Welcome to the BioRUST Battles section! This area of the website allows you to pit your design skills against others in pre-defined contests, giving plenty valuable experience to everyone who participates. The entire system is automatically driven and is purpose-built with ease of use in mind but, just in case you needed it, here's a description of the base functionality and how it all works...

Joining Battles
The main index is the main hub of operations for the battles scripts. Once there, navigate to the Open Battles section to see battles that are open and soliciting participants. There are three types of contests - competitions, 1-on-1 duels, and free-for-all battles.

• 1-On-1 Duels work much like duelling battles in popular online games. One user starts a battle, and then another player joins in. Submissions then start (one per user based on the competition subject, rules, etc), and when both submissions are in, the battle goes to a voting phase where other members rank each image and an overall winner is decided.
• Free-For-All Battles operate in exactly the same way as 1-on-1 duels, except that there are a pre-defined number of participants larger than 2. The battle does NOT start until the pre-defined number of combatants is met... although this does not, of course, stop you working on your creation before everyone has joined! If all the places are not filled at the end of the two week joining period, the entrant number will be reduced and the battle will start regardless.
• Competitions remove the joining phase, and go straight into submission. This removes the limit on participants and has been designed for pre-defined site-wide competitions. For this reason users can never start a competition-type battle by themselves, but can join as many as they like created by the BioRUST staff.

• Title - Fairly self-explanatory, this field is ideally filled with a short but snappy description of your project. Its best to avoid marketing or superlatives such as "The best competition EVER!", as that's not really descriptive at all and will turn people off from fighting against you.
• Battle Type - 1-on-1 duels are recommended for new users, but free-for-alls are undoubtedly very rewarding too! Just remember to resist the urge to set a high limit on entrants, as the battle will NOT start until this limit has been met or the two-week joining period has expired.
• Contest Directions - Also self-explanatory. Remember to add in as much detail as you can, as vaguely worded battles are usually overlooked or can result in entries that deviate from your initial intentions. Important information to enter includes: Application of choice, image dimensions, creative subject, stock footage (if applicable), etc.
• Contest Prize - Winners of battles on BioRUST are automatically given a gold, silver, or bronze award depending on whether the battle is professional, intermediate, or beginner skill level. In addition to this prize, however, you may also offer something else, the subject of which can be absolutely anything. How about a postcard from the loser? Or some kind of wacky forfeit? The possibilities are endless!
• Skill Level - As a new user, you will only be able to start beginner-level battles. Once you have won 3 battles, however, you will be able to start intermediate-level battles. And, likewise, when you have won 3 more battles of intermediate-level or higher, you will be able to progress to starting professional-level battles.
• Contest Type - This is a descriptive field to allow users to quickly identify the main subject of your battle without wading through the title and/or contest directions. Just set it appropriately.

Voting On Battles
To rate the submissions in other people's battles, just navigate to the main index and look at the Battles Awaiting Voting section to see battles that are available for judging.  Once in the voting screen it is a simple matter of rating the individual pictures on their merits. Until the winner is decided, all entries are anonymous and should not include any user-identifiable information.  Voters are kindly advised to give the lowest possible marks to any entries that break this rule and/or break any of the definitions set out in the Contest Directions area.  Everyone submitting ratings earn themselves 0.5 biocredits per image judged.

Winning, Losing, & Defaulting Battles
All winners are automatically given the appropriate award from Biorust and informed of their win by e-mail.  The contest is then moved over to the Past Battles section of the main index, and all entries are shown with their corresponding rating, number of votes, and name of the member who submitted the image.   In the advent of a default, the win will be given to the user who submitted the image. If nobody submits any images, the battle is deleted and nobody wins. In a free-for-all match, this will differ if there is more than one entry - the battle will go on for judging, but only with the entries that have been submitted.

There is no reason to feel depressed if you lose - everyone submitting an image in a battle/competition is automatically given a +1 bonus to their reputation... just to thank them for their input!