Score Creep
From AZPoetrypedia
Score Creep is a poetry slam philosophy that during the course of a slam competition, the scores for performers gradually increase regardless of whether or not the quality of the poetry improves.
Score Creep is one of the most difficult aspects for slam poetry organizers to overcome when planning a fair slam. Remedies include:
- Having at least one, sometimes several "calibration" or "sacrifice" poets perform before the slam begins to absorb the low scores before score creep sets in.
- Rotating poets between rounds so that poets hurt by low first-round scores due to an early draw can benefit from late draws in later rounds, i.e., in a two-round slam with six poets: Poet A, Poet B, Poet C, Poet D, Poet E, and Poet F, reversing the order for round two Poet F, Poet E, Poet D, Poet C, Poet B, and Poet A would me that poets A & B who suffered low scores before score creep set in might benefit from their placement in the second round when score creep has arguably taken the scores higher.
Team Slams and Score Creep
Score Creep plays an active role in team slam strategy.
The Anchor Strategy to Overcome Score Creep
Some teams prefer to place their weaker poets first so that low scores for weak poems are neglible to the team's overall score while stronger poets benefit from score creep later in the draw. This results in low first and second round scores and extremely high third and fourth round scores, i.e., 22 - 24 - 29.6 - 29.8. Invariably, the last, or "anchor," poet for a team scores the highest points for the team. In competitions wherein individual scores are also calculated, this catapults individuals into contention for top rankings.
The Front Load Strategy to Overcome Score Creep
Other teams prefer to "front load" by placing their strong poets early the round, hoping that strong early poets can counterweight score creep's negative aspects while allowing weaker poets to benefit from score creep, resulting in more even scores across the board, i.e., 26.6 - 27.6 - 26.1 - 26.1.
