Rapid-Fire Voxtar Rivalry- Total FC's through 6 weeks!

**socialskills** · Joined: 26 Jun 2007 Posts: 589

Sorry, this rivalry is open on an invite-only basis. Here's why:
It's never any fun to exclude people from these kinds of things, but the larger the rivalry, the more time it would take to administer, and none of us really has that kind of time on our hands. If anyone would like to pattern their rivalry after this one, feel free!

Week ? Songs
*PM your scores to socialskills. Please be sure to include percentages and streaks.*
Results will be posted as soon as all scores are received, or on the day after each song is due. Weekly awards will be posted on Saturday.

Monday, ?/? -
Tuesday, ?/? -
Wednesday, ?/? -
Thursday, ?/? -
Friday, ?/? -

Week 6 results
(Alive; A Jagged Gorgeous Winter; Psycho Killer; Any Way You Want It; Today)

Week 5 results
(Eye of the Tiger; Where'd You Go?; Livin' on a Prayer; Down with the Sickness; Depserate Times, Desperate Measures)

Week 4 results
(Hungry Like the Wolf; Mountain Song; Shoulder to the Plow; Let There Be Rock; I Wanna Be Your Man)

Week 3 results
(Spirit in the Sky; One Way or Another; Rob the Prez-O-Dent; Battery; Get It On)

Week 2 results
(Man in the Box; Bad Reputation; PDA, Colony of Birchmen; The Time is Wrong)

Week 1 results
(We Got the Beat; The Middle; Rock'n Me; Everlong; Like A Fool)

Current release schedule:
Week 1: Sunday, November 30
Week 2: Sunday, December 7
Week 3: Sunday, December 14
Week 4: Sunday, January 11
Week 5: Sunday, February 1
Week 6: Sunday, February 8
Week 7: Late March?

Scoreboard/Information
Highest Score, by Week (sum of all song scores for one week)
Week 1: nillacocajola (2,324,344); socialskills (2,196,366); twistedoak (2,195,823); sentimentalgeek (2,056,639); qirex (1,988,743); SilverSwift (1,975,151)
Week 2: nillacocajola (2,310,031); twistedoak (2,212,421); sentimentalgeek (2,091,495); socialskills (2,078,086); qirex (2,041,750)
Week 3: twistedoak (2,043,960); sentimentalgeek (1,855,440); qirex (1,679,369); socialskills (1,583,091)
Week 4: socialskills (2,285,855); twistedoak (2,184,169); sentimentalgeek (2,143,177); qirex (2,061,701); SilverSwift (1,495,101)
Week 5: socialskills (2,793,658); twistedoak (2,738,064); qirex (2,579,450); sentimentalgeek (2,541,296); SilverSwift (2,237,527)
Week 6: qirex (2,148,020); socialskills (2,081,833); twistedoak (2,074,008); sentimentalgeek (2,049,390); SilverSwift (765,095)

Most FC's, by Week (sum of all FC's for one week; vox and guitar treated as separate FC's)
Week 1: nillacocajola (9)
Week 2: nillacocajola (9)
Week 3: sentimentalgeek (4)
Week 4: sentimentalgeek (6)
Week 5: sentimentalgeek, socialskills, twistedoak (7)
Week 6: socialskills (7)

Highest Single Score, by Week (highest absolute score earned for any one song in one week)
Week 1: nillacocajola (520,978; Everlong)
Week 2: twistedoak (612,609; PDA)
Week 3: twistedoak (467,570; Rob the Prez-O-Dent)
Week 4: sentimentalgeek (556,122; Hungry Like the Wolf)
Week 5: socialskills (828,960; Down with the Sickness)
Week 6: twistedoak (573,009; Alive)

Most Dominant Victory, by Week (largest margin between 1st and 2nd place for any one song in one week)
Week 1: nillacocajola (44,416; Rock'n Me)
Week 2: nillacocajola (64,688; Colony of Birchmen)
Week 3: twistedoak (53,451; Rob the Prez-O-Dent)
Week 4: SilverSwift (57,444; I Wanna Be Your Man)
Week 5: SilverSwift (26,762; Where'd You Go?)
Week 6: sentimentalgeek (20,790; A Jagged Gorgeous Winter)

