Information EOY INFO AND RULES (3 Viewers)

Hey y’all. This is a rules page my End of Year (eoy) tournaments that I host Nov-Jan, specifically rules for selecting a song for the Song of the Year (soty) and B-side competitions, and some for participation. ‘Velvet, why the hell do we need these rules?’ Because having two tournaments is getting too convoluted and I take this seriously enough to make sure we have guidelines. Also I don’t wanna be a hypocrite. This shit’s gonna get really technical so bear with me.
Any amendments will be documented in the post down below and will be added to the OP.

Velvet, I’ve never even heard of these tourneys, what the fuck are they?
The soty and B-side tourneys are both knock-out tournaments that are held annually around seasonal months. Submissions are open from late October to early November, and close either the start of December, or early December. This is when voting starts. The voting period consists of rounds (usually two-three rounds before quarter finals, semis, then the grand and sometimes a third-place decider). Each round consists of matches, these are the individual battles between two songs, or three if circumstances are unfortunate. In the early rounds there are usually multiple matches uploaded a day. These matches either last a day or two depending on the popularity of the contest. The list of songs are randomised before being voted on.
Taglists are in use: Users who have submitted their entries are automatically added to it. They will be removed if they ask, or if a user who either hasn’t, or doesn’t want to, add a song asks as well.
Here’s an example of what I mean.

Why do you have two tournaments rather than just one?
I find that people tend to treat the soty tournament more as ‘comeback’ of the year. That with the fact that promoted/popular songs get more reach and are more familiar than B-sides makes me believe that having two tourneys is justified. There was also demand for a B-side tournament.

So, what are the submission rules?
Each user is able to enter two songs for each tournament from the year (this is from Dec of last year to Nov of the current year). You are able to remove or change entries throughout the submission period.
That’s not all though.
Because I now have two tournaments these submissions are gonna get more technical:

The soty tournament is for tracks promoted in the K-pop ecosystem. What I mean by that is the songs submitted should’ve been promoted on music shows such as music bank or inkigayo, or were promoted in the Korean entertainment industry, have had a music video along with its release, or have had their song circulated throughout Korean and/or K-pop communities. This includes pre-releases and follow-up MVs.

Take Illit’s ‘Bomb’ release for example: ‘Little Monster’ was released as a separate pre-release with a MV; ‘Do the Dance’ was the lead single promoted on music shows; and the MV for ‘Jellyous’ was released following two weeks, and was also promoted on music shows; All songs mentioned would’ve been accepted into the 2025 soty tournament.

Another instance would be K-pop Demon Hunters: Though the songs were not promoted in the conventional sense and didn’t have traditional MVs (they did have lyric videos albeit), the movie and soundtrack were so popular throughout the K-pop sphere that all the songs in the movie were made eligible.

Obviously, these rules can be stretched: digital singles and pre-releases do not need to be promoted nor have a MV to be eligible since they are released as one-offs, and B-sides, if they are popular enough, may also be eligible. Nugu groups who may not be able to promote their single are also able to be accepted.

Now onto B-sides: These are songs that do not comply with the soty rules above. These include special videos, performance videos, track videos, and visualisers (unless they’re popular enough, of course). I should also note that just because a song appears on a music show it does not automatically mean that the said song is eligible for the soty tournament; B-sides are traditionally promoted along with the single and/or are promoted for only a few days on a few shows.

For example, Ampers&one’s ‘Seesaw’ has a special performance video and was performed alongside the lead single ‘That’s That’ for The Show and Show Champion. Though it was promoted, it’s still a B-side.

An example of a ‘B-side’ that may be eligible for the soty tournament may include songs by popular idol groups that charted high in South Korea or were talked about on the same level as the promoted tracks. This may include Bts’ ‘Butterfly’ or Exo’s ‘First Snow.’ Songs like Le Sserafim’s ‘Sour Grapes’ might be considered for soty if they have enough push by users for them to be included, this will probably result in a pre-poll.

Here’s a table to summarise the differences between a soty song and a B-side song:

I will be using Kprofile’s comeback section as reference since this stuff can get tedious.

