A̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶I̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶e̶s̶h̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶v̶e̶-̶a̶v̶e̶r̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶j̶o̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶l̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶d̶o̶g̶s̶.̶ ̶

E̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶d̶o̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶c̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶6̶.̶0̶0̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶f̶a̶r̶ ̶(̶b̶e̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶7̶.̶0̶0̶)̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶.̶ ̶H̶o̶w̶e̶v̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶v̶e̶-̶a̶v̶e̶r̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶j̶o̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶s̶c̶o̶r̶e̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶6̶.̶0̶0̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶f̶a̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶.̶

I̶n̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶d̶s̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶d̶o̶g̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶d̶o̶g̶s̶

EDIT: Nevermind, scores were skewed by the additional judge

holy god......

I'm feeling like putting my two cents in here.

The one mistake that I did last year was to have in mind the judges while making my submission. The pressure killed my motivation and I couldn't find any inspiration. Here's the result:

In the end, if you don't enjoy your work, nobody will. Just create something that you enjoy.

Just saying, this is NOT my submission for this year's NGUAC.

The stagnation is definitely palpable in your track, but I think it's brilliant for you to showcase it in such a way; one can study your (attempted) artistic creation and see how detrimental one's temperament and ego-attitude has on the end product when not flowing correctly. If I were to find myself in the same stressful position and read your message, I'd be inspired to do my best in a way that satisfies my heart instead. Very cool of you.

My song for this new round!! thanks for letting me continue participating

I'm afraid you didn't make it in. Sorry! Your group's judges were @EverErratic, @JessieYun, and @Mutty99. I'd suggest PM'ing them to ask for some feedback.

@Abstrack The forum time limit to edit a post used to be 15 minutes; they've already extended it over the years. I think what I'm actually going to do is PM everyone who made it in to make sure they know what the real deadline is. No need to sow more confusion by creating another thread. But thanks for the suggestions.

@offi-DtrGuo-cial Yeah, I agree that a lot of "underdogs" aren't in the underdogs group. I think the group names can be a little misleading, and I'm considering changing them into something that has less of a strong connotation next year (i.e., Group 1, Group 2, etc.). Let me know if you have any feedback on this idea.

@Semicedevine That's a good suggestion regarding the spreadsheet. I'll keep that in mind for next round.

Okay, thank you for telling me.

At the risk of saying an offensive thing, I think competitions are kind of like religions. Some find them really motivational and helpful in guiding self-improvement. Others try them out, but leave feeling alienated and confused. I'm sorry to hear you're disillusioned by the community, but I'm sure I could use a reminder every now and then that not everyone is as passionate about the NGUAC as I am. To that end, if anyone wants to be removed from the PM list for this competition, all you have to do is let me know. I'm not sure I agree that people who take music seriously are inclined to avoid competitions, as I'd like to think that most of the people who join the competition do so because they want to improve. That said, I also understand that not everyone finds this format rewarding. Thanks for sharing your perspective, Quarl, and I'm sorry if the competition left you feeling "soggy sad." If you have any suggestions for making the NGUAC work better for the contestants, I'm all ears.

I'm sorry to be sour but I don't enter competitions to improve. I went to college to do that. I enter competitions to challenge myself and hopefully win. Having not made it into the first round of either tournament pisses me off because I didn't even have the chance to do anything. All I got for auditioning was some low ass scores.

There's a lot of great talent in the comps and the judges sacrifice a lot to keep them going. The users that offer up prizes are the best. I'm just angry and unemployed. I despise coming off as some arrogant fuck wit temper tantrum throwing runt but I auditioned with what I consider to the best song I've ever written. I have as much right as the next person to feel upset about these kinds of things. It's a reminder that music really is just a hobby and the venue of opinion can feel cruel.

Of course you do. No worries, and thanks for sharing your perspective. In the past, I've stopped short of requiring judges to leave reviews for people because I know that a lot of contestants aren't in it for the feedback, and that it can come across as condescending. I'll keep thinking about ways to make sure that everyone has something to gain from participating in the NGUAC.

@TaintedLogic

Wanna bet this get score of 1 next round because the judges can't detect any melodic content

Thanks for understanding love. I just needed a shoulder to cry on for a minute. Now that I'm done acting the part of a petulant child I shall return to my video games.

Wow, is Really amazing!!

It's my first time joining a contest, even though my score is 4.6, Im still pretty hyped. Didn't expect to make it through

That was my score basically, and I didn’t qualify :C

Sorry bud hope you'll make it next year

I can't tell if you're serious or not, but either way I'm pretty sure that if it hasn't an average of 0, then it's gonna get at least 1.5

I can bet real money if you want ROFL

@TaintedLogic I'm dropping out of the competition. I have too many things on my plate (especially school), and I have other music priorities as well. I'm glad I made it in, but I wish the best of luck to the rest of you ^_^

If you can give my spot to the next runner-up, do it please

I can understand why some people would decide to give up the competition, but you shouldn't join it if you're not sure you'll do it.

There are people like me who got really close to entering yet failed, so it does get me triggered when I see people drop out of the competition just like that

This Competition is completely a joke this time than a year ago

my submission

Mannnnnn yo I love my score! I got on today and saw all the notifications and I'm like, "Uh oh, what'd I do?" I forgot all about this contest and then I was buggin' cuz I couldn't figure out whether or not I was in and I thought the deadline was Friday lol!

I don't expect nintendocore music without guitars to make it far in any contest unless it's a nintendocore contest. My score backs this up and I think it's hilarious. Also it's funny that I'm lumped in for judgement with the all-stars like come onnnnn I ain't no all star! I think the first time we did this I was in the underdogs. It took me 11 years to get this many fans and I imagine most of them don't get on here any more :P

I'm ok with it cuz I'm notorious for not being able to make songs fast enough for these contests, that's why I don't do NGADM (also, I'd lose).

@Quarl This was my first song since 2011 to feature screaming vocals and I got shut down on here, but it's ok because even though I put a bunch of work into it (and I know there are few things I could improve, but time constraints) I know that we're all just people with differing musical opinions on here.

Congrats to all who made it! If you didn't, come join me for a frosty pint of tears at the losers lounge.

Based on the two 4's I got, I'm completely out of touch with modern music lol.

It's not based on any specific score. The top 20% highest scores are the ones who make it to the next round. So it depends on how all your competitors do as well, not just on how you score. :)

Yeah I should've put that into more consideration

Sorry...

No problem, at least you know for the next time ^^

Sucks that I didn't make it but I'm glad I got an average score. See y'all next year.

Damn, then I can consider myself just luckier, but still not enough. I’m sitting in at a 7.6 for my submission.

But anyways, thanks for the invitation🍺