Highest Score, total (sum of all song scores for all weeks)
As of the end of Week 5: twistedoak (11,374,437); socialskills (10,937,056); sentimentalgeek (10,688,047); qirex (10,351,113); SilverSwift (5,707,779); nillacocajola (4,634,375)

Most FC's, total (sum of all FC's for all weeks, as of the end of Week 6)
twistedoak, socialskills (33); sentimentalgeek (32); qirex, nillacocajola (18); SilverSwift (10)
*song-by-song breakdown here, courtesy of SilverSwift!

Not sure if we even need the following two awards, but leaving them here for posterity.
Highest Single Score, total (highest absolute score on a single song earned during rivalry period)
Longest FC Streak, total (determined chronologically; either vox or guitar FC's will count towards the creation or continuation of a streak; double-FC's will count as two FC's towards the streak)

Rivalry FAQ
What is a rapid-fire rivalry?
Glad you asked. A rapid-fire rivalry is one in which short deadlines are implemented in order to somewhat level the playing field between those who are willing and able to path and play through a single song dozens of times and those who are not.

All participants have agreed that while striving to create an optimal path and then FC'ing a song may be fun in its way, there is something to be said for a competition in which the winner may not always necessarily be the one who discovers and then implements an optimal run, with all of the time commitment that this feat entails.

When will the song list be released, and when are scores due?
A 5-song list will be released on Sunday at 5PM Pacific time, with the deadline for the first song being on Monday night, the deadline for the second song being Tuesday night, etc., until the last song is due on Friday night. Scores are due at midnight for each individual player's timezone, with an exception for qirex, who has until 3am.

How will the songs be chosen, and what songs are eligible?
A randomizer website will be used, and songs will be from the RB2 main setlist or the 20 free DLC songs. The RB2 main setlist will be split into quarters (there are 84 songs; 4 songs will be excluded, leaving an even 20 songs for each quarter) and we will progress from easiest to hardest from Monday through Thursday. One of the 20 free DLC tracks will be selected for Friday. Thanks to a great suggestion from SG, we have eliminated the following talky-heavy songs: So What'cha Want, Testify, Visions, Give It Away.

How are winners determined?
Multiple categories of winners will be determined on a weekly basis and then in total at the end of the rivalry (see above). This should allow for multiple skill-sets to be awarded.

Participants - timezones/schedules
socialskills - Pacific/T,W,F 5pm-11pm and Saturdays; no vacation
nillacocajola - Central/weekdays 6pm-1am and weekends
qirex - Eastern/10pm-2am "some time" during weekends; vacation 12/21 - 1/1
sentimentalgeek - Pacific/erratic; vacation 12/19 - 1/1
SilverSwift - GMT/10am-4pm; vacation 12/23-28, 1/2-5
twistedoak - Mountain/10pm-2am

**qirex** · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 1057

**sentimentalgeek** · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 1075 Location: Seattle, WA

First of all: YAY! I'm really excited for this! Thanks so much for inviting me.

I've been waiting to do something like this for a looooooong time.

Timezone: I'm on PST. My schedule for the next couple weeks is going to be somewhat erratic but in general, Sunday should be fine as the announcing day, and I'd prefer for deadlines to be midnight PST rather than EST since I need those extra evening hours!

Schedule: Dec 1st through 13th should be great. The week following December 14th may not work too well for me though, because I'll likely be traveling then. I haven't finalized my plans yet though - I'll try to update as soon as I know more.

Eligible songs: I'd prefer sticking to the 84 disc songs as well. As far as difficult songs, I haven't played them yet but there are 5 songs I suspect I will have trouble passing (Battery, Painkiller, Panic Attack, Visions, Shackler's Revenge). All because of guitar, of course (boo for the vocalist not being able to save the guitarist during solos...). However, I'm not entirely sure I want to throw those songs out because, well, the rivalry is meant to be a challenge, right? If anything, the songs I kind of want to remove from the list are the all-talky songs (Visions, Testify, So Whatcha Want, and Give It Away, although it has that one sung phrase at the end). Reason being that these songs are kind of hard *not* to FC on vocals - just make a constant droning noise the entire time and you're pretty much good. So I don't think they are a very good indicator of voxtarring ability, but maybe others will disagree. (Also, So Whatcha Want is kind of mindnumbingly boring on all instruments, imho. :P Apologies to anyone who likes the song.)

