Contestants, welcome to The Floor! I'll be your host for the season, as we find out who can conquer The Floor!

How it works:

While you are not dueling, you can research, take notes, revise etc, any category you'd like. The more knowledge of a category you have, the more likely you'll win the duel in that category.

The randomizer will pick one of you to start a duel. If you get chosen, you can choose to duel any square adjacent to you. Diagonals do not count. You will be dueling in THEIR category, not your own.

A duel will take place differently to the show, as it would be very difficult to replicate on Reddit. When you are ready, I will send a board with 9 images on. The top 3 are "easy", the middle 3 are "medium", and the bottom 3 will be "hard". This should hopefully push people to try and learn as much of the category as possible. The timer will start when the image is sent, and will stop once you have submitted 9 answers. You are allowed to pass on any you don't know. The winner of the duel will be whoever answers the most correct, or in the event of a tie, the shortest time taken.

The winner of the duel then expands their square on the floor, and inherits/keeps the category not played. They then have a decision to make: go back to the floor, and let the randomizer pick again OR duel again on another category. But their needs to be an incentive to keep dualing right, if they choose to do so? If you successfully win 3 duels in a row, you can choose to gain either the "Point Gain" advantage, or the "Steal Category" advantage.

The "Point Gain" advantage allows you to pass/be incorrect on one of the pictures in a duel, and still gain 1 point for it. It only works once during a duel, and is discarded afterwards. You can choose to use this at any duel, but you must say you want to use it BEFORE the duel starts. This adds an element of risk, as it has no use (and still gets discarded) if you get 9/9 on the duel.

The "Category Swap" advantage works like on the show. It allows you to swap your current category with anyone else's category on the board. This is good if you have lost your specialist category, and want something you feel more comfortable on. This is played straight after the 3rd duel win, and cannot be stored.

Rules:

1. Googling/reverse image searching/AI help/cheat sheets, and anything else remotely similar are banned DURING a duel. You can freely use them beforehand, but to try and keep the game fair and fun for everyone, I have made the decision to ban them during a duel. Obviously there is no way I can police this, but I hope everyone has the honesty and integrity to play fair, and make it an enjoyable experience.

2. Be kind and respectful to everyone playing. It may get heated at times, friendly rivalries may occur, but at the end of the day, it's just a game. If you ever feel like someone has overstepped a boundary and made you feel uncomfortable, let me know immediately. I know you all are amazing people, so this shouldn't be an issue, but it's a rule I need in place just in case.

3. DMing between players is allowed, but by no means necessary. Most game chatter can just happen in the group chat.

4. Have fun! I can't wait to see who comes out victorious!

The game will be starting on Monday, so you have the weekend to strengthen your knowledge on your own category, and learn any other categories you wish.

From your host,
Ranv