Rules

Our Slam Rules

1. All poets are welcome to compete. All you need to do is show up in time to signup. There are generally eight slots. But exceptions are mad on occasion.
2. Each piece you perform must be an original work.
3. You cannot use props. Props are best defined as anything that other poets DO NOT have access to.
4. Each poet has three minutes to complete their piece. You get a ten second grace period. After that we deduct a half point for every ten seconds over time.
5. Poems are scored by the judges. The judges are picked randomly from the audience.
6. The scores are between zero and ten. Zero being the worst. Ten being the absolute best.
7. The highest and lowest scores are dropped. This helps to avoid judges that are partial or averse to certain poets.
8. Each round scores are totaled. After each round lower scoring poets are dropped. The highest cumulative scores proceed to the final round.
9. The top two scoring poets win a slot to compete in the semi-final completion for the national team. If poets have already qualified the qualifying slots are given to the next highest ranking poet.
10. The best poet always looses....