Misc: I like qirex's idea of making this rivalry a bit interactive and would enjoy doing some online stream battles, but it may be ambitious to find a time for all of us to do that every week.

If we figure out a way to make it work though, I'm up for it!

Final thing is that I don't know about the rest of you but I'm currently signed up for RB2 Full Band league, so I'm going to need to split my time between this rivalry and the league. I'm a bit concerned that, even with the rapidfire format, 5 songs a week might be a *bit* much. What about 3 songs a week - due Monday, Wednesday, Friday? If everyone else really wants to do 5 though, I will understand and will find a way to swing it (even if it means only being able to play each song once or twice).
_________________

RB1/RB2/GHWT Expert Vocal/Voxtar Vids
84/84 RB2 Expert Vocals FCed on Oct 20, 2008!

ACCS: GH | RB | RB2 | PH Balanced

**cdylan13** · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 5828 Location: Richmond, VA

Wow this rivalry looks great! Good luck to you all. I need to re-start voxtaring... Haven't done it in so long lol but I've gotten so much better in Vox and Guitar so hopefully I've gotten better.

**SilverSwift** · Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 2057

Thanks for inviting me into this!

Timezone/Schedule: I'm going to be the outlier here, seeing as I'm in the UK, therefore going on GMT. Currently I have more free time than I can handle, and can play more or less any day, though during the day is better (say 10am - 4pm GMT, though I can also do after that, up to around 8pm). If I get a job, that becomes 6pm - 9pm GMT each day, though obviously I could be busy some evenings. Currently fine with any schedule though.

Songs: I'm good for any songs, and I think SG's idea on excluding all-talky songs is a good one, though we'll need to draw up a list. =P If I had to veto one song, it'd probably be Battery, for a number of reasons.

Other: Sadly I can't stream- then again, as I'm in GMT, I doubt it would matter anyway, seeing as it's 5am here when qirex is free, for example. Don't let my absence impede the live stream idea though, it'd be amazing if it could be practically set up. Also, perhaps we could occasionally throw a twist in, such as playing a song on voxdrums, or voxbass...something like that, but more inventive.

Those things aside, looking forward to being the whipping boy of this rivalry!

_________________

emptyset wrote:

I should ban you all and never look back.

**nillacocajola** · Joined: 26 Nov 2007 Posts: 654 Location: Kentucky

Glad to see all the positive reaction so far. I knew this was going to be pretty awesome, but it's shaping up to be a lot more than I initially thought.

I'm also going to be wrapped up in RB2 Full Band Leagues, so time is pretty tight for me as well. Still, I could do 5 songs - I just wouldn't have the time to go back and play a few of them more than once or twice in a day, as well. No big deal, though - it's up to you guys.

Deadlines: In the interest of fairness, I think we have two viable options...

1.) Results should be in by midnight in individual timezones (exception would be qirex).
OR
2.) Results should be in by midnight at a set universal timezone, such as PST (exception would be SilverSwift).

Either option would allow for some minor difficulties or imbalances, but those are simple suggestions. We can work around any problems you guys have with scheduling; feel free to offer suggestions on it and we'll work those out.

I haven't had any major troubles with particular songs at this point other than songs I haven't sung solo yet (Our Truth

), but ruling out those talky songs seems like a good idea for the time being - rather, I wouldn't mind just doing those on my own time while excluding them from the rivalry.But if anyone wants to exclude a song or two, it's fine by me.

I'm working on streaming, but I don't know how to set it up with my laptop. I've got a Dell Integrated Webcam and Dell Video Chat, etc. so if anyone could help me out, that'd be great.

Can't wait to get this started. It's going to be fun.

