Contestant Allocation   System

FISM™ Europe Contestant Allocation System

The World Championships of Magic (WCM) 2009 will be held in Beijing, China and the European Championships of Magic (ECM) already in 2008 in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

What does that mean for the competitors of the European FISM member societies?
For all contestants it is important to realize that during these first European Championships only 4 days are available for the competition. Knowing that a jury, in the given time frame, can cope with about 25 acts per day, this means there is a maximum capacity of 100 acts to compete in the European Championships of Magic

There will be a division of approximately 65 places for stage magic and 35 for close-up magic. If we look at the last three world championships this turned out to be enough to facilitate the needs of the European competitors. However, the number of magician members of FISM societies is growing and the capacity of the this competition has been set, based on the availability of the venue.

Interesting enough the capacity of the European Championships of Magic 2008 is to be compared to the number of places for European competitors in China, one year later. Theoretically it is possible that all competitors can compete at the ECM 2008, if they have the required documents and authorization. If, in total, there will be 100 or less applicants for the competition all will be fine for everybody.

But….if there will be more than 100 applicants the Contestant Allocation System (CAS) will be used.

What does this mean?
This means that, if there will be more than 100 applications from competitors, some countries will be asked to withdraw competitors. The EEB will in that case allocate the total number of available places for competitors per country.

How does this work?
For the competitors and the societies it is important to realize that if a country sends lots of acts to Sofia for the competition they can be forced to withdraw a certain number of acts. On the bases of the CAS each country knows what the initially approved number of contestants is. If a country wants to apply with more acts it is free to do so. Maybe some other countries will not use their initially approved number of acts. This means that in reality some countries will have more acts than the initially approved number and others less. The number of acts per country that is more than the initially approved number goes into a distribution pool to be redistributed.
If the total is no more than 100 there is no problem. But, if the total is more than 100 the mathematics of the CAS will be used to establish the maximum number of acts each country can send to the ECM.

The allocation of the number of acts per country will be done by the EEB, after the final closing date for contestants to apply for the ECM 2008, which is 1st August 2008.
The decision which acts, within the given final number of acts for a country can compete, is entirely in the hands of the respective presidents from those countries.

The principles of the Contestant Allocation System

The basis principles of the CAS are described below. Please take notice that the CAS is based on ‘votes’ per society, which number may be subject to changes.

The system is based on the following premises:

1. A. The allocation of the number of contestants per continental division for a FISM championship is the responsibility of the Presidium.
    B. The allocation of the number of contestants per member-society for a FISM championship is the responsibility of the Presidents of the continental Executive Boards and in the absence of an Executive Board by the Presidium of the FISM.
   C. The Presidents of the member-societies are responsible for the allocation of individual performers and their (artistic) quality.

2. The approved number of contestants for a continental FISM division should be calculated as the proportion of its collected number of votes to the total number of votes in the General Assembly of the FISM.

3. For a World Championship of Magic, every continental FISM division has the right to have a least 1 (one) contestant in the WCM.

4. The positive differences between the initially approved numbers of contestants of continental divisions and their actual applicant contestants are gathered in a “Distribution Pool”. The total numbers in the Distribution Pool are proportionally divided over those continental divisions that have more applicants than initially approved.

5. Every country has the right to have at least 1 (one) contestant in the competition.

6. Every society within a country must have a chance to have a contestant in the competition,

7. 1st Prize winners of a Continental Championship have a non transferable guaranteed entrance in the FISM World Championships of Magic.

Summarizing, the above means that all countries are free to send in the acts they want to compete at the ECM 2008. Only if there are more than 100 competitors applying for the ECM 2008 the CAS will be used. If applied, the EEB will give each country a final total number of acts that may compete from that country.
The decision which particular acts will actually compete is in the hands of the presidents of the European FISM societies.