Monthly Contests
Monthly Contests are the largest recurring community event on the site. Each month, a theme is announced and members will create and submit relevant musical entries.
Overview
The monthly contest is a recurring points-based contest hosted by Kirbyderp. It was launched in September 2018 alongside other limited events as a part of a "beta test". During the beta test period, both monthly contests and limited events would award "OS points" to the Grand Leaderboard. But as of 2019, limited events no longer award OS points, leaving the monthly contest as the only event to use the Grand Leaderboard.
Every month, a forum thread is posted to announce the theme for the month. Unless stated otherwise, the submission period for the monthly contest begins on the 1st of the month and ends on the 21st of the month at 11:59 PM EST.
In the case of other events, such as the Space Race Contest and the 10-Year Anniversary Contest, the submission period for the monthly contest begins on the 1st of the month and ends on the 21st of the following month at 11:59 PM EST.
Guidelines
Except in special cases, the guidelines for the monthly contest consist of the following:
- Entry limit of 2 sequences per person.
- Committee members are allowed to enter the contests, but will not enter their example sequence nor will they vote for their own entry.
- Sequences made prior to the current Monthly Contest are allowed, although entering the same sequence in different Monthly Contests is not.
- Making a remix of an existing song is allowed.
- Editing an entry after the entry period is strictly prohibited and will result in that entry being disqualified.
- Collaborations on entries are allowed, but any points the piece might receive are divided up equally between the contributors.
- The standard Online Sequencer Rules will apply and any entries violating a rule will automatically be disqualified.
Voting
After the submission period has ended, the voting process begins. The Event Committee members decide the winners of the monthly contests. The staff votes for three entries that best fit the theme of the contest.
Points
Contestants are awarded OS Points depending on how they placed that month, which is shown in the table below. OS Points are then added to the Grand Leaderboard.
| Placement | Points Awarded |
|---|---|
| 1st Place | 5 |
| 2nd Place | 4 |
| 3rd Place | 3 |
| Honorable Mention | 1 |
As of January 6th, 2022, contestants have the option to out of receiving OS Points via this forum thread here. If a contestant wishes to opt back into receiving OS Points, they may do so.
Rewards
At the end of the year, three winners are determined based on the total amount of OS points they have accrued over the entire year. Winners are placed in the Contest Winner display group, which provides them with a yellow name and a trophy badge next to it. Additionally, winners receive more OS points for the leaderboard of the year after. Previous monthly contest winners can be found here.
Previous Monthly Contests
Forum Thread: Previous Monthly Contest Leaderboards
Online Sequencer has kept a record of previous monthly contest leader boards per year, here they are.
| Place | User | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | JHXC | 8 (Tiebreaker) |
| 2nd | Firebolt391d | 8 |
| 3rd | Julesvpraag | 7 |
| Place | User | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Vladimirr | 24 |
| 2nd | Pricerocks | 18 |
| 3rd | XStep | 13 |
| Place | User | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Tibbinator | 26 |
| 2nd | Julesvpraag | 22 |
| 3rd | Pricerocks | 19 |
| Place | User | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | bentoonie | 17.75 |
| 2nd | Cool172 | 13 |
| 3rd | Calico | 11.25 |
| Place | User | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Cool172 | 52 |
| 2nd | Lopyt | 29 |
| 3rd | Alex! | 21 |