General Rules - Updates for the Summer 2009 Season are shown in blue!

1.  Every performer must be 21 years of age and have read and agreed to the NKL rules and waiver of liability.

2.  Each team must have at least 2 males and 2 females, but can have no more than 8 players total.

3.  Every team must elect a team captain for the season that will be responsible for communicating important information to their team.  The team captain is the only person who may submit requests for substitution or grievances.  If a team captain can not be present for any given week, (s)he should appoint another team member to act as captain for that week.

4.  All players must abide by the instructions and decisions of NKL officers and host site staff during all NKL events.

5.  Performers must wear their team NKL t-shirt while performing, but may wear costumes so long as the team t-shirt is still visible. New for Summer 2009: If a performer fails to wear his NKL shirt OR a costume, he/she will lose his/her ballot for that round.

6.  While it is understood that alcohol is often enjoyed during karaoke, all league members must abide by local, city, and state laws regarding alcohol consumption.  Further, all rules of the host establishment will be strictly enforced, under penalty of permanent expulsion from any NKL activity. Rowdy, disrespectful, violent or other problematic league members, as determinewed by NKL officers, may be subject to disciplinary actions, including, but not limited to fines, disqualification, suspension, or expulsion from league activities.

 

League Structure

1.  Every teammate must perform at least twice in a season.  However, no individual may perform the same song twice in any one season.

2.  Each team will present two solos and 1 group song (between 2 and 4 people) each week.  Rounds one and two are solo rounds; round three is the group round.

3.  Each team performing will provide a list of their elected performers and their songs to the league representative prior to the beginning of round one. In the event that two teams choose the same song to perform on the same night, the performers in question will play paper-rock-scissors (best of three) for the rights to the contested song. The loser must choose a replacement song by the start of the second round. No substitutions in performers will be allowed due to song unavailability. If a team has not turned in their song list by the time competition is supposed to begin, they will receive a five-minute grace period. After the grace period, they will lose five points off their nightly score for each minute they are late in getting their songs in.

4. If a technical difficulty arises with a certain song, the team who experienced the problem will be shifted to the end of the round order, and given time to select a new song. In this situation, they may not select a song that any other team has already requested.

5.  If unforeseen circumstances arise that would prevent a team member on that night’s roster from performing, the presiding league representative may approve a substitution if deemed necessary.  Necessary substitutions will include, but are not limited to, events resulting from the injury, sudden illness, family emergency, or work-related emergency of that team member. Should a substitution be allowed, the new performer must perform the same song that the original performer was planning to sing.

6.  New for Summer 2009: No performer shall sing a song that was performed by any other team in the same season.  An e-mail will be sent to all league members on the Sunday prior to competition with the list of restricted songs.

7.  Never, under any circumstances, may any league member perform Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven, or Freebird.  Everyone else in the bar will thank you.

 

Scoring

1.  Ballots will be distributed to every person present at the host establishment at the beginning of each round.  This includes both league members and non-league members, so teams are encouraged to bring friends.  No ballots will be distributed during the middle of a round.  Ballots will be collected at the end of every round by an NKL official who will total the scores.

2.  The ballot for each round will ask each voter to rank the performers in that round from best to worst, with the best performer being ranked #1, the next best performer being ranked #2, etc.  Please see example A for a sample ballot:

Performer:	Rank:	So, from this ballot, the Green Team Performer would earn 6 points, the Blue Team performer would earn 1 point, and everyone in between would earn points accordingly.  All the ballots will be added together, and the performer with the highest point total wins the round.
Red Team Performer	4
Blue Team Performer	6 (worst)
Black Team Performer	3
Green Team Performer	1 (best)
White Team Performer	2
Grey Team Performer	5

3.  Should a team fail to submit a performer for each round who conforms with all of the rules laid out herein, they will not be awarded any points for that round.

4.  The performer(s) with the highest cumulative score will be declared the winner from that round.  In the event of a tie, co-winners will be declared for the round. Round winners will not be announced until the end of the night so as not to influence voting.

5.  The team with the highest cumulative score at the end of the night will be declared that week’s winner.  The winning team will be awarded 10 pts towards their season totals, second place 7 pts, third place 5 pts, fourth place 3 pts, fifth place 1 pt, and sixth place 0 pts.

6.  In the event of a tie at the end of the night, the tie goes to the team with the highest cumulative score in any one round.  If this fails to settle the tie, then both teams will be awarded the amount of points they would have been awarded if no tie had occurred.

7. Three points will be added to the team totals of each team who won a round that night.

 

Playoffs

1.  NEW FOR SUMMER 2009: Each week, teams will be awarded points to their season team totals as described above. At the end of week six, this score will be used to determine each team's rank going into the playoffs, and will also be their initial base score for the playoffs. (Therefore, a team that scores well in the regular season will start with an advantage over a team that scores poorly in the regular season.)

2.  Playoffs will last two weeks, with the first week being the semi-final round, and the second week being the finals.

3. In semi-finals, the top and bottom teams face off head-to-head. In a four-team division, this means that the top ranked team will play the fourth ranked team, and the second ranked team will play the third ranked team. In a five-team or six-team division, the first ranked team will play the last ranked team.

4. NEW FOR SUMMER 2009: In a five-team or six-team division, the second through next-to-last placed teams will vie for the remaining finals spot elimination style. After the first round of semifinals in a six-team division, or after the second round of semifinals in a five-team division, the team with the lowest cumulative score will be eliminated. This will continue each round until only one team remains, and that team will receive a place in the finals the following week.

5.  In semi-finals each team will present one solo and one group song (between 2 and 4 people).  In finals, each team will present two solos and one group song (between 2 and 4 people).  In addition, in both semi-finals and finals each team must select one performer who will perform a song drawn at random from the playoff song list.

6.  The regular season rules against performers singing the same song twice in a season is lifted for playoffs, but competitors still may not perform a song that was performed in the previous week’s competition.

7.  Teams must submit songs at the beginning of the night in the same manner as in the regular season.

8.  Ballots will be distributed at the beginning of each round as in the regular season, but instead of ranking teams, voters will simply circle the performer they feel won each bout. 

9.  At the end of each round, the ballots for all rounds will be totaled, and the team with the highest number of votes at the end of the night will be declared the winner of their bout.  No points will be awarded for round wins. In the event of a tie, the team captains from each team will face off in head-to-head overtime karaoke mystery song roulette. In the event of a tie from that, the team with the highest score in any individual round will win the championship.

 

Grievance

1. If a team believes another team has violated any of the above rules, the team captain must raise the issue before the end of the round in which the violation occurs.  Violations raised before the end of the round will be investigated and taken into account in the scoring of that round. New for Summer 2009: However, raising a grievance is usually a stupid thing to do unless someone has flagrantly broken the rules, and it has the potential to make your team look like a bunch of sorry cry-babies. It's karaoke, people. For serious.

2. If a team discovers another team has violated one of these rules after the round has ended, the team captain has 24 hours to e-mail their NKL official.  E-mailed grievances will be investigated, and, if deemed necessary, may result in action against the offending team in the following week.  However, no adjustment to the previous week’s scores will be allowed as a remedy.

3.  No grievance may be filed against any NKL officials regarding the counting of votes or the announcement of winners.

4.  These rules may be altered or amended at any time, with or without notice, by NKL staff.  The currently published rules appearing on the nationalkaraokeleague.com Web site will govern all NKL competitions.