I'll be honest xoom, I've been hit with severe writers block myself, don't feel too bad, you have a big chance heh.

Hi, this is your friendly reminder that stories are due in a week. Make sure you submit on time, or you'll be eliminated from the tournament.

I'm deeply sorry about how long I've spent working on red pens. Because of stuff going on (I had a week-long vacation and then moving and start of term), I'm still working on them. I don't know if I'll be able to get them to you guys at a useful date for this round, but rest assured, I definitely will finish them and get them back to you. It will not take so long in future rounds.

I'm not sure if anyone told you this yet, but I'm forfeiting from the competition so I can focus on Classic Crossover and college. I need to set a few weights down from my shoulders so I can have a bit more time and space.

Wish I have enough motivation to do this, but my writing ability has since gone dry for the moment.

Hopefully next the soon.

Just another reminder that stories are due on Thursday at midnight CST.

I'd like to clarify something about forfeits: If you forfeit a round, you forfeit the tournament and will not be eligible for future rounds. You must submit something to remain in the tournament. There are no penalties (except for normal points and votes lost) for submitting an incomplete story. If you tell me that you wish to forfeit, I will not mark you as forfeit until the due date rolls around. If you tell me that you wish to forfeit and do not rescind that declaration before the due date, you will not be given the two day grace period for submitting late and instead instantly be marked as forfeit.

Similarly, you are eliminated from the tournament if you submit late, but you will still be able to gain tokens, scores, and rankings for that round.

All right, the due date has rolled over, and I received five stories, linked at the bottom.

Three people have forfeited: zoomxoom, Shadowkirby, and Tremorfist. They have been eliminated from the tournament and rankings will be adjusted accordingly.

The people who have not submitted their story (listed below) have 48 hours before they are automatically considered forfeit. They are eliminated from future rounds, but may still receive points, tokens, and rankings for this round.
Aquila
The Strongest
Xate

Match links:
ErrorBlender vs WafflesMgee
Kyra vs BoomerangReturns
Nikx vs Shadowkirby (forfeit)

As per usual, please read the stories and vote and give feedback. You'll note my desire to keep stories anonymous for fairness, so please respect that when reviewing. Just a reminder that you can get up to three points per story reviewed up to a total of ten points.

Oh dear. All 3 haven't submitted.

I'd like to apologize right now for the mediocrity of my entry, by the way. I forgot to look it over, so the edges are very rough.

Finally back, good luck to those who did finish their entries, even if i had submitted what I had written in time, the part i have finished doesn't meet the requirements of the prompt, things just took off for me the past few weeks, I'm sorry for not being able to see this through.

I've been having internet problems, so this announcement is slightly late, but the late due date has passed and I have not received any of the other stories. So that means that those writers have forfeited and will not receive tokens, scores, or rankings this round, even if they still choose to submit their stories.

With that said, please check out the stories that have been submitted. Please vote and give feedback; both are very much appreciated.

All right, this is a status update for people who noticed that R3 should have started a day or two ago explaining why R3 did not start a day or two ago, and indeed will continue to not start for a little while longer. As you may have noticed, voting is done for the R2 stories. Many thanks to anyone who voted, tournament competitors or otherwise.

I've had internet problems for the last two weeks where, for whatever reason, my internet will go down for days at a time. I've been using public internet and mobile internet to keep up to date and check in on IRC, but obviously that can only go so far. We do judging in a skype call, which I can't do over mobile or in public areas, and that, added onto the fact that many of the people judging are busy due to beginning of school, has made it prohibitively difficult to actually get judging done.

My internet is still having problems, but I've found a temporary solution that should make it possible for me to make skype calls, so hopefully we can get the judging out of the way in the next couple of days.

So what does this mean for you guys? It means that you'll have to sit tight for a while longer, and I don't know exactly how much longer. It also means that if you want to give feedback on stories for additional points, you are still able to do so until judging is finished.

But rest assured, R3 is going to happen. I've got the documentation ready and everything, so all that's left is the R2 judging.

Apologies for the triple post.

I've sent out the R1 red pen feedback to the five people who have submitted their stories for R2 (Except for ErrorBlender, whose inbox appears to be full. Let me know when that's fixed and I'll send you your feedback, too). Everyone else will receive their red pen feedback fairly soon (but no guarantees on dates because I have several midterms this week).

I know you're probably tired of hearing this, but my internet has still not been completely fixed. However, we are partially through judging and will continue to work on that. Believe me, I want R3 to start as soon as possible, too.

EDIT: Scoring is done. I'm compiling subscore feedback and R3 betting phase will begin either at the end of today or tomorrow.

Sorry, Jesse. I cleared my inbox.