In the game Encore, groups go back and forth singing lyrics of songs that include predetermined words. During our game one of the words that came up was "lips". After a few songs had been sung, a gentleman stood up and sang a tune, apparently misunderstanding that the lyrics of the song say "list" instead. Naturally, the judges disqualified Group A from the round; the song did not include the correct word.
After another few songs had been sung by the remaining groups, Group B stood up and sang a song that said the word "lipstick". The judges automatically accepted the word and moved to Group C. After unsuccessfully pleading their case to the judges, Group C was unable to come up with a song and lost the game. Group C was blatantly the victim of an injustice.
Page 1, Statement 3 of the official
Encore Deluxe rules states that:
You may use the actual word or an acceptable variation of the word. Compound
variations, plurals, and "ing" are acceptable. For example, if the word is "day" you
may use "daylight" or "days". If the word is "run", "running" and "runner" are fine.
However, if the word is "something", the word "thing" is not acceptable.
Lipstick is not an "acceptable variation" of the word "lips". They are two separate objects. Moving on in the rulebook to Statements 5 and 6:
You are NOT required to sing WELL.
Mission accomplished.
You ARE required to HAVE FUN!
This is a difficult thing to do when you've got the Encore equivalent of Joey Crawford and Violet Palmer as judges. An inquiry via Twitter was posted to Endless Games. Their response:
@BradGessell Lipstick is as acceptible as daylight, but that's our opinion. The fun rule always prevails, by the way, so judges: lighten up!
I was appalled. How could lipstick be acceptable? As I was writing a response, I received a second response (unsolicited):
@BradGessell On further consideration, lipstick would not be accepted for lips. But fun must always prevail. That's a given here.
Case closed.