Ethics
If a song is submitted however there is a movement in the K-pop community to boycott the group or particular song, the song will then be accessed during the voting via vocaroo audio recorder/uploader, rather than linking the youtube video. Though users are encouraged to vote on song quality, other factors such as ethics and reputation aren’t necessarily discouraged either.

But, the K-pop adjacent acts? What about the K-pop adjacent acts!?
Good question! I’ve thought about this!
K-pop adjacent songs will be added to the soty tourney if the adjacent has promoted the song in Korea or if the song is talked throughout the K-pop community as a single.

For example ‘Gnarly’ by Katseye would be considered for soty since it was promoted in Korea, and ‘Gabriela’ would be considered too since the K-pop community took it as a single. A group like Dear Alice would not be considered as they have never promoted in Korea nor are they talked throughout the community that much.

For another example: XG’s 'Hypnotize' would be added since they have promoted the song on music shows for instance, but 'Gala' wouldn’t since XG did not promote that song in the K-pop sphere.
These rules can get hazy: Girlset for instance is a group that, though not necessarily attempting to associate with the K-pop sphere, have backing by some of the K-pop community. I may have considered them being included in the form of a pre-poll in 2025 with the song 'Tweak' for example. They have promoted their single 'Chat' on music shows though, thus 'Chat' would be eligible for soty.

In terms of B-sides: As long as the album/EP/single was promoted in the K-pop sphere the B-side will be considered. &team’s ‘Run Wild’ would be considered in the B-side tournament since ‘Go in Blind’ and the accompanying EP was promoted in Korea.

If there are multiple language versions of said song then I will be including both the original promotional language version and the Korean version.

What about other Korean Acts that aren't necessarily K-pop?
I will accept any non K-pop korea entries including Krnb and K-rock for soty if they are popular within the K-pop community and/or have been promoted with the ecosystem.
I will also accept B-sides if the single was promoted within the ecosystem too.

Any participation rules?
The tournaments are attempting to find the most agreed upon song of the year, not the most biased artist, so it's important to listen to the songs before voting, rather than voting based on what group you like better.
Also literally just be nice and don’t campaign. That’s it.

Thank you for clarifying stuff, Velvet!
You’re welcome! If confused about anything, please ask in the thread, I do need feedback. Okay thanks bye!

Admendments:

Sorry for unnecessary pinging, y'all are a lot of people (I'm tagging everyone from last year's b-side contest), but I'm setting up the (late-enough) info pages and I wanna get feedback on these fresh guidelines and make sure they're good before October.
Are these good? Shit? Is there some rule I should change or outright add?
Are the rules written clear? Is there anything I need to elaborate on? Or should I write less for certain sections?
I know it's a lot but I take this seriously enough to make sure the next tournaments go smoothly so thank you for your time and consideration :)

Selfmate said:

I some for reason really liked this section lol

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Credit to @alo for the suggestion!

centen said:

This is more a comment as the forum's resident LOCKET than anything, but GIRLSET has been promoting "Chat" on Korean shows lately, so that may self-resolve whether that "counts" or not. Though there's also A2O May, who I mentally consider Kpop adjacent, but they're also promoting on Korean shows lately so... More musing than anything :)

I also think you should add to the participation rules the expectation that people listen to the songs before voting. I often find some new favorites (like Gyubin's Like U 100) this way, but we all know how it can go with people literally commenting essentially, "X is my favorite group, so even though I didn't like X's song and haven't heard the other artist's song, I'm going to vote for my faves." And that's less fun, you know?

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I forgot to amend with chat lol, I wrote these rules in January/February so I've missed certain keystones like Girlset finally being on Korean shows, I'll fix up that example

I'll add 'listen to the songs' to the participation rules, I also like to remind everyone just before contest/during it to listen to the songs too. Thanks for the feedback!

Harumasa said:

Ohh, I like the technicality, I read most of it, and I love the rules. I wish I followed K-pop better this year. Also curious, Kr&b will not count, right?

Also, just letting you know I'll be changing my user soon, I want to be tagged!!!

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Good question I did not think about krnb, I will allow it if it was popular enough to make rounds in the kpop community and was promoted on music shows

Noted!