Rules of the Plastics Song Contest

These are the official rules of the Plastics Song Contest. Everyone should follow them!

The Grand Final and semi finals
The contest consists of a grand final and semi-finals depending on the participating countries. In the grand final, a winner will be chosen for the edition by a voting process. In the semi-finals, a distinction is made between the countries that are allowed to participate in the grand final and who are not. The grand final has a variable field of participants. (maximum 30). The final consists of qualifying countries from the semi-finals and prequalified countries that mainly come from the top 3/5/6.

Semi-finals are present in an edition if the number of participants is greater than or equal to the number 31. There are varying options of number of participants in a semi-final, depending on the entries. The first time semi-finals were held was in edition 3.

Maximum entries
Everyone can participate in an edition up to 60 different countries. The persons who can no longer participate will be put in a separate final if possible, in which case the top 3 can go to the final as automatic qualifiers. There is also a minimum number for participating countries which now stands at 12. If less than 12 participating countries are participating, the edition will be postponed or extended until more than twelve are participating.

Country changes or New country
If you want to make changes to your country such as change name or flag, you can always change it on the wiki page if you have the options. This also applies if you want to create your own country. you can also have it reported to one of the administrators on facebook page or other social media. We hope, of course, that people remain realistic in the creation of countries.

Checklist for new countries
Below is a checklist for novices to send the following information to 1 of the administrators. You can also go through these for existing countries to see if you have provided all the information.


 * Name of country
 * National Broadcaster
 * National flag
 * a way in which we can contact you (Whatsapp, Facebook, Snapchat, Skype, ...)

Criteria songs
Each participating country can only send one song to the contest each season. It must also fit the following criteria:
 * The running time of the song must be less than 7 minutes long. Some exceptions may be allowed, with the approval of the PBA. There is no minimum length limit.
 * A music video is not essential but the song must be available on YouTube in some capacity. Contestants will be allowed to upload and submit a song themselves, provided that it is not removed by the copyright holder.
 * The song cannot have competed in the Plastics Song Contest before, including if the song has been sung by a different artist. ( also not if the song competed in one of Plastics spin-offs)
 * An artist cannot sing two songs in a contest. First come first served, unless one country has claimed the artist beforehand.
 * Instrumentals and covers are allowed, as long as they comply with the above rules. ( covers are not accepted of songs that already competed in the contest)
 * No song is too mainstream or too obscure for the Plastics Song Contest - we promote the inclusion of all types of music.
 * As we encourage the inclusion of all forms of music, any song that has competed in the Eurovision Song Contest and associated spin-offs and national finals is completely eligible to compete, as long as it complies with the above rules.

National selection
An entry can be selected internally, or by a national final hosted by the nation's broadcaster. Participants in your national final compete for participation in Plastics for your country. The songs that participate may not have already taken part in the contest, but they may have been in other national finals. You cannot take songs from national finals from the same edition, you can take songs from a national final from another edition to represent your country. Songs in national finals can thus be used in other editions except the edition in which this national final takes place. There is no maximum for participants. The national broadcaster decides how this final will be completed, assistance can be sought from the PBA. PBA is an inspection body that checks whether everything is running correctly. You can let people from your area vote but also other countries that participate in PSC.

Spin-Offs
Anybody is allowed to host a spin-off, although participation in a spin-off cannot be made compulsory. The rules of any spin-off contest will follow the above Plastics Song Contest rules unless specifically stated otherwise within the contest. Additionally, any entries that have appeared in the Plastics Song Contest are ineligible for entry in subsequent spin-offs.

To host a spin-off, you must have access to both Skype / Discord and Facebook since we have some voters who only use one platform and we can't exclude anybody.

Spin-off Junior Plastics Song Contest
Junior Plastics Song Contest is a sideline contest where children up to the age of 18 participate with a song.

Spin-off Retro Plastics Song Contest
Retro Plastics Song Contest is a sideline contest where submissions are forwarded that came out after the year 1999. The first edition was held in Delmere, but there was never a winner, was more of a friendly edition.

Voting
All participating countries must vote before the given deadline or may incur penalties such as point reductions, disqualifications, or withdrawal from the contest. This includes countries who have not qualified from the semi-finals voting in the final. The voting system in place for Plastics Song Contest is 12, 10, 8-1 points to the ten favourite songs. A country cannot vote for its own entry.

Voting must be fair, free, and transparent. Members are absolutely not permitted to discuss their votes before they have been officially revealed, and may face consequences if these rules are breached. They must also not try to influence the vote of other members, or face permanent removal from the contest. When a country has broken rules that have serious consequences such as using false countries to get more votes they are to be received 8 editions break and if they repeat they are banned forever from the contest

Failing to Vote
Failing to vote in any round will result in that country finishing in last place by default. If multiple countries fail to vote, they will be ranked accordingly. This means that failing to vote in a Semi Final will result in disqualification from the Grand Final. If an automatic qualifier fails to vote in a Semi Final, they will surrender their place in the Grand Final to the highest scoring song that would've otherwise failed to qualify from the Semi Final in which they were supposed to vote. If a non-qualifier fails to vote in the Grand Final, they can't be penalised as they aren't voting. However, they may face penalty or removal from subsequent editions, as per normal. In concrete terms, this is that if you forget to vote three times you will receive a penalty for an absence in 4 editions. An absent vote counts for 1 show, so if you don't vote in an edition where there is a semi-final and a grand final this counts as two absent votes. Of course, it is also assumed that you have an invalid reason for this. For valid reasons, we can enable a backup voter that will vote for you, but chances are that these votes will not match what your opinion is. If you don't vote after the strike time frame, after those 4 editions, you will not participate again for 4 editions.

Winning
The country with the highest score in the Grand Final will be declared the winner! If there is a tie, then whoever had the most countries give points to their artist wins. If they are still tied, we go to rocks. The country with the most 12s wins. If its still tied, then it's the most 10s, and so on.

Hosting
The winner of the contest will be offered a chance to host the next edition in their country, with collaboration with the PBA. In the event that the winner declines the opportunity to host, the runner-up will be offered the chance, and if they reject this offer the 2nd runner up will be asked, and so-on. The host of the contest will be responsible for the presentation of the contest including a theme and logo. Assistance may be requested .If they fail to provide the information in the time manner required or choose not to host then 2nd place will be asked to provide that information

Behaviour
A healthy atmosphere in this group is very important. You may have an opinion and share it freely in the group, but it is not the intention that damage is done to specific target groups. To have a fun and healthy environment you are personally part of the atmosphere and you can make it through group chats, posts on the facebook group about your country / participation. If you hate and show inappropriate behavior, you can get a warning from the moderators or it can even lead to an expulsion from the group. You can strive for a pleasant atmosphere by group chats, or by taking up the mentorship where people can end up with certain problems or complaints. Moderators will continuously monitor the healthy playing environment.