How does the battle system work at Goldmic?   ^ back to top

There are two ways a battle can get setup, by you accepting someone's challenge or by someone accepting your challenge. Once a challenge has been accepted, the battle is on! You will have until the chosen deadline to post your verse/audio. Posting is double blind, meaning, the verses/audios get posted at the same time, nobody goes first. At the closure of the posting deadline the battle then gets automatically listed in the public battles section for others to vote. It will be open for voting for three days.   ^ back to top

How do I challenge someone?   ^ back to top

To challenge members, visit their profile and click on the "Send Challenge" button inside their battle module:

You will not be able to challenge members who have chosen to remove the battle module from their profile.
Here is an explanation of the challenge form:

Type - You can battle with a written verse or with your verse spit in audio. If you only see one type, the member is only accepting that type.
Length - How long the verse/audio should be. This length must be respected. Otherwise, the battle can be lopsided (40 bars -VS- 10 bars).
Topical - In a regular battle the objective is to attack your opponent. In a topical battle the objective is to write about the chosen topic.
Deadline - Deadline to post your verse/audio. You will have until that day to submit your verse/audio, then the battle opens for voting.
Monitored - Who will monitor the voting in the battle for fairness. If neither belongs to a league then the battle will not be monitored.
Message - This is NOT where you post your verse. It's where you can send a message along with your challenge.

You can manage all of your challenges, those that you sent and received, in your "MyAccount" section under the "Battling" tab.   ^ back to top

How do I post my battle verse/audio?   ^ back to top

Once the challenge has been accepted and the battle setup, it will appear in your "MyAccount" section under the "Battling" tab as an open battle with an "Edit" link next to it. Clicking on that "Edit" link takes you to the posting page where you can submit your verse/audio. You can work on and save your submission as often as you like. You have until midnight (Eastern Time) of the deadline date to submit your final version. After the deadline, you will no longer be allowed to edit your submission and the battle automatically gets posted for public voting for a duration of three days.   ^ back to top

Why didn't my battle get posted? It says "No-Show".   ^ back to top

If your battle didn't get posted it's because you, your opponent, or both of you failed to submit a verse/audio by the deadline. We do not post these no-show battles. Members who no-show get their no-show counter incremented by one to let other members know how reliable you are in showing up for battles. If you had posted a verse in a no-show battle, then it will be placed in your "Writings" section of your "MyAccount" as a private writing. Those writings will have the title "Battle vs. XXXXX (No Show)" where XXXXX is the name of your opponent. These verses can be reused however way you like. You can reschedule the battle, use it against another opponent, or make it available for the public to view. ^ back to top

How does the voting system work?   ^ back to top

Battles are open for 3 days of voting and only registered members of the site can vote. When casting a vote you must explain your vote by writing your feedback on the battle. You can comment on certain elements of the verse/audio such as punchlines, flow, metaphors, multis, humor, personal, etc. Your league manager will have voting guidelines posted in the league profile for its members to follow.

Also, you can only vote in battles within your league. You can only vote in other leagues if their managers has chosen to allow your league to vote. If you do not belong to a league then you will only be allowed to vote in battles that are not being monitored, and anyone will be able to vote in your own battles.   ^ back to top

Why have votes in my battle disappeared?   ^ back to top

If you do not explain your vote or it fails to meet any other set criteria, the league manager monitoring the battle is allowed to throw out your vote in order to enforce vote integrity. Each manager has different requirements for voting. Some are more stringent than others. It's up to you to find out the voting guidelines of your league.   ^ back to top

Why is my battle's voting deadline being extended?   ^ back to top

The deadline will continue to get extended by one day until at least one side has received a minimum of 3 votes.   ^ back to top

My battle is taking forever to close, what can I do?   ^ back to top

Battles normally stay open for 4 days of voting. If a battle remains open for 10 days, due to extensions as described in the above question, then its league voting restriction will be removed and voting will be opened to every member on the site.   ^ back to top

What can I do if I feel my opponent is cheating?   ^ back to top

If you feel your opponent is cheated in your battle, you should point that out to your league manager. It is your league manager's responsibility to enforce battling integrity within his or her league. The league managers have the power to throw out any vote and to kick out any battler from their league they feel is involved in cheating.   ^ back to top

