*Shields 'Gonads'*

My brother is ten years older than me. i used to get dragged to his cricket and rubgy games at school and was their team 'mascot' (they didn't get a choice). I learnt from an early age where to hit a guy. It became my passtime! I also used to dive bomb my brother and friends on the sofa and get my knees in the right spot too! I know what I am doing

Welcome and Kia Ora to the Grand Final of DSFE77 - Breaking Ground in Christchurch!

26 Countries are vying for that top spot of numero uno, but who will emerge victorious?

1 Scotland
2 England
3 Norway
4 Malta
5 Italy
6 Turkey
7 Croatia
8 Azerbaijan
9 Belgium
10 Svalbard
11 Azores
12 Denmark
13 Gotland
14 France
15 Spain
16 Slovakia
17 Poland
18 Latvia
19 Sweden
20 Shetland Islands
21 Algeria
22 Netherlands
23 Northern Ireland
24 Liechtenstein
25 Switzerland
26 Aland Islands

Final Playlist
Final Recap - will be posted later once uploaded!

Here are the rules:

- Please rank the songs above in traditional Eurovision format (12, 10, 8, etc.)
- You cannot vote for your own song. We both know who is what country!
- Please submit your votes to jag02010 (although you can copy BethnalGreen in) by Saturday, May 21st at a time to be decided on by Justin (probably 7.30 pm?). Results will follow shortly after.
- Failure to vote will result in your country's disqualification, so make sure you vote!
- Anyone is welcome to vote in the final and is indeed encouraged to do so!

Good luck to one and all!

Justin will get back to you on exact timings for the final!

Boooo! Scotland on first! You cop-outs!

Totally random and a bit of fiddling to make positions that people have had throughout the contest fair! That means that if you had end positions in QFs and SFs you got randomised in the first third, etc

Poland today, found some good stuff there, a very interesting scene. Most of the songs I've bookmarked have probably been in already but I can but try. Kazakhstan is next
Ps: Glad at the quick final, really want 78 to get going - I want to be in a final, dammit (Preferably with more than one entry)

ooh I forgot to say that I think I found a new player! the next host needs to post in the main thread again about the new contest starting too. Plus I think I am going to add the contest details on my vimeo videos as I had one person load the video and ask the question, but unfortunately, as I wasn't doing recaps at the time so didn't look, by the time I answered I don't think they saw my reply? Anyway, loads of people have played the videos in the last few weeks lol, including a school (in Russia I think)?

Haha That's amazing!

1st is not necessarily a bad thing - Australia was first in the final of last edition and came 4th.

Pleased with my spaces in the running order - not completely ideal but not bad either.

I agree, you see I think the beginning and end slots in the real contest are a disadvantage, but in DSFE I think it is the opposite. It is the middle slots that I think people go hazy over lol

I think as long as the song at the beginning is something different or strong, it tends to benefit from being 1st, especially when weaker entries end up within the first 10 so it can stand out. The middle is where the stronger entries end up so they can all drown into each other - as proven by the fact that the winner and the 3rd place were in the first 11 songs last edition.

My song was last in the running order a couple of contests ago. And, it ended up as last place as well.

I think I found a perfect clue for my country. I can't wait to reveal it.

You do know that Christer Bjorkman is not doing our line up each time right? Each host will do it slightly differently so each contest, it is not necessarily the 'strongest' songs that end up in the middle (that is just coincidence to your thinking?). Besides, despite knowing what is doing well (and also in spite of it sometimes), hosts don't concentrate on popular songs being certain positions. Normally, hosts concentrate on trying to be fair on what has been in good positions earlier on in the competition etc and also being as random as possible to be fair!

I'll take that to mean I scraped through then cause I think I have quite a good position.

I know - it just tends to be like that for me, a coincidence more than anything!

lol no I don't mean that, I just mean you can't rely on positions to mean you are one of the popular songs or that early or end positions mean you are not doing so well. It is different for each host, but on the whole (whatever they do) it is as random as possible to be fair.

Put it this way. To do the final, I added all the finalists into a list and then added 2 extra columns next to them and plotted the positions they had in both QFs and SFs. Then I went through in another new column and looked at those positions and assigned 1 - beginning, 2 - Middle and 3 - End. All of those were dependent on the song's earlier positions. I would have done this at semi stage too if I had have had the time! Once I had assigned those, I randomised each of the 3 groups to get the final order! Simples!

Simples? Lost me somewhere about the columns. Can you repeat the part of the stuff about all of the things?

Can I repeat the statement about the gonads again?

Running order doesn't really matter here does it? As I do it, each song gets rated straightaway. Plus you can go to the vids in any order if you want

I hate Christer Bjorkman, without his meddling we wouldn't be having all these people still wanting to discuss Eurovision! Whilst I am joking, it is not just me is it - there are still a load of people out there that are new and obsessed with the new voting system and 'Poland Gate'!!!!

Grand Final Recap - still probably about twenty minutes left before vimeo has finished with it but here it is!

I think running order matters in this way: it doesnt mean that a bad song will do well if it's near the end but if there are too equally strong songs the one which comes later stands a better chance to grab the vote

strong final although i'm not liking the new trend of fun catchy songs being thrown out early

fun is what eurovision is all about and should be related in this online comp in my mind

There are no'' fun catchy songs '' until slot 13 and 15, it's not that early