Overview

If you're new to the HSWC, here's a really quick explanation of how the event works for participants, from start to finish!

Quick Summary

HSWC is a fandom event where people gather into teams, primarily around various ships. Nearly any ship imaginable can have a team built around it. Then those teams work hard over the duration of the event (from May through August) to gather points. The more points a team gains, the higher ranked they become!

There are two main rounds (MR), one collab round, and several bonus rounds (br) that take place over the course of the event. All teams are encouraged to participate in all rounds, and all rounds are point-earning.

After the main and collab round(s) are over, HSWC participants then vote for their favorite entries. The more votes a MR or collab entry receives, the more points it is awarded.

The HSWC is fast-paced and there's always something to do, but can generally scale to your amount of free time and desired involvement. If you want to enjoy and/or create fanwork, there's no better event than this; the first week of HSWC 2013 alone created over a hundred new works for the fandom. It's a great event for rare pairings and characters, and creates a huge amount of material for them every year. The HSWC is a rewarding and exciting event, and there's something fun for everyone!

A Step by Step Guide

(Or, how to join and participate in the HSWC)

1. Look at the schedule to see the HSWC's important dates and determine if the event works with your own schedule.

2. Sign up to join a team when sign ups open on Apr. 8!

   1. You can also help by reblogging our advertisement post!

   2. Consider subscribing to/tracking our HSWC websites to keep up with the latest announcements.

3. Participate in bonus rounds as they appear. Bonus rounds are more participant-driven and represent every ship imaginable (not just those represented by teams). Each team member is free to work independently to create prompts and fills.

4. Participate in main rounds as their themes are announced. Each team demonstrates their ship's selling points and the team's own talents through their main round entries. While Main Rounds can be (and often are) collaborative, they don't have to be.

5. Participate in the collab round. This is the only round where team collaboration is required. Teams can push themselves here and really show off their ship to the best of their abilities!

6. Vote on each main and collab round saying which entries are your favorites.

   1. Tune into voting results to see how your team has done, and celebrate your each team's accomplishments!
7. Continue participating in bonus rounds, main/collab rounds, and voting until all rounds are completed.
8. The HSWC ends, final rankings are announced, and everybody celebrates!

For more details about any aspect of the HSWC, this wiki is a wealth of information. Just go back to the Front Page and use the links there to navigate to the various sections. Good luck to you and your team in this year's HSWC, and happy shipping!