Commissioner’s Note: Sometime by May 8, 2013, the rules will change to reflect the new scoring system.

General Rules

Every league member (performer) must be 21 years of age or older and must have read and agreed to the District Karaoke rules and waiver of liability.
Each performer must wear his or her team District Karaoke t-shirt while performing, but may wear costumes so long as the team t-shirt is still visible. If a performer fails to wear his or her District Karaoke t-shirt, the player will receive a score of zero (0) for his or her performance. T-shirts may be modified, but the shirt must remain wearable, and worn above the waist, for the duration of the season.
All District Karaoke league members must abide by all laws regarding alcohol consumption. Further, all rules of the host establishment shall be strictly enforced. Rowdy, disrespectful, violent or otherwise problematic league members may be subject to disciplinary actions, including, but not limited to disqualification, suspension or expulsion from league activities.
Prohibited behaviors (also known as Cori Rules) shall include: hanging/climbing on or around stages, throwing items that may break something, throwing glitter or similar hard-to-clean material, using liquids in such a way to create an unsafe environment for the singers or the audience.

Division Structure

Each division shall be composed of six (6) teams of no more than eight (8) performers, unless otherwise permitted by District Karaoke.
Each team should have at least two (2) male and two (2) female performers.
One (1) member of each team shall act as “team manager.” A team manager is responsible for submitting weekly song lists, requests for substitution or grievances. If a team manager cannot be perform their duties on any given week, he or she shall appoint another team member to act as manager for that week.

Gameplay

The regular season lasts for eight (8) weeks long and is followed by two (2) additional weeks for the semi-final round and finals.
Each evening of District Karaoke consists of three (3) consecutive rounds of play. In the first and second rounds, a member of each team sings a solo. In the third round, at least two (2) performers must sing as a “group.” [Commissioner's Tip: This means that on any given night, as long as two (2) performers are in attendance, you can fully participate!]
Each performer must sing at least two (2) solos during the regular season. Group performances are not counted towards this total. Exceptions may be made if they are communicated to a District Karaoke representative in advance (i.e., if a performer drops out, is unresponsive, etc.).
Twenty-four hours before the night begins, each team manager shall submit a list of performers (known as the song list) of their team’s performers and their chosen songs to District Karaoke.

○ In the event that two teams choose to sing the same song on the same night, whomever submitted the song first will sing that particular song. The other team will be notified by District Karaoke must select a new song by the start of the second round.

○ If the song list is not received within five (5) minutes of the start of the first round, the team will collectively lose five (5) points for every minute they are late in providing their song list.

No song may be performed twice in any one season. A list of songs that have already been performed shall be shared on the District Karaoke blog and sent via email to all performers.
In the case of technical difficulty, the team experiencing the problem will be shifted to the end of the round order and may select a new song.
If a team member is prevented from performing, the District Karaoke representative must be contacted via email with the reason for substitutions. Substitutions may be considered for, but are not limited to, events resulting from the injury, sudden illness, family emergency, or work-related emergency of that team member. Should a substitution be approved, the substitute must perform the same song that the original performer planned to sing.
Under no circumstances will heckling be permitted. If a complaint is received about any league member showing unsportsmanlike conduct, they will receive one (1) warning. If the inappropriate behavior continues, that performers team will receive a score of zero (0) during that round. If the problem continues after that, the individual(s) will be banned from the District Karaoke and the division bar, without any refund of his or her registration fee.
District Karaoke reserves the right to permanently ban songs once determined that no one can sing them well or they’re just too damn long and it’s just not worth the pain. For that reason, the following songs are currently banned: “Free Bird,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and “My Heart Will Go On.”

Scoring

Regular Season Scoring
Scoring of District Karaoke performers is conducted using District Karaoke’s online voting system, unless otherwise determined.
In order to score a performer, the score must be present at the host venue.
The voting website for each round will ask each voter to rate the performers in that round in two (2) categories, from 1 to 10. Voters may rate performers on how well they “bring it” during their performance in these two categories:

○ “Sing It” (musicality) – The impression made by the performer in a strictly auditory sense.

○ “Schwing It” (performance) – The effect of the performer made on the voter, judged on the look, presence, movement and fun presented. It has nothing to do with “hotness,” according to our lawyers.

Individual scores will be averaged, so that the highest score that an individual performer can achieve is 20.
To determine the team score, all three (3) rounds of scores will be totaled. The highest score that a team can achieve is 60.
The performer with the highest average score will be declared the winner for that round. In the event of a tie, co-winners will be declared for the round. The winner of each round will not be announced until the end of final round.
The team with the highest cumulative score for the evening will be declared that week’s winner and their scores will be added to their cumulative team score for regular season play.
District Karaoke reserves the right to discount votes when necessary to maintain scoring integrity (e.g., eliminating multiple votes for the same team from the same person).
At no times is it appropriate to score teams “unfairly” or in any manner that does not reflect a prima facie opinion of the performance. If it is determined that a team or affiliates of a team are purposely scoring a team or teams negatively without respect to their performance, District Karaoke reserves the right to take necessary actions to curb such activities.
All scorers are encouraged to be supportive of the District Karaoke community, at all times.
Semifinals, Finals and City-Wide Finals
Scoring at the Semifinals, Finals and City-Wide Finals will follow the same processes as scoring during the regular season with one variation.
At the Semifinals, Finals and City-Wide Finals, a panel of judges will also be scoring the performers. The judges’ scores will be combined to constitute 50% of each performers overall score. The audience will make up the other 50%.

Playoffs

At the conclusion of Week 8, the team scores will be used to determine each team’s playoff rank and will be used to seed each team.
Playoffs will last two (2) weeks. The first week will be the Semifinals and the second week will be the Finals.
In the Semifinals, teams will face off head-to-head. The first place, or highest scoring, team will play the sixth place, or lowest scoring, team, the second place team will play the fifth place team, and the third place team will play the fourth place team.
In the Finals, the winners of the semifinal round face-offs will compete for first, second and third places. Those teams that are defeated in the Semifinal face-offs will compete for fourth, fifth and sixth places. Final placement will be determined by the scores achieved in the semifinal and final rounds.
In both the Semifinals and Finals, each team will have two (2) solo performances and one (1) group performance.
During the Semifinals and Finals, performers may sing a song that had been sung during the regular season. However, if a song is performed during the Semifinals, it cannot be performed during the Finals.
The team manager must submit songs in accordance to the regular season rules, as described in the Gameplay section of these rules.
In the event of a tie, the team managers from each team will face-off, each with a song of their own choosing and a vote will take place.
The top team(s) from each division will proceed to the City-Wide Finals.

Grievance

If any team or team member believes another team or team member has violated a District Karaoke rule, the team manager should inform a District Karaoke representative of the violation before that evening’s winners are announced. Violations raised before the end of the evening will be investigated and taken into account in the scoring of that round.
If a team member discovers that another team or team member has violated one of these rules after the winners are announced, the team manager has 48 hours to inform a District Karaoke representative via email. Emailed grievances will be investigated, and, if necessary, may result in action against the offending team or team member in the following week. However, no adjustment to the previous week’s scores will be permitted as a remedy.
No grievance may be filed against any District Karaoke representative regarding scoring or the winners.

These rules may be altered or amended at any time, with or without notice, by District Karaoke staff.

Last Updated: March 7, 2013