**twistedoak** · Joined: 06 Sep 2007 Posts: 1152

I'm up for it (I got the pm). I can get a song or 2 done late night pretty much any day. I'm going to be fairly involved in the leagues again this season (2 full bands and dlc vocals if it goes through), so most of my run throughs will probably be only one or 2 times each.

My preference is dlc being as I have all of it, but I'm fairly flexible

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**socialskills** · Joined: 26 Jun 2007 Posts: 589

Hey all, thanks for the quick responses. With the addition of SilverSwift and twistedoak, we have everyone that we submitted invitations to. I think we're pretty much at the limit of how many people we should have, but if there's a "must-invite" that you can think of, let me know.

I've updated the lineup and schedules in the OP. twistedoak: can you give me your timezone and free time? I'm using the free time listings to figure the "day 0" and deadline situations, plus they'll be useful if we enact qirex's stream idea.

After reading through the responses let me try to summarize:

- Most people seem to be okay with using the 84-song main setlist. oak favors including DLC, and maybe we can do one song a week of DLC. The only problem there, obviously, would be organizing our lists of DLC to determine which DLC we share. Thoughts on using DLC for the rivalry?

- A few participants are also in leagues; SG has suggested cutting down from 5 to 3 songs per week. My personal preference would be to keep the list at 5; even though I'm not going to do leagues this year I don't have very much time in general, so I'll probably feel the squeeze as well. My reasoning for keeping the list at 5 is that I fully intend to play through some of these songs 3x or less for this rivalry, so if other people play it that way it won't be a huge time investment. Thoughts?

- nilla brought up a great point about deadlines. Out of his two ideas (deadlines specific to player's own timezone vs. set deadline regardless of timezone) I like setting a deadline specific to each player's timezone. My proposal, easily enough, would be midnight at whatever time is local to each player. Thoughts?

Apologies if I missed anything, but I think these are the main things that we should discuss.

Also, qirex was generous enough to set up an IRC channel for this rivalry that we can use for real-time discussions. q, can you PM everyone with the information for that channel?

EDIT: Oops, missed something. Seems like most people favor not excluding any songs, except SG's suggestion for excluding the all-talkies. I like that idea; what does everyone else think of that? Is the list that SG provided a complete list of those types of songs?
_________________

Accomplishments
- Over 110 million solo RB1 points!
- 2,029 of 2,030 possible solo RB1 stars!
- All 3,255 RB1 BWT stars collected (solo, voxtar, expert)

Voxtar guide.

**sentimentalgeek** · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 1075 Location: Seattle, WA

DLC: At this point I would kind of favor no DLC, but that's because I hardly own any. Hey, I got my 360 only about 10 days before RB2 came out alright? :P But in all fairness, I'd be happy to try voxtarring any DLC we all happen to own.

SilverSwift also liked my idea of excluding the all-talky songs, and I believe my list was comprehensive at least for disc songs: So Whatcha Want, Testify, Visions, and arguably Give It Away.

I'm fine with the deadline being midnight for each player's timezone. I think we're all good sports here and won't abuse this or anything.

And like I said, I'm fine with trying to do 5 songs a week. I see how the whole point of the "rapid-fire" rivalry would be kind of lost if we cut the number down and gave everyone more time to obsess over each song, so fair enough.

Question: I may be the only one with this concern, but what happens if we can't pass a song? Do we submit the percentage of the song we were able to complete? Can we step it down a difficulty?
_________________

RB1/RB2/GHWT Expert Vocal/Voxtar Vids
84/84 RB2 Expert Vocals FCed on Oct 20, 2008!

ACCS: GH | RB | RB2 | PH Balanced

**twistedoak** · Joined: 06 Sep 2007 Posts: 1152

I'm in Arizona time (Which is now Mountain, but with no daylight savings time in the spring/summer).

Free time happens on weekends and late night (10pm-2 am ish) every night.

I'm ok with the 84 songs, but most everyone does these songs over and over again...I'm sure quite a few of these songs have been pathed already and done to certain likings. With the dlc, there's less of a chance of that, and more chance of a spontaneous run.