What is a league?   ^ back to top

A league is a division in which members can battle. The purpose of a league is to offer battling integrity to its members through the direction of its manager. League managers enforce fairness and overall integrity by setting voting guidelines, monitoring battles, throwning out votes, kicking out cheaters, etc. When battling members from different leagues than yours, the challenger chooses which manager will monitor the battle. If neither you or your opponent belong to a league, then the battle will not be monitored and you will not have any guarantees of voting integrity. We highly recommend that you join a league to have a better battling experience.   ^ back to top

How do I join or start a league?   ^ back to top

To find a league to join you can Browse Leagues.

If you would like to start a league then we strongly recommend you only do so after thoughful consideration. Managing a league involves commitment and building it to a reputable level takes time and integrity on your part. Starting and managing a league is not for everyone. You should only pursue this if you are truly interested in managing members, their battles, and all the beef that arrises from it. If you are simply looking to create a small battle group then you are really looking for Crews. If you are serious, you can Start a New League. Each league has a public profile and a private message board for its members.   ^ back to top

What is a crew?   ^ back to top

To find a crew to join you can Browse Crews.

A crew is a small group of battlers who have joined together as a clique in order to battle other crews as a group. Crews have leaders who are in charge of membership and setting up crew battles. Read about Crew Battling. Crews are ranked according to their members' average ratings in real time. So when a member leaves or joins a crew it will have an immediate effect on the crew's rank. Each crew has a public profile and a private message board for its members. Start a New Crew   ^ back to top

How do I join or start a crew?   ^ back to top

To join an existing crew you must accept a personal invitation from its leader. To create a new crew you simply type in a crew name in your Change Crew page, which is the same page where you will see all of your crew invitations. When you create a new crew you are automatically assigned its leader and can then start managing the crew and inviting other members to join.   ^ back to top

How do crew battles works?   ^ back to top

Challenging
When the crew leader sends a challenge or accepts a challenge he will choose which members to send to the crew battle. The challenges are listed under the same tables as for regular battles, but instead of the member name the crew name is listed and only the crew leaders see these challenges. Battle requirements are as follows:

• Crew battles must be either 2-vs-2, 3-vs-3 or 4-vs-4
• In a text battle, length per battler must be between 10 to 20 lines
• In an audio battle, length per crew must be between 2 to 5 minutes
• Every crew battle will count towards your rating, there is no 16 line minimum like in regular battles

Posting
Once the leader accepts the challenge and the battle gets setup, the participants of the battle will each get a listing in their battles page where they can individually edit their verses the same way they do for regular battles. In case of an audio crew battle, only one member from each crew will get a listing. He will be responsible for submitting the single audio file to the crew's composite battle audio. The first member the leader chooses to send to the battle is the one who gets the listing. When the battle opens for voting, the site will grab each crew's verses and group them accordingly, or simply list each crew's audio link if it's an audio battle.

Rating Points
A crew's rating is determined by the real time average of all of its rated members, it does not have its own separate rating. Therefore, points from crew battles are awarded/deducted from the members' ratings, not the crews'. The amount of rating points involved is based on each crew's participants' composite rating.   ^ back to top

How does the ranking system work?   ^ back to top

Members are rated on actual weighted performance and ranked among all other members. We use a variation of a popular rating formula used by competitive organizations. It is a weighted system that measures true skill since it takes the opponent's skill level into consideration when awarding or deducting points.

• All new members start with a rating of 1600
• Members will only get ranked after 3 battles (not counting no shows)
• Maximum point loss or gain from a single battle is between 20-60 points, depending on skill level (points for ties are considerably less)
• No points are awarded or deducted for automatic wins or losses (no-shows)
• Audio battles carry a rating premium, winner gets 20% boost in point addition, and loser gets 20% reduction in point deduction

Since you will not get any points in an automatic win (no-show) you must choose your opponent carefully. Look at their no-show pecentage listed in their battle module in their profile, if it's high then think twice before challenging that member. Likewise, show up to all of your battles or members will not want to battle you due to your high number of no-shows. View the current Goldmic World Ranking.   ^ back to top

Why does my profile/crew/league say "Unranked"?   ^ back to top

Members
You need to participate in at least 3 battles to get ranked, otherwise 'Unranked' and the number of battles you need before being ranked is displayed. No shows DO NOT count towards this 3 battle minimum. You must also be a member of a league that has been approved to participate in the ranking system.

