Okay, gotta admit, I've grown to appreciate the experiment.

Manipulated as it is, this is definitely one of the best (if not the best) semis I've been in, my whole top 7-8 are 12-worthy, and giving 3-4 points to songs that would compete for 12 points in other contests is quite tough.

My whole top 10 is in the 'must vote for' category, and my 11-14th would easily get points in many other contests.

I assume I'm not the only one with this 'problem' in semi 2.

So, what do we think, will this result in a lower Q threshold as the points will be more spread out?

I think the ones that can scoop up the big points are definitely safe and we'll have at least 3-4 DNQs that get a good amount of votes (7+) but still not enough points.

Exciting times.

Oh my, manipulated / an experiment I smell a new BJSC era lmaooo

I'm gonna want to compare the tendency for 'home semi voting' in the final between this and past contests.

I agree definitely that the main factor, especially in the alt semi, is that it's a lot more unpredictable.

17 minutes ago, matto said:

Oh my, manipulated / an experiment I smell a new BJSC era lmaooo

Not the conspiracy theories

30 minutes ago, FrankLuck said:

Okay, gotta admit, I've grown to appreciate the experiment.

Manipulated as it is, this is definitely one of the best (if not the best) semis I've been in, my whole top 7-8 are 12-worthy, and giving 3-4 points to songs that would compete for 12 points in other contests is quite tough.

My whole top 10 is in the 'must vote for' category, and my 11-14th would easily get points in many other contests.

I assume I'm not the only one with this 'problem' in semi 2.

So, what do we think, will this result in a lower Q threshold as the points will be more spread out?

I think the ones that can scoop up the big points are definitely safe and we'll have at least 3-4 DNQs that get a good amount of votes (7+) but still not enough points.

Exciting times.

This semi draw definitely looks like it's had a few shuffles on Random.org (but who knows, the nature of randomising a long list is that every possibility has the same chance of happening!), but it certainly has resulted in one of the most competitive semis for a while. I remember BJSC 180 had a similar semi when I hosted. They were more mixed in terms of genre, but I think all of the YTD top ten countries at that point bar one ended up in the same semi, brutal. I don't think there's anything in the rules to say you have to go with your first random shuffle (not sure there's anything in the rules to even say it has to be randomised at all tbf).

Also, I'm not voting in this semi but wish I could as there are some predicted non-qualifiers that are fantastic and stand way out of the pack that I'd love to vote for. I have faith some of them will get in, but sadly that will indeed be at the expense of a couple of the alt or electronic songs, whichever end up in the 4/5/6 point averages rather than in the top three for people.

Edited Sunday at 09:563 days by gooddelta

The true lore on manipulating the semi draw is that we once drew y’all into pots based on your voting bloc and used that to draw up the semis. It was a long ass time ago but we wanted to see what would happen if we split the blocs up as there was some accusations of bloc voting.

My last comment on the draws, before manipulated takes off. I randomised, as I did the previous times I hosted, and went with it. I didn’t look too closely and moved onto writing the thread, spreadsheets, graphics, playlists etc while I waited for the finalised vetoes to come through. That may sound like an excuse, but as all of you know, hosting involves a lot of variables you can’t always plan for or have time to check.

I wanted to get it all out of the way, move onto my non-BJ things, and deliberately didn’t pay too much attention to the entries until the thread was live. On the day, though, I did notice SF2 was particularly ridiculous, but it’s obviously too late to rectify anything now.

Ultimately, in every contest a few nations get bad draws, and we’ve all had one (or more) at some point. I’m an alt girlie at heart, and ideally I’d want to give my fellow alt girlies the biggest chance to qualify, not kneecap them with an alt bloodbath 🖤

4 minutes ago, Silas said:

The true lore on manipulating the semi draw is that we once drew y’all into pots based on your voting bloc and used that to draw up the semis. It was a long ass time ago but we wanted to see what would happen if we split the blocs up as there was some accusations of bloc voting.

Yeah pots is so risky as some countries flit from one genre to another and you could end up with similar results every month if the same countries were always kept away from one another. I do think randomising remains the fairest way and I do think we do just sometimes get these brutal draws.

But while Semi 2 is, clearly, brutal, for the alt/listenthrough/vocal bloc, I’d wager that many of the Semi 1 countries (many of whom are ‘silent voters’ so we don’t know their opinion) wouldn’t particularly love the semi and probably feel Semi 1 is a dream with so much pop.

As a floating voter, my opinion is that Semi 2 has more depth, but there are probably a few more songs I absolutely love in Semi 1. So it’s all swings and roundabouts.

I'd just like to say that I will be totally fine with the experiment if I qualify and will be totally not fine with it if I don't.

14 minutes ago, Silas said:

The true lore on manipulating the semi draw is that we once drew y’all into pots based on your voting bloc and used that to draw up the semis. It was a long ass time ago but we wanted to see what would happen if we split the blocs up as there was some accusations of bloc voting.