But I understand that not everyone has dlc, and that makes it difficult. I'll go along with whatever you guys want.
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**qirex** · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 1057

**sentimentalgeek** · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 1075 Location: Seattle, WA

Sorry to spam the thread some more, but I'm about to head to my parents' place for Thanksgiving and I may not have much internet access there. By the time I get access to internet/360 again, the rivalry will have started so I'd better voice all my opinions now.

About DLC/20 Free: As per qirex's idea, I suppose I'm okay with one song per week that's DLC or from the 20 Free list. I'm not going to get a chance to download any of the 20 Free before the rivalry starts but, eh, it's a challenge, right? In case people decide we want to include DLC that everyone owns, I'll list the DLC I own right here, since I'm probably the person with the least amount of it.

My Sharona
Can't Stand Losing You
Synchronicity
Roxanne
Brass In Pocket
Dirty Little Secret
Move Along
Interstate Love Song
Don't Look Back In Anger
Live Forever
Wonderwall
Roam
Why Do You Love Me
Crushcrushcrush
Peace Of Mind
More Than A Feeling
Smokin'
Rock And Roll Band
Something About You
Hitch A Ride
Still Alive
Simple Man
Message In A Bottle
Call Me
Hier Kommt Alex
Monsoon
Perfekte Welle
Moving To Seattle
Rio
Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)
Hands Down
Suck My Kiss
Under The Bridge
All Right Now
Nearly Lost You
Self Esteem

Apart from that, I don't have incredibly strong objections to anything anyone's suggested so far. You're all awesome people, so most likely whatever you all decide in my absence will be fine by me.

_________________

RB1/RB2/GHWT Expert Vocal/Voxtar Vids
84/84 RB2 Expert Vocals FCed on Oct 20, 2008!

ACCS: GH | RB | RB2 | PH Balanced

**socialskills** · Joined: 26 Jun 2007 Posts: 589

Based on input so far, I think we're all agreed on at least the following points (where people have either expressed positivity towards the proposals or neutrality):

1. There will be 5 songs per week.
2. Deadline is midnight in each player's timezone (exception for qirex: 3am).
3. So Whatcha Want, Testify, Visions, and Give It Away will be excluded.

If you have objections to these rules, please raise them this week, as the rivalry will start this coming Sunday.

As for SG's question about not being able to pass a song: I favor the "percentage done" option, and this looks like the standard way of handling it. Thoughts?

As far as oak's contention that the main setlist has been played to death and possibly pathed, I'll go on the record and say that I haven't pathed a single song and that I've only played 5 songs in RB2's setlist more than once (did them all once for a voxtar SR competition). Dunno why, but I get the feeling that across all participants none of us have done much pathing, so hopefully this can assuage some of oak's concerns.

I personally don't like the idea of the 20 freebies, as q suggested, but that's for purely selfish reasons as I hate 99% of those songs. Officially, though, call me "neutral" on that one.

Based on SG's list of DLC, if she's the limiting factor, I have most of that DLC and wouldn't mind buying some if one of the ones that were to come up randomly is one that she has and I don't. Anyone else in favor of using the DLC over the freebies and calling SG's list official?

Whichever we go on that, 20 free or DLC, I say that we always make that particular selection the Friday song, which would at least give SG a chance to download the 20 if we go that way. Plus, it'll be a nice bonus on Friday to play DLC rather than a main setlist song. Thoughts?

Thanks again to everyone for the prompt responses. Hopefully I don't come off as too much of an ass while trying to get the rules set; I think all of you can understand that I'm just trying to get things sorted and am not trying to be a dick.

_________________

Accomplishments
- Over 110 million solo RB1 points!
- 2,029 of 2,030 possible solo RB1 stars!
- All 3,255 RB1 BWT stars collected (solo, voxtar, expert)

Voxtar guide.

**SilverSwift** · Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 2057

That all sounds good to me, no objections on my end, although I might cry if I have to play any Oasis songs...

So we're kicking this off on Sunday? Excellent! It'll be great fun. Also in the DLC, should we include the RB1 imports? Or is everyone tired of those by now?
_________________

emptyset wrote:

I should ban you all and never look back.

**socialskills** · Joined: 26 Jun 2007 Posts: 589