{{ seasonLabel }} · DAY {{ dayNo }} OF {{ dayTotal }}

SIXTEEN LIES MAKE THE FIELD.

Nothing about the game changes during a season. Play carries on exactly as it does now. What a season adds is a cut — at the close, the sixteen best-rated lies of the last thirteen weeks enter a bracket, and everybody judges it down to one.

{{ clockLine }}

THE FIELD

WHO IS IN, AS OF RIGHT NOW

Straight off the live ladder. Nothing is reserved, nobody is invited — the cut is the ladder, and it moves every time somebody judges a bout. The line to beat is {{ cutRating }}.

{{ f.by }}

{{ f.tag }}

RATING

{{ f.wrArrow }}

BELIEVED

CLEAR OF CUT

THE CUT · {{ cutRating }}

MISSING OUT · {{ daysLeft }} DAYS TO CLIMB

{{ b.by }}

{{ b.meta }}

A lie can enter the field on its last day. Rating is what qualifies you, not seniority — a lie written this morning that beats the field is seeded above one that has been grinding for eleven weeks.

THE BRACKET

FORMAT NOT DECIDED

THE ROAD TO THE TITLE, IF THE SEASON CLOSED TODAY

The field and the cut below are computed from the live ladder. Everything about the knockout itself — rounds, how many comparisons decide a bout, whether it runs alongside ordinary play — is an unresolved proposal, drawn here to show the shape only.

Standard seeding — one plays sixteen, two plays fifteen. The easiest first bout is the only reward for finishing high, and it is the only weighting in the bracket.

LAST SIXTEEN

{{ m.hiBy }}

{{ m.loBy }}

{{ r.label }}

{{ s.label }}

THE TITLE

CHAMPION

Four rounds. Each open 24 hours. The last sixteen are set by the ladder; everything to the right of it is decided by votes.

ROUND ONE IN FULL

THE EIGHT OPENING BOUTS

OPENING BOUT

WINNER TAKES {{ m.feeds }}

SEED {{ m.hiSeed }}

{{ m.hiBy }}

TALE OF THE TAPE

{{ t.label }}

{{ m.gapLine }}

SEED {{ m.loSeed }}

{{ m.loBy }}

HOW A BOUT IS DECIDED

Each round is open for 24 hours and the two lies go in front of everybody, not a sample. Most votes wins. There is no rating, no seeding advantage carried in, and no tiebreak by record — a bout is a fresh vote, so the top seed can go out on day one.

DIFFERENT STORIES, SAME QUESTION

Two finalists will rarely be about the same news. That is fine, and it is the point: the question was never which story is better. It is which sentence you would have repeated as fact — and that answer holds across subjects.

THE WRITERS

RANKED BY THEIR BEST, NOT THEIR AVERAGE

One great lie beats twelve adequate ones, deliberately. Volume is already rewarded by the ladder; a season should reward the single best thing you wrote in thirteen weeks.

{{ w.posLabel }}

{{ w.handle }}

{{ w.meta }}

BEST LIE