Welcome to the official rules of Eurovision Prediction 2020! We’re so glad that you are interested in participating. Now, to make things as easy as possible, we’ve outlined exactly what the game entails. The game is extremely easy to play and will take just take up a few minutes of your time here and there… unless you are an indecisive predictor of course! Once again, with a SPECIAL PRIZE up for grabs for our Eurovision Prediction 2020 winner, what are you waiting for?
Now, in the absence of national finals (at least for a few more weeks), why not quench your thirst with some sweet sweet rules?
Overview
Interested? I thought so. The rules are VERY simple and easy to understand:
1. When each prediction round begins, you will be notified via our official Eurovision Prediction 2020 Facebook page, our official Eurovision Prediction 2020 Twitter page and here on the ESCXTRA website.
2. All you need to do is select which entry you think will win each national final via the Google form we provide.
3. The player with the most points at the end of the 2020 national final season will become our champion. They will win a SPECIAL PRIZE. What exactly will it be? This is confidential (for now). But to whet your appetite, see the ‘Prize’ section below.
Prediction 2020 – the picture so far
Eurovision Prediction 2020 will consist of several rounds, where the aim is for you to predict which entry will win each country’s national final. Each round will consist of one or more national finals for you to predict. The number of predictions you will need to make in each round will depend on the dates on which the national finals fall.
Of course, not every country will have a national final next year, but here are the countries and national finals that will be included*:
- Albania – Festivali i Këngës 58
- Armenia – Depi Evratesil
- Australia – Australia Decides
- Croatia – DORA
- Czech Republic – Eurovision Song CZ
- Denmark – Dansk Melodi Grandi Prix
- Estonia – Eesti Laul
- Finland – UMK
- Germany – Mein ESC Lied
- Georgia – X Factor Georgia
- Iceland – Söngvakeppnin
- Israel – HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion (Rising Star) and TBC song selection
- Italy – Sanremo
- Latvia – Supernova
- Lithuania – Eurovizijos Atranka
- Malta – X Factor Malta
- Norway – Melodi Grand Prix
- Portugal – Festival da Canção
- Serbia – Beovizija
- Slovenia – EMA
- Sweden – Melodifestivalen
- Ukraine – Vidbir
*Note: This list only includes confirmed national finals, there may will be others announced/confirmed in the coming weeks.
And a moment of silence for the fallen soldiers of Prediction 2019, who we know will not be returning for this edition:
- France – Destination Eurovision
- Moldova – O Melodie pentru Europa
- Spain – OT Gala
- United Kingdom – Eurovision: You Decide
With the likes of Belarus and Romania yet to confirm exactly how they will be selecting their entries for the contest, this list may well change…
You will be notified when a round begins and ends
When each round begins, we will notify you via a brief article that will be posted on our official Eurovision Prediction 2020 Facebook page, our official Eurovision Prediction 2020 Twitter page and here on the ESCXTRA website. We will also share these notifications on our official ESCXTRA Facebook page and Twitter page, so be sure to like and follow them too!
Inside this article will be a Google form. Here, you can submit your predictions. In addition, there will be a deadline for predictions to be submitted. Generally, you will be able to send your predictions for each round up until the earliest national final of the round is scheduled to begin airing. If the round contains a national final outside the typical Friday to Sunday period, special instructions may be given.
Predictions are submitted via a simple Google form
On the Google form, you will be asked to submit your name, Twitter profile (optional) and nationality (nothing sinister about this at all). You will be able to maintain a significant level of anonymity if you so desire! You will then be asked to select which entry you think will win each national final using a series of drop-down menus. And that’s it!
Note: you will require a Google Account to register your votes. The email address you use to login to the form and to submit your votes will not be retained by ESCXTRA following the end of the competition. Your email address will only be used to provide you with a notification if you are the winning entrant at the end of the competition. Your email will not be sold to any third-parties and will be kept securely within the Google Forms system by Google itself. Because data privacy is what? Fundamental (literally, it’s the law).
You can edit your predictions as you wish up until the deadline. Just make sure to supply us with the same personal details in your submission. But what happens next? Read on below!
Our scoring system
After all of the national finals in the round have taken place and selected their winners, it is time to award the points! We aim to turn the results around for you within 24 hours of the latest national final of the round coming to an end. However, please be patient if there are a lot of you guys playing… which we hope there will be!
A dynamic scoring system
We calculate your score depending on how close your predicted winners come to winning their respective finals. Take Melodifestivalen 2019, for example. If you predicted John Lundvik to win, you would receive the full 12 points on offer. 12 points were available as there were 12 entries in the Melfest final. If you predicted 2nd placed Bishara to win, you would receive 11 points, and so on. Therefore, if you predicted Malou Prytz to win, you would only receive 1 point, because she was ROBBED and finished last in the final.
In the instance of a national final only declaring the winner, such as in Eurovision: You Decide (RIP) circa 2018, the points on offer will be all or nothing. For example, if you predicted SuRie to win you would take the full 6 points on offer. However, if you predicted any of the other five finalists, you would receive the minimum of 1 point. If a national final announces just a selection of exact placings, such as in the 2017-18 edition of Festivali i Këngës when only the top three was revealed, then a hybrid of these two scoring systems will be used.
We will determine which of the two scoring systems will be used depending on the results that are announced during the show. Sometimes a national final chooses to reveal full results afterwards via the internet, or other outlets, after only announcing the winner or the top positions during the show. In such cases, we will only include these detailed results in our scoring if they are revealed prior to the publication of our Prediction results. Once we have published the results of a round, these will not be changed even if broadcasters reveal detailed results in the following days or weeks.
More complicated than you thought, huh?
Round-by-round leaderboard updates
If you do not submit a prediction for a national final then you will receive zero points. This scoring process will take place for each national final. At the end of each round, the points will be added up and posted on our official Eurovision Prediction 2020 Facebook page, our official Eurovision Prediction 2020 Twitter page and here on the ESCXTRA website. The player that accumulates the most points after all the rounds have taken place will be crowned the winner of Eurovision Prediction 2020!
The prize
Now the part you’ve all been waiting/scrolling for. Of course, becoming the winner of Eurovision Prediction 2020 is a massive prize in itself! What? That isn’t enough? Well, luckily for you, we will be awarding a SPECIAL MYSTERY PRIZE. We won’t divulge what this prize will be right now (that would make it…not a mystery), but we WILL whet your appetite…
The winner of the Prediction 2018 won a package of promotional items from the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest! These items were chosen at the discretion of our editors on the ground in Lisbon and the items made available to us by the delegations at the contest. Quite a unique prize right? As you can imagine, he LOVED it:
Not ones to keep it predictable (ironically), we switched things up a little this year. James, the winner of Prediction 2019, won a STUNNING poster made by Ellie Chalkley of ESC Insight fame.
Jealous? Don’t worry, we’re about to start the next round!
Albania is first up!
Tell all your friends and get ready to predict! The first round will begin very shortly as it’s time for Festivali i Këngës to select Albania’s representative for Tel Aviv. The dates for the selection have been confirmed for the 19th, 20th and 22nd of December. We also now know that the entries will be released on Monday (December 9th). We’re sure that speculation will be rife once the songs are out…so stay tuned!
Happy predicting!
Be sure to stay updated by following the official Eurovision Prediction 2020 Facebook page, our official Eurovision Prediction 2020 Twitter page and here on the ESCXTRA website for the latest updates! We’ll also be starting some prediction guides on our YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe!
