One mark, from one juror
mark = Σ (score × weight) ÷ Σ weight
Where score: what the juror gave a criterion · weight: the one the phase set for it. If every weight is zero, the criteria count equally.
Two decimals, always on the phase's own scale.
The formulas
Every result, a formula you can redo
Jury marks, public votes, a blend, a ranking. No black box and no “trust us”: here is the arithmetic, so you can check it before you complain.
- The same formula in every competition
- Weights announced before the first mark
- Nothing typed in by the organiser
The path of a result
From a mark to a place, in five steps
Each step is a formula below. Between the phase's page, the board and the marks a competitor receives, every number it needs is on a screen.
Mark
A juror scores each criterion; the platform weighs them into one mark.
Level
When different jurors judged different works, their strictness is evened out.
Count
Every vote weighs one, free, paid or offered.
Blend
The jury and the public become one score on the scale.
Rank
The table is ordered, ties are settled, the line of who goes through is drawn.
The formulas
Five formulas, to read in this order
Nothing that asks for more than a calculator. The coffee is optional.
Evening out the strictness
levelled mark = mark + (mean of all counted marks − this juror's mean)
Where Only when several batches were judged by different jurors, and only for a juror who gave at least 5 marks. The result stays between zero and the scale. The raw mark is kept and the adjustment is shown.
A harsh juror is not punished and a generous one is not rewarded: the gaps between works stay exactly as the juror drew them.
The jury's share of a work
jury share = Σ levelled marks of the work ÷ (jurors × scale)
Where jurors: the jurors expected on that work, minus those who declared a link with it · scale: the phase's maximum. Never above one.
A juror who recuses does not cost the work a slice of its pillar for being honest.
The public's share of a work
public share = votes of the work ÷ votes of the whole phase
Where Every vote weighs one, free, paid or offered; a pack of ten is ten votes. In a battle, the share is taken between the two works of the match.
Money buys votes. Votes make the score. Nobody buys a coefficient.
The score
score = 100 × (J × jury share + P × public share) ÷ (J + P)
Where J and P: the jury's and the public's weights, announced by the phase before the first mark; only their ratio matters (8 and 2 rank like 80 and 20). A phase that weighs neither gets the platform's split (70 and 30).
Two pillars, normalised differently on purpose: the jury against what was achievable, the public against what was cast.
The table
Ranking, ties and who goes through
Once the scores are in, the order and the cut are rules, not opinions.
Highest score first
The table is ordered by score, highest first.
A written ladder for ties
Equal scores: the stronger jury share, then the stronger public share, then the earlier delivery, then the earlier registration, then the participant's identifier. The order is total, and the same on every reading.
A juror for the ties that matter
A tie-break juror, chosen before the phase starts, can settle a tie on the qualification line, on the podium of a final or between the two sides of a match. She reads the works by letters, never by names.
The qualification line
The top N, or ⌈ field × share ÷ 100 ⌉, rounded up. The field is those who delivered a work, or everyone registered (the absent at zero, at the bottom) if the phase says so.
Battles
Two works, one winner
A match is a small ranking of two.
- Each side gets its score, with the public share taken between the two works of the match
- The higher score wins; a tie goes to the tie-break juror, then to the written ladder
- A side with no work to evaluate loses by forfeit; two empty sides, nobody goes through
- A side with no opponent goes through, and the draw can be redone identically from its seed
Pools
Everybody meets everybody, in small groups
A pool brings together 3 to 5 competitors who meet one another, one match per day, each match settled as a battle.
- A win is worth 3 points, a defeat none; there is no draw
- Inside a pool: the points, then the direct match if exactly two are level, then the sum of the match scores, then the written ladder
- The first 2 of each pool go through by default; the organiser sets how many
- Pools are shared out in a snake order by seed, and their sizes differ by one at most
While it runs
The live board counts votes. The sealed table counts everything.
Two numbers, on purpose: they do not measure the same thing.
One is a number of votes, the other a score out of a hundred: both are right, they answer different questions.
While the phase runs
- Ordered by the votes each work has received, free and paid together
- Moves with every vote, and only with that work's own votes
- The jury enters at the close by default, so that the first work judged does not lead the table
At the close
- The blend is computed once, for every work, on frozen totals
- Severity is levelled and ties are settled
- The table is sealed and dated, and the organiser cannot rewrite it
Your turn
Two works, three jurors, one public vote
A phase out of 10, 3 jurors, a 70 / 30 split. Redo each column with a calculator: if you find anything other than we do, we want to know, quickly.
| Work A | Work B | |
|---|---|---|
| Jury marks | 8 · 7.5 · 9 | 7 · 8 · 8 |
| Jury points | 24.5 | 23 |
| Jury share: points ÷ (3 × 10) | 0.82 | 0.77 |
| Votes | 600 | 400 |
| Public share: votes ÷ 1,000 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Score | 75.17 | 65.67 |
An example, not a result: the numbers are invented, the arithmetic is the platform's.
What we keep
The marks of each juror are not published
We publish the scoring: it has nothing to hide. We do not publish the marks of each juror (the public reads what a work received as a whole), nor the precise limits that slow abuse: telling a cheat where the tripwire is would be called a tutorial.
Not convinced? Redo the sum.
Open a phase, read its weights, take the two numbers on its board and do the arithmetic. If you find a gap, we want to hear it, loudly.