Countdowns Rule: Aspiring Sports Writers Win up to Rs.10,000

Saturday September 15, 2012 , 3 min Read

Sportskeeda and IIT Kharagpur together have announced “Countdowns Rule” – a competition that gives aspiring writers the chance to put together a list or countdown related to sports, and earn monetary rewards in the process.Countdowns Rule is a part of IIT Kharagpur’s annual inter-collegiate sports meet, ‘Shaurya’ , and is open to students from all colleges across the country.

The following will be the prizes that will be given to the winners selected by Sportskeeda’s panel of judges:

1st prize: Rs. 10,000 cash

2nd prize: Rs. 6,000 cash

3rd prize: Rs. 4,000 cash

Plus: 5 consolation prizes of Rs. 1,000 each

In addition, each of the 8 winners will also get certificates bearing the seal and approval of IIT Kharagpur

How can you participate?

Post your article: Send your entry for the competition by posting your article on the site www.sportskeeda.com. Posting an article on Sportskeeda is easy.

Follow these steps to submit your article:

Send email: If you get an email notification saying that your article has been approved, that means you are a published writer. All you have to do then is send an email to the id [email protected], mentioning the following details:

Your Sportskeeda username
The name of your college
Your published article link

What are the eligibility criteria for the entries?

1. A Top 5/ Top 10 list - Following are the mandatory requirements for each entry in the competition:

The article should contain a Top 5 or Top 10 list
The list should be based on a sports-related topic, with bonus points for bringing some element of creativity into it – e.g. the top 10 most unusual sports in the world, the top 10 biggest refereeing blunders in football, etc.
You have to justify the list by giving an adequate, analytic description for each selection in the list
The article must contain at least 3 alternative selections that missed the final shortlist, along with reasons for the same
There must be three distinct segments in the article: 1. introduction, 2. the actual list, 3. the alternative selections that were left out

2. Original article: The article must be completely original in all respects – if even a single line is found copied from any external source, the article will be disqualified.

3. It has to be a new article: Your article has to be a new piece. No article published anywhere (even on your personal blog) before the 13th of September will be accepted.

4. Word length: The article must contain a minimum of 700 words, and a maximum of 1500 words.

5. More than one application: Not convinced with the quality of your first article, or have more than one interesting countdown in mind? You can apply again with a new article. But there’s a limit to how many attempts you can make. They will accept a maximum of 3 entries from a single person.

Sportskeeda’s panel of judges will evaluate all the eligible entries, and will choose 8 winners at the end of the deadline. The entries will be judged on the basis of the following points: