Pro Bowl VIII: Convergence

The Pro Bowl is once again upon us, but with one major change from years past: This year the Pro Bowl competitions will be awarding Novae to the top three placing entries in each competition as well as the overall top three of the event as a whole! This is in addition to crescents being awarded to those placing 4th and beyond, depending on entries in keeping with MAA policy. This supercharging of the awards for the Pro Bowl has been granted by Grand Master Dacien Victae. It is a special perk to allow members the chance to earn those Novae as this will be the one chance members have to secure these coveted awards in 2024, so don't miss your shot!

This year's attendees hail from across the entire Brotherhood: Clans Vizsla, Scholae Palatinae, Naga Sadow, Taldryan, Odan-Urr, Arcona, Plagueis as well as the Council. The 2024 Pro Bowl will return to pitting two teams, the Frog-dogs and Rotworms (titans of the Huttball court) led by leaders from each clan and made up of equal parts of each clan's roster. The Pro Bowl will be hosted by the seven sitting Consuls of each of the Brotherhood's clans. The team captains will be a mix of the summit and senior members of all participating clans.

Overview

Pro Bowl VIII is a three-week, multi-event competition designed to test each and every member of the Brotherhood. An opening, week zero event will determine which order the team captains will have in a draft-style event led by the Pro Bowl organizers. The team captains will alternate their selections until the entire roster of all seven clans and the Council are split between them. Once the roster is set, the two teams will battle it out in a series of 32 additional competitions spread over the course of three weeks. Events will include the standard fare of Fiction, Graphics, Gaming, and Trivia, along with some less common events designed to help test each member of the Clans.

Schedule:

The Pro Bowl will be running on a very similar schedule to year's past, with our prologue week event starting August 26th. Then, we will have three single week rounds following that with the entire event ending September 22nd. Full week by week breakdowns are as follows:

• Prologue: August 26th - September 1st
• Week One: September 2nd - September 8th
• Week Two: September 9th - September 15th
• Week Three: September 16th - September 22nd

Communications:

Much as we had last year, Discord support for the Pro Bowl teams will be making their return. The Council has been gracious enough to set up a Pro Bowl chat area on Discord for the event once more, and will be handling the herculean task of assigning everyone to their teams. Team members will all be assigned roles for their team channels, so be on the lookout for when your team channel shows up!

Scoring:

Something that has been carried over from Pro Bowls past, is an emphasis on showing up. Every member, every entry will contribute to the overall score of each team, and lead one of them to victory. Contributions big and small up and down the roster, just like the 53 man roster of an American football team, are meaningful! This can be seen in the Pro Bowl scoring system:

Each individual will earn five points per event they participate in. Participation is defined as a valid submission for an event. Simply signing up for an event or uploading an unqualified submission will not count. You have to put in the effort in order to receive the reward. Participation will earn 5 points.

Additionally, the top three individuals in each event will earn placement modifier points. First place will earn 4 points, second place will earn 3 points, and third place will earn 2 points, and all other entries will earn 1 point. Events themselves will have modifiers based on their perceived difficulty/level of effort required. For example: the modifier for fiction will be 3, the modifier for gaming/graphics/poetry will be 2, and no modifier will be added to puzzle/trivia/flash events.

Grading formula: (Placement Score * Event Modifier) + Participation = Event Score

At the end of the competition, the individual scores for all three weeks will be added up, and the top scoring individuals will earn novae or crescents for the overall competition. Total scores for both teams, including the Prologue Week event, will determine the victorious team.

Members will get more points for placing, but the biggest way you can contribute to your team's victory (and bragging rights over your opponents, be they from other Clans or your fellow Clan-mates) is just being active.