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The contest rules say:

Each Achievement you unlock gets you one entry into a drawing for prizes. The number of names drawn will be equal to 25% of the total number entries.

There are 6 achievements, meaning than there are up to 6 n entries where n is the number of entrants. 25% of 6 is 1.25, meaning that there will be 1.25 n prizes for n people in the "worst" case. Is this intended? Are we banking on the hope that most entrants will not acquire all 6 achievements?

I am also hoping to clarify this bit of the rules:

25% of the people entered into each raffle will be selected. If you complete more than one of the Platinum, Diamond, and Master leagues, you'll be entered into multiple raffles, but you can only select one prize.

In the normal reading of this I'd think that "selected" means selected to win, which would mean that if someone wins multiple draws you have a bit of a complicated process to ensure that the 25% promise is met (discounting them from the other draws decreases the number of winners):

  1. Wait for them to get back to you about the prize they want

  2. Draw one more person from all the raffles they qualified for but did not select

  3. Hope this didn't create any more multiple-winners, otherwise goto (1)

I'm guessing this isn't what you're going to do, so I'm just curious as to what the plan is!

And I apologize for thinking in edge cases; I'm a programmer.

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  • The big question is whether they round up or down. I think it was "Down" last time. As to the others, this means they draw for the master league first, and then if you didn't win, you are still eligible to win for diamond, etc. so on, down the line.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Mar 13, 2013 at 22:59
  • Do we no longer have a community manager handling the competitions now? Whatever happened to Lauren?
    – deutschZuid
    Mar 14, 2013 at 12:12
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    @deutschZuid That's me! I'm working on a response to this. :)
    – Aarthi
    Mar 14, 2013 at 13:16
  • @deutschZuid Lauren is no longer working for stack exchange. (They parted amicably)
    – Raven Dreamer
    Mar 14, 2013 at 17:45
  • I'm not sure if this helps you find an answer or not, but I asked a question on Stats.SE about how to predict your chance of winning an achievement during the last contest, and I think the rules are the same this time around so the answer should still apply. You probably have to be pretty math-saavy to fully understand the accepted answer though :)
    – Rachel
    Mar 19, 2013 at 16:31
  • @Rachel That's pretty cool. Fortunately I passed my stats classes :)
    – Matthew Read
    Mar 19, 2013 at 17:30

1 Answer 1

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25% of 6 is 1.25, meaning that there will be 1.25 n prizes for n people in the "worst" case. Is this intended? Are we banking on the hope that most entrants will not acquire all 6 achievements?

This is mean to be read as, "The total number of winners for all achievements will be 25% of total entrants." Your math assumes that n1 = n2 = n3 = ... = n6, where each number refers to a discrete achievement. However, based on our experience, this isn't true. Some achievements will yield 150 entrants; others a mere 15. Given this (that n1 ≠ n2 ≠ ... ≠ n6, then the supposition that there will be 1.25 prizes per winner falls through.

How this has worked in the past: 25% of entrants in each achievement were awarded a prize, such that the total proportion of winners didn't exceed 25% of total entrants.

In the normal reading of this I'd think that "selected" means selected to win, which would mean that if someone wins multiple draws you have a bit of a complicated process to ensure that the 25% promise is met [...]

One of the comments pointed this out. I'll do my best to clarify. Basically: we draw from the top prize and then down. So, if you qualified for Master but didn't win, you're entered into the raffle for the next league (in this case, Diamond). Total prize recipients will not exceed 25% of all entries.

In this specific contest, because of (a) how short the promo period is, and (b) the sheer awesomeness of prizes, there's a pretty strict limit on how many prizes we are going to give out. That said, I have full faith that this community can once more prove itself as one of the premiere resources of SC2 content on the internet!

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  • Ah yes, 25% of entrants is definitely different from 25% of entries. I'd suggest updating the rules with that wording change. For the second bit, would I be correct in assuming that if someone wins Master but chooses the Diamond prize, it simply means that you award one fewer Master prize and one more Diamond prize than "normal"?
    – Matthew Read
    Mar 14, 2013 at 18:36
  • I didn't think winners had the option of "trading out" prizes. Don't get me wrong -- that Platinum prize is pretty great. :P If someone chooses to trade out, I'll have to look at precedent, but right now I wasn't planning on offering that option.
    – Aarthi
    Mar 14, 2013 at 18:37
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    Is that not what this line from the contest rules means? " If you complete more than one of the Platinum, Diamond, and Master leagues, you'll be entered into multiple raffles, but you can only select one prize. "
    – Kexlox
    Mar 14, 2013 at 19:49
  • @Kexlox That's what I thought too. Anyone who downgrades saves SE money, right? ;)
    – Matthew Read
    Mar 14, 2013 at 20:04
  • Hmm. Well then! That should be okay. :)
    – Aarthi
    Mar 14, 2013 at 20:06
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    As a precedent, I traded down during the ME3 contest. (I took a PS3 when I won a TV)
    – agent86
    Mar 14, 2013 at 21:26

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