The Press Box Announces its First Ever Writing Tournament on Medium
Do you have it in you to make it to the top bracket?
Howdy-doody!
It’s me, Vain Jaguar, the captain of The Press Box (TPB). If you’re wondering who the heck is Vain Jaguar, it’s an anagram of my name, Gaurav Jain.
In cricket, we say a captain is as good as his team. And boy! How good have you made me — and the entire team — look in the last couple of weeks since we entered the Medium stadium.
But this post is not about giving you a scorecard of how we are doing.
Today, I want to announce our first ever writing tournament on Medium. Yoo-hoo!
The tournament starts as soon as I publish this newsletter. There will be exciting prizes worth $100 for the winner and runner-up. Stay tuned for details!
Let’s talk about the tournament format, timelines, and RULES. Hey! There ain’t no sport without rules.
OPEN QUALIFIERS
Between now and May 31st, all the writers and followers of TPB are invited to enter the opening round.
Wait! You are still not a writer with TPB. Whaaaatttt?
Don’t worry, we got you covered. You are still welcome to take part. But you must become a writer with us before clocks in New York strikes midnight on June 1st. Follow the instructions in this post to become a writer with us.
Don’t wait until the eleventh hour, okay?!
We won’t consider any submissions received after May 31st for the tournament. We will still be happy to publish them with TPB if you choose to do so.
Now, the exciting part. The prompt for the opening round is…. 🥁….
“Write a letter to a loved one, preferably a child, telling them about your favorite sport and why you love it the way you do.”
If you like, feel free to include basic rules to introduce them to the sport, your favorite player or whatever you like to tell them about it.
Please keep in mind our judging panel might know a lot about your favorite sport. We are dependent on your words, and we will be judging your stories primarily on your writing skills.
Make us feel your passion, your love.
*Suite 1984 editors can take part in this round, but they won’t be eligible for qualification to the next round. Sorry guys, but it will be cheating.
The Quarter Finals
Our editorial team will review all the submissions from the opening round. We will pick the top eight writers who will make it through to the Quarter Finals.
We will announce the top eight bracket and a new quarter-final prompt on June 8th. The quarter finalists will have until June 16th to submit their entries.
*If a quarter finalist can’t submit their entry within the specified timeline, their opponent will get a bye to advance to the semi-finals.
The Semi-Finals
We will announce the semi-finalists and the semi-final prompt on June 20th.
Like sports tournaments, the stakes will get higher at this point. Hence, we need to make it harder. The top four must submit their entries by June 23rd.
*If a semi-finalist can’t submit their entries within specified timelines, their opponent will get a bye to advance to the finals.
The Finals
We will announce the top two and the final prompt on June 25th.
They will have twenty-four hours to produce a masterpiece to win the first TPB tournament.
What?! Don’t look at me like that. It’s the finals, baby!
We will announce the winner and the runners-up on June 30th.
And guess what? If you didn’t make it big in the spring, the “The Press Box Summer Writing Tournament” kicks off on July 1st.
Oh yeah! Like the tennis slams, you get another shot at it.
Rules
These general rules apply to all the rounds. We will notify you of any new rules for the knockout rounds in future posts.
- The articles should be at least six-hundred words long but not more than one-thousand words. The word limit applies for only the body of the article. It does not include the title, subtitle, kicker, and image captions.
- Please use “TPB Spring Tournament” as one of the tags on your submissions. It will help us feature your post under the “Writing Tournaments” column on TPB’s home page.
- You are free to use any titles, subtitles, or kickers but ensure they are in the proper format.
- Please do not forget to add credits to the images you are using.
- You must share two stories from two other TPB writers at the end of your articles. We won’t count the extra words to share these stories against the one-thousand-word limit.
I encourage you to use this opportunity to practice your writing skills, build your reader base, and become a part of the TPB community.
Best of luck! We will see you on the field.
The Press Box Editorial Board
One last thing
I apologize if you don’t like included in a tag blanket. We want to ensure none of our writers and followers miss out on this communication. To play fair, I am not monetizing this post. So, I won’t get any benefit from doing this. 🙂
Alan Simpson, Christopher Robin, Scot Butwell, David Todd McCarty, Napoleon, brian g gilmore (bumpyjonas), Neel Patel, Christian Aviles, Charles BlouinGascon, Keyshawn Shaahid, Scott Younkin, Richard Barrett, Manavpal, Sally Prag, Paul Walker, Dom DeFonso, Sreese, Susan McCorkindale, Nathan Middleton, Chris Meglio, Gerald Sturgill, Kevin Shay, Gavin Odell, Julian Terenzio, Paula Fontes, Michael L Butler, Malky McEwan, KiKi Walter, Jim Nightingale, Jordan Pagkalinawan, Deolu Akingbade, Ning Choi, Danielle DiPre, Patrick Hollis, Belcairn, Phoenix Mōsher, Jamie Fu, John Egelkrout, Michael Perreault, Dan Kadlec, Scott-Ryan Abt, BichoDoMato, Darryl Ventura, Charlie van Houten, Reinaldo Caraballo, Daniel Eliezer, KL Simmons, Wade Allen, Craig Tyson Adams, Ginger Cook, Amber Jain, Stephanie Wilson, Carl-Henry Cadet, Eric Forseth, Shaantanu Kulkarni, Araci Almeida, Ty Thomas, Misti Lynn, Meer Hummal, Chris Welsby, David Perlmutter, Michael Dolan, Patrick Paul Garlinger, Warren “Storyteller” Brown, Evon, Jameson Steward, Max Goodman, Maude Pagan, Tony Thomas, Cristian Ionut, M, Delaware Sports Blitz
