due to recording new material, touring or other short activities
* have spent 30% of their life in your country or region
* have roots from that country or region and special ties such as: - speaking and/or singing in the language of the country, - addressing themselves as a person from that country, - being famous in that country only, - visiting that country often, - representing or trying to represent this country in ESC, if it's a European country
* they must have achieved the majority of their success as an artist/group in your country or region

In the case of duos or groups, at least half of the members must have the above criteria apply. For groups of an odd number then it is 1/3 members or 2/5 members who must qualify.

Featured collaborations (e.g. Senhit ft. Flo Rida) will be considered as a duo.

## ENTRIES

\*\* **DO NOT REVEAL ANY OF YOUR NF RESULTS TO THE PUBLIC UNTIL AFTER THE SEMI-FINALS HAVE BEGUN** \*\*

Please also refer to the entry selection and promotion guidelines in the Green Room here - Guidelines on song selection, NFs and song promotion

1. Each country can select an entry by the following means:

- by holding either a public or private NF,

- or by internally selecting a song.

2. National/regional selections can begin once the results of all semifinals are posted.

3. Entries can be of any duration.

4. Entries can be from any year.

5. The entry must not have been involved in any stage of the Eurovision Song Contest (including NF entries). Covers of such songs are not allowed either.

6. Cover versions of songs are allowed to be entered.

7. Cover versions of songs previously featured in WorldVision cannot be entered. Original versions of songs that previously took part in the contest can be enterred, but there are two important side-notes to consider: a) the same artist cannot be featured in both the original and the cover and b) any country that wants to enter the original version of a previous WorldVision entry must wait a minimum of 20 editions from the time that the cover version was featured.

8. In each edition, one artist can participate only for one country. The first who submits an artist is the one who has the right to send it

\*includes solo singers and bands they are in too. Example: Fergie and Black Eyed Peas cannot participate at the same time for 2 countries/regions

9. The entry should be provided by the specified deadline. Violations may result in either a warning or a sanction.

10. **Entries must not be revealed before the official show begins.** Violations may result in either a warning or a sanction.

11. If a jury decides to hold a public NF, the results of the NF must be withheld from public view until after the official show has begun. The most that can be revealed is a list of points received, without specifying which entry received the points. Violations may result in either a warning or a sanction.

12. Only votes received by PM may be included in your NF results - votes cast in the forum threads cannot be used.

13. Only votes from WorldVision members may be accepted for NFs.

14. Juries may reveal to the public the participants in their NF (for both public and private selections) and the candidates for internal selections. Photos, song titles and artist names can be revealed. However, please refrain from revealing the winner of the selection process until the official show has begun.

15. For internal selections, the most you can reveal publically is the artist.  The song must not be revealed to the public under any circumstances.  You can also use your country's thread in the Green Room to post hints and clues to the artist if you want to have a little more fun with the public during the NF phase.

## VOTING

1. Each full edition lasts around 3 weeks (subject to host availability) and comprise loosely of:

- Week 1: entries confirmation.

- Weeks 2 & 3: Semi-final voting & results, final voting, preparation of results, the final results show.

2. You can't give your own country or region any votes.

3. Votes must be sent by the voter himself/herself through PM. Revealing yours or anyone elses votes is strictly forbidden.

4. The voting system is 12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points (Eurovision style). **All countries/regions (including non-qualified countries) must vote in the Final.**

5. You also have the possibility to vote in the other semi by REJU:

REJU (Rest of juries) is the jury that doesn't take part (i.e. doesn't vote) in the specific semifinal. After the deadline, the votes of all people who have voted in REJU will be counted as follows:

**If the number of REJU-voters is below 40%\*\***  (of the semi that the REJU-voters vote in): their votes will be combined and added as an additional set of votes in that particular semifinal (i.e. the group of REJU-voters will act as 1 voter in the semi that they REJU-voted for and the top 10 of their combined votes will be rewritten to the traditional 12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points system)

**If the number of REJU-voters is above 40%\*\***  (of the semi that the REJU-voters vote in): their most voted non-qualifying country/region from that semifinal will qualify to the Final (i.e. additional qualifier from REJU-voting)

\*Voting in REJU is optional

\*\*

6. If a country does not vote on time without prior consent being given to WorldVision mods

In the semifinal: it will not advance to the final (if they end up in the top 12) and will forfeit their place (i.e. the 13th place country will qualify, then 14th place and so on...)

In the final: it will be disqualified from current edition and forfeit their place in the final ranking.

Failure to vote carries the punishment of a permanent sanction as shown in the list "Sanctions"

7. The country that receives the most points and takes first place has the right to organize the next competition. In the case of refusal, this right passes to the country in second place, then third place, and so on. If the host country is not the winner of the previous edition, both the winner and the host country have an automatic PQ (pre-qualification) spot in the final

8. The winning country is automatically PQ for the next edition's final.  In the running order for the semi-finals of the next edition, the previous winner will be assigned a semi-final with the fewer participants then in other(s) in which they must vote.  Failure to vote may result in a warning/sanction.

9. If a juror of the winning country/region changes his/her country/region from next edition, he/she will lose his PQ privilege, i.e. he/she won't be PQed.

10. Moderators can assist the hosts with preparing the show and collecting the votes.

11. The organizer of the contest will collect the votes from all countries, process them and organize the results show.

12. In the case of a tie for any position, the country which receives points from the highest number of countries shall be given priority. If the tied countries have received votes from the same number of countries, the highest number of 12-point scores shall be decisive. If the winner still cannot be determined by this procedure, the highest number of 10-point scores awarded shall be the deciding factor, and if necessary, this method shall continue until account has been taken of the number of times 1 point has been awarded.

## SANCTIONS

These sanctions are the standard sanctions for all types of violation. Note that these sanctions accumulate collectively; we will count the total number of times a rule is violated regardless of the type of rule that is violated.

1 sanction = 1 violation of rules (including non-voting)

1 sanction - 1 edition ban, i.e. banned for 1 edition, and not allowed to send an entry or vote;

2 sanctions - elimination from the contest and ban for 2 editions;

3 sanctions - elimination from the contest and ban for 4 editions;

4 sanctions - elimination from the contest and ban for 6 editions;

5 sanctions - elimination from the contest and ban for 8 editions;

6 and more sanctions - elimination from the contest and ban for 10 editions.

In order to remove your current sanction(s) you must participate and vote in 5 consecutive editions.

Returning members who have got sanctions in the past must not receive any sanctions within 5 consecutive editions. Otherwise every new sanction will result in your immediate expulsion from the contest.

## HOSTING RULES

1. Every edition should consist of:

* Shows for semifinals (different days) and Final
* Results shows for semifinals Revealing qualifiers in random order one by one
* Results show for final Presentation voters one by one

2. The host can count on support and help from the mods

3. **The host has to send his votes to the WorldVision account at least 1 day (24 hours) before DDL.**

4. **Reminders to voters  are STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.**  Everyone takes a responsibility for voting on time when they confirm their participation in that particular edition, so they have to be sure they will vote without any reminder from host.

5. Pre-allocation to a particular semifinal can be used ONLY in the very important cases. Not being able to attend the LL cannot be treated as an important reason. Any request to the host about pre-allocations from the participants should be approved by the Mod Team first.

6. The main host must publicly announce at least one co-host who will be ready to help the main host in their duties should it be required.