We have our five Qualifiers! They are My Book of Regrets, Happiness III, Vermillioncore, The Birthday Party and Don't Hate Me (2016). These join the 45 songs automatically in the main draw (all the main studio album tracks). A few words about the draw:
GROUP STAGE DRAW PROCEDURE
The songs will be drawn into five groups, with 10 songs in each group. The five Qualifiers (listed above) are in a separate pot and will be drawn last, one going into slot 10 of each group. Also, there will be a maximum of three songs from the same album drawn into the same group.
I have all the songs written on pieces of paper, which I will draw at random out of a bowl. The 1st song will go into Group A, slot 1, then it will be B1, C1, D1, E1, then A2, B2 and so on. I will post the groups when the draw is complete, but then I have to arrange all the matchups. I will use a round-robin tournament generator to do this, and then a number randomizer to jumble the Round numbers around. The result will be the order in which all the songs in each group face each other.
MATCH SCHEDULING: So I don't clog up the P&S page more than I need to, some of the groups' matches will be posted in the same thread. So on day 1 I'll post Round 1 for Groups A & B, then the next day I'll post Group C, then Groups D & E the following day. After that we go back to Groups A & B for Round 2, and so on. So all being well, the group stage should last around 28 days. Each poll will be open for 24 hours.
The Group Stage should hopefully begin tomorrow morning, UK time. Now, to set everything up. Wish me luck!