Crew
Crews are ranked by the composite average of its members' ratings. For a crew to get ranked it needs to have at least 3 ranked members.

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What is the criteria for leagues to participate in the ranking system?   ^ back to top

The Goldmic Staff needs to manually approve a league for it to be included in the ranking system. This is in order to protect the integrity of the ranking system. For a league to be approved it must be honest, fair, active and well managed. Leagues that harbor aliases and cheaters will not get approved. League that have members who have alias battles in their battle history for easy wins will also not get approved. The principle criteria for approval is overal league integrity. Earning the respect of other leagues that are ranked and having a voting partnership with them will increase your chances of getting approved.   ^ back to top

Why aren't rating points awarded in no-shows?   ^ back to top

We frequently get asked why we don't award/deduct points for no shows. The reason why we can't award points has to do with protecting the accuracy of our rating system. Our rating system's sole purpose is to measure true skill, nothing else. The only way we can measure this skill is when a battle actually occurs and the voters choose a winner. Therefore, the only time we can award points is when we have a clear winner. If we award points in a no-show then we are only speculating on who we think would have won, which would make the entire rating system inaccurate in the long term.

Here's an example to illustrate the problem. Take two members who have very different ratings, one is ranked 1st and the other is ranked 300th. Let's suppose they schedule a battle and the higher ranked member no-shows. If we award points for no-shows then the higher ranked member will lose a lot of points because of the rating difference. This is inaccurate because more than likely the higher ranked member would have won. Over time this wrong speculation gets compounded and causes inaccuracy in the rating system because it would also end up measuring member attendance, which is not what it was designed to do. If no battle occurs, then points are not awarded because skill can't be measured. Period.

We have implemented features to mitigate the effects of no-shows. First, if someone no shows against you we will protect your verse by not posting the battle. You can then reuse the verse by rescheduling the battle or by adjusting it to fit another member. In the case of topical battles, no adjustment would be necessary. Second, we have the number of no-shows listed in everyone's profile to help you gage the likelyhood that a particular member will no-show in the future. Also, in the future, members who frequently no show will suffer penalties.   ^ back to top

What do the "Rank", "Rating", and "Better Than" numbers mean?   ^ back to top

Rank is your position among all the ranked members on the site. If you're ranked 1st, you have the best ranking on the site.

Rating is how many points you have; it is used to determine your ranking and lets you know how far away you are from the other rankings.

Better Than gives significance to your Rank. If you're ranked 20th, it could be a good or bad rank, depending on the total number of ranked members; 20th out of 25 members would be bad, 20th out of 1000 members would be good. So the Better Than percentage is how many people are below you and lets you know how good your rank is. The higher this percentage the better you are.   ^ back to top

What do the "27%/+46/-14" type numbers listed below ranks mean?   ^ back to top

The numbers below each member's picture shows battle outcome information that is specific to whoever is looking at the profile. If you are not logged in then these numbers will not be displayed. Here is what the numbers mean:

First number is your percent chance of beating this member in a battle; the lower this percentage the more difficult it will be to defeat this member. This number is a mere prediction based on a comparison between this member's rank and yours.

Second number is the number of points that will be added to your rating if you defeat this member; the higher this member's rank is compared to yours the more points will be awarded to you for defeating him or her. You will get very little points for defeating a member that is ranked way below you.

Third number is the number of points that will be deducted from your rating if you lose to this member; the lower this member's rank is compared to yours the more points will be deducted for losing to him or her. You will lose very little points for losing to a member that is ranked way above you.

Remember that these numbers may change by the time they are actually deducted or awarded since your opponent may battle other members between the time of your challenge and the opening of your battle with him or her.   ^ back to top