The Official Movie Melee Rule Book

The Official Movie Melee Rule Book

(SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Any questions on the rules that were not addressed here, you can message Payson Johnson directly. Thank you.

Standard Matches

• A standard match in movie melee is three rounds. This consists of a whiteboard round, a wheel round, and a pick your poison round.

• In a title match, there are two additional rounds. A deep cut round and an opponent's choice round.

• Throughout the duration of a standard match, competitors get three repeats to be used for more time to think. In a title match, they are given four repeats.

• Throughout the duration of the match, a competitor is given one challenge. They can challenge anything under the sun. If they win the challenge, they get it back. If they lose the challenge, it is gone for the match.

• Competitors must keep their hands on screen throughout the duration of the match. Failure to do so will get you a reminder from the hosts. Repeated occurrences during a match could lead to harsher consequences.

Round One

• The whiteboard round.

• Competitors receive eight questions from eight different general categories.

• Competitors have fifteen seconds to write their answer on their board after hearing the question, afterwards they will hear pens down.

• Answer all eight questions correct, a competitor will receive a bonus question asked only to them or anyone else that went perfect.

• In a teams match, competitors will work individually to answer questions. No conferring.

Round 2

• The Wheel Round

• Competitors are asked five questions from whatever category they land on with the wheel.

• The wheel consists of ten slices. Four general categories, two strengths (one from each player), and spinners and opponents choice.

• In the event of a multi person match, spinner and opponents choice will not be on the wheel.

• In the event of a title match, the champion decides if Spinners and Opponents are on the wheel.

• The player in the lead out of round one has the option to spin first or differ.

• Your opponent can steal any question you get wrong.

Round 2 Strengths

• When a match is set up, the first thing you will be asked to do is send your strength and general category directly to Payson Johnson.

• Your general category can be anything from the general category list on the Facebook page. That list can also be accessed here: 

  • Multiplex Movie Melee - General Categories

• In regards to strengths, a strength can be anything as long as it has six eligible films included.

• A film is eligible if it played in New York and LA (on IMDB if it says limited release, we count that as eligible) and must be available to rent or stream on our six recognized streaming platforms.

• Melee’s recognized streaming platforms are:

• • Netflix

• • Prime Video

• • Hulu

• • Disney Plus

• • HBO Max

• • Apple TV+

• • And any other free service that isn’t illegal

• A strengths can be broken down by genre, year, decade, actor, director, composer, writer, producer, Oscar nominated, or Oscar winning.

• If you are breaking your strength down via Oscar winning or nominated, you can only break down via decade or era, not year.

• We do not recognize any random assortment of films with the exception of the Oscars. However, if you can provide a list of films that is compiled on Wikipedia, we will allow it (for example Christian films might be hard to define, but because there is a list on Wikipedia, we would allow it).

• If your strength is less than 100 films, you must provide a list upon a request from your opposing player. Failure to do so will result in you being asked to pick another strength

• Even if your opponent does not request a list for some reason, we still recommend you provide a list not for their sake, but for the writers. If you do not, you are not allowed to challenge if an ineligible film via release or streaming issues is asked in your strength as you did not provide the writers with that knowledge.

• Questions in any player’s strengths can not be asked about in any other questions in the match unless your opponent picks a strength that is simply a genre or has one or less qualifiers.

• In the event of a title match, players are asked to submit two strengths.

• The general category you take is not written at strength level.

• If it is a player’s prerogative, you do not have to send in a strength. If this is a decision, another general category will be randomized onto the wheel.

Round 3

• The “Pick your Poison” round.

• In a normal match, before the match is set up, players will go back and forth drafting categories they wish to appear in round 3. They each draft four.

• The player who is higher ranked decides if they want to draft first or second .

• The player in the lead drafts the first category, they then go back and forth.

• You are drafting categories to be taken at a one, two, three, and four point level.

• The order you draft does not need to match the order you answer your questions.

• In a teams match, teams confer on every question.

• In a title match, this is round 5.

Sudden Death

• In the event of a tie at the end of the match, sudden death is played.

• Players answer questions on their white board with no categories.

• They continue answering until one player takes the lead.

• Repeats are carried over into sudden death.

Title Match Rounds

Round 3 (5 Round Match)

• In a title match, round 3 is the deep cut round.

• Before a title match, players or teams each submit one film and two deep cut questions (very deep plot questions) are asked for both movies.

• Questions can be any plot related detail about the movie.

• In teams, teams confer on all questions with the teams being in separate skype calls.

Round 4 (5 Round Match)

• The Risk Round.

• Players are asked five questions from five random categories, each worth one point.

• Players can bet anywhere between 0-2 points on every question. If the bet points, they will lose any number of points that they bet if they get it wrong, or gain it if they get it right.

• The categories that can be randomized in this round are any categories that were not chosen for either rounds 2 or 5 by the players.

• In a teams match, the team goes back and forth deciding who answers the first four questions. When one player decides to answer the first question, the other player must take the second. This resets for questions 3 and 4 with the same rules. Players can confer on the 5th question in their skype call

Other Notes

Challenges

• Players are given one challenge throughout the match.

• If they win their challenge, they keep it. If they lose their challenge, they lose it for the rest of the match.

• Anything can be challenged.

• Once a challenge is thrown, the opposing player/team has the right to make a counter argument.

• Challenges are decided by the hosts rulings and past precedents. Please note, Past precedents are not always law.

• Challenges are ended when the hosts and showrunners come to an agreement.

• I will not go into every precedent we have set but one I do think is important is the multiple answers precedent.

• If a question has multiple answers and a player gets a correct one, the opposing player can’t challenge to get the question thrown out.

• That being said, if a player gets a question wrong that has multiple answers, they also can’t throw that question out.

Spelling

• Spelling does not count, but you must answer phonetically correct.

• Same goes for pronunciation.

Genres/Eras

• The classification of a film is determined by either what is stated on IMDB or Letterboxd.  The classification only needs to match one and not both sites.

• If we ask a question that is falsely classified, you can challenge to get a new question for yourself. That being said, you cannot screw other players out of points due to false classification.

• We go off the American release date for years on films.