I've often theorised about doing it like that more often with pots based on the Eurovision way with like 6-8 pots that aren't static and have various blocs spread across them so the mathematic effect isn't so much splitting up blocs as much as removing the outliers.

that said when I have hosted, as I did last month, throwing it into a randomiser is always the fairest way and that is how I assume all hosts do it, because even doing pots as fairly as I can there'd be bias in my perception of what nations are and it's a lot of effort for little major difference. And an outlier like this one one month or other is just fine.

Yeah I never actually believed it was manipulated / an experimental techno. Sorry for latching onto that.

Pots sounds like EFFORT 😂

I was thinking of contributing to the hurricane spreadsheets tomorrow, but I have pushed it forward to today. 🫢

(It won't change the cruel fate of my entry receiving around 20-40 points anyway)

Honestly I wouldn’t even be mad at hosts manipulating the semi draw a bit if it makes the semis more balanced/fair/fun.

I don’t think it’s very likely that any of the Final top 5’s qualification chances will have been affected by the semi draw anyway.

My votes are in bit of a mish mash semi final, but I just about compiled 10 tracks out, 1 track just was too much noise on it my ADHD kicked in 😶‍🌫️

Edited Sunday at 12:553 days by Mart!n

Statistically the nature of a random process is that it doesn’t behave in an orderly way and occasionally throws up something you didn’t think was possible. 🤷🏻‍♂️

2 hours ago, blacksquare said:

My last comment on the draws, before manipulated takes off. I randomised, as I did the previous times I hosted, and went with it. I didn’t look too closely and moved onto writing the thread, spreadsheets, graphics, playlists etc while I waited for the finalised vetoes to come through. That may sound like an excuse, but as all of you know, hosting involves a lot of variables you can’t always plan for or have time to check.

I wanted to get it all out of the way, move onto my non-BJ things, and deliberately didn’t pay too much attention to the entries until the thread was live. On the day, though, I did notice SF2 was particularly ridiculous, but it’s obviously too late to rectify anything now.

Ultimately, in every contest a few nations get bad draws, and we’ve all had one (or more) at some point. I’m an alt girlie at heart, and ideally I’d want to give my fellow alt girlies the biggest chance to qualify, not kneecap them with an alt bloodbath 🖤

I'm sorry if it sounded like I'm accusing you of something, there's no need to explain yourself at all. (Love the drama tho.)

There are no rules about the semi draws whatsoever (as far as I know), so a host can randomize the order once, twice or 58 times, even build up the whole thing manually.

I still stand by the draws being experiment-y, it doesn't matter at all if it's random or not.

//and Cody barely had a meltdown about the draw - even though this month he should've, so I had to step up to make sure that the telenovela-like monthly fun activity lives on.//

Just for fun, I had a look at how the distribution of votes in the final of BJSC 161 for Sovarasma's runaway winner 'King Of The Slugs' mapped to the semis of the current contest.

The song picked up 354 points, which break down as follows:

80 from nations not participating in BJSC 189

62 from nations in SF1 of BJSC 189

206 from nations in SF2 of BJSC 189

6 from the AQ nation of BJSC 189 (i.e. Neliönoir)

so even if we add Neliönoir's points to both semis' total as a voter in each, the distribution is:

68 (24%) from voters in the current SF1

212 (76%) from voters in the current SF2

Caveat that SF1 contains 13 nations who did not vote in the final of BJSC 161, compared to SF2 containing 9, although this should perhaps be 10 with Sovarasma as they could not have voted for themselves.

Full breakdown of votes to 'King Of The Slugs'

Not participating voters

18 Cumulonimbia

18 Summericia

15 Rolloland

15 Wholune

10 Abeltesfayeton

AQ voters

6 Neliönoir

SF1 voters

18 Kluminican Republic

18 Zanmatony

9 Bronzil

9 FSR Rontvia

6 Altyr Muunilinst

2 Greenfroze

SF2 voters

18 Bøtanikkä

18 Danæviia

18 Jadakissnia

18 Persephonia

18 Pestolia

18 Séyetana

18 Terra Avium

18 Trifoski

15 Scotland 2

12 Aeroche

11 A-Konohagakure [then Eastovka]

11 Land of DW

8 The Spodic Empire

5 POPHub

SF1 voted 0 points

Aelandor, Cor Lupus, FARC, Harmonica, Jupiterdonia, Lookylion, Ojnoj, République d'Áskorza, Taahino, Yehesi

SF2 voted 0 points

Dobago, East Rukahavian, Hendinia, Skall, Thelonia

SF1 did not vote in final of BJSC 161

Daehun, Deandria, Flynnonda, Freidland, Herbilore, Juranabaijan, Kylienips, Lotunia, Mothertopia, Mulgracia, N DNTN, New Lexico, Zephyra Continuum

SF2 did not vote in final of BJSC 161

Ajanaeda, Cheiron, Dalisska, Elëdan, Ennea, Lentyll, New Helvetica, Pagasa, Vaskla, [Sovarasma - could not vote for their own entry]

i hope that means i'm FINE in sf2 and will perform again in the gf 🤞

What I’m hearing is everyone wants the most cursed final running order possible x