Rules

Personal Conduct

We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination.
This includes:

  • Sexism

  • Racism

  • Xenophobia

  • Ableism (against all forms of disabilities - physical and mental - and diverse neurotypes)

  • Homophobia (and other forms of discrimination based on sexuality such as bisexual, pansexual, and asexual erasure)

  • Transphobia (including contained forms of discrimination based on non-cisgender identities such as non-binary erasure)

  • Deliberate misuse of people's pronouns or lack thereof (including it/its and neopronouns - if you don't know how to use them, look it up and try your best)

  • Deadnaming (regardless of the reason for somebody's name change)

  • Other forms of discrimination, such as defamation of religious groups

  • Berating or mocking someone for their age

  • Use of slurs (you can check this list if you're unsure of a word's connotations).

Oppressed groups get enough nonsense as it is, and we want Hyperspace to be welcoming and comfortable for everyone!


Be a good sport.
Be gracious if you are knocked out, and don't make bets or public assumptions on rounds' outcomes. If you want to give critique on work someone has posted when they haven't requested it specifically, ask them first whether they would like it.


Be respectful and listen to others well.
This goes for anyone, not just judges!


Given this is a PG-13 community, do not post NSFW content and do not upload your entries to accounts which have public NSFW content uploaded to them.
This is so any minors competing or following the OCT can safely read your entries.


If you have a history of disobeying any of the above rules, we may block you from joining the OCT.
This extends to our Discord server.


Don't promote other OCTs in our community without permission.
It's bad manners! Feel free to talk about them if their auditions are closed but it's not a good practise to attempt to poach competitors.


You must be 13 or older to compete.
In accordance with both Discord / most social media regulations and our own expectations.


If you need to drop out of the OCT, please let us know!
We understand that life can get in the way! Having prior warning will make it easier to plan for any potential forfeits.


We reserve a right to kick anyone from the tournament if rules are gravely ignored. In non-severe cases, we will warn the individual(s) in question and only kick after repeat offenses. In general we will try to give people the benefit of the doubt and will be doing our best to keep our community friendly, comfortable, and hate-free.

Entries

A vast majority of your entries MUST be your own work.
Others may contribute small elements, and you may use royalty-free assets - it is CRUCIAL you appropriately and clearly credit anybody who works on your entry and all external assets you use. Copyrighted music may be included at your own risk - again, ensure this is clearly credited and that your entry does not hinge on the use of copyrighted material. The same goes for copyrighted images, but we discourage the use of these outside of comedic effect. Plagiarism isn't allowed, obviously! Here are acceptable examples for what others could provide:

  • Voice acting

  • Music composition

  • Code templates

  • Proof-reading (of literature or code), proof-watching, playtesting

  • Lining sketches OR colouring lineart OR shading coloured art (one of the three, do not have others provide multiple of these).


You may only submit one entry.
Each person or team of two can only enter the tournament once (no alt accounts). Helping others with their entries as described above is fine.


Your characters must stay together as a team until (at least) the semi-finals.
Some prompts may rely on competitors having a teammate, so your characters cannot drop out / die before the semi-finals. Though for whatever reason (it's up to you), Hoopa will not allow two characters of different expedition teams to go through the prize portal - so if one of your characters is out of the running, the other alone gets the prize.


Don't kill off any characters until it is stated in a round's rules to be acceptable.
You still need permission from the character's owner(s) to do this, but make sure you don't kill off any characters in early rounds - we will specify in prompts once this becomes acceptable.

In-universe, murder would be treated accordingly by the staff NPCs with the perpetrator(s) being ejected from the tournament if they get caught. Of course though, accidents happen.


Don't make bigoted characters / jokes at the expense of oppressed groups.
Oppressed groups face enough nonsense in real life - this OCT welcomes all and can hopefully provide some fun escapism. People often make characters and stories based in their real-life experiences, and that includes those of being in oppressed groups, so please be mindful and respectful. Characters may have in-universe biases, but do not make them:

  • Sexist

  • Racist

  • Homophobic (or biased against any form of sexual identity)

  • Transphobic (or biased against any form of gender identity)

  • Xenophobic (insensitive toward those of other cultures)

  • Ableist (insensitive toward those who have physical and/or mental disabilities / different neurotypes)

Equally, try to remain sensitive when creating characters which fall under oppressed groups - we encourage it, just make sure you consider the implications of what you're making!

As stated elsewhere, Jynx (and Smoochum by extension) is banned due to strong resemblance to racist caricatures.


Don't make your characters (act like) small children.
Regardless of whether they have canonical ages (it's up to you whether to specify that or not), make sure your characters are effectively 12 or older.


Your characters must be original.
It's in the name of the game, y'all. Any characters with striking resemblance to those in existing media will need to be changed - this goes for Pokémon characters (human or otherwise) and those from other media. Inspiration is fine, but your creations should be a good 80% unique from what they're based on (the fact they're Pokémon notwithstanding).


Your characters can't have heavy ties to existing characters.
Again, Pokémon or otherwise. For instance: your character could know who Ash Ketchum is, either because they've watched the anime OR because they've heard the name as a prolific Pokémon battler / champion of the Alola region - but they couldn't know him personally.


Treat heavy / sensitive topics with respect.
Do your research and use common sense. We won't accept character backstories / entries with gratuitously upsetting content. Give trigger warnings for severe themes.


Don't include fetish content.
Sometimes we need to draw feet in a comic, or mention that a character has tentacles, but if it's related to a fetish, we will know. It gets uncomfortable. Don't make fetish-related content more prominent in your entries.


Disobeying these rules could result in disqualification from the OCT. You may also be banned from our community for severe offenses.

Thank you for reading our rules!
Following them will help keep our community friendly, peaceful, and enjoyable for everyone.