Redditvision Song Contest SE2

The Redditvision Song Contest Special Edition 2, commonly shortened to SE2, will be the second special edition and twenty-second overall edition of the Redditvision Song Contest. The winner of the first special edition, u/geogaymer, had first rights to hosting the second round, but the moderators of Redditvision received no response from them when asked to host. As a result, the two users rounding out the SE1 podium will be hosting instead. The semi-finals will be hosted by third-placed u/_xSyracuse in Valletta, Malta and the final will be hosted by runner-up u/stardust112 in Yerevan, Armenia. This is the first time the contest will be co-hosted by multiple users.

The theme for the edition was random countries. Each participating user will be randomly assigned a country (though some countries were blacklisted due to few or no artists, such as Micronesia) and the artist must have some connection to the country in question. As a result of the edition's rule, some countries never claimed before were declared. The edition was also capped at 66 users, the first time a cap was imposed.

Theme
Likewise with the first special edition, the moderators asked for theme suggestions from the wider community. On 18 July 2018, a theme ballot was posted on the subreddit. Users could submit three ideas each. On 22 July 2018, the ballot closed and the moderators selected 41 potential themes for the edition. Using an approval voting system, users could then vote for all theme ideas they liked. The ideas with the most likes would then proceed to the next round, where the winning theme would be randomly selected.



The nine themes that the community voted for were:
 * You get a random country and you have to send a song from that country
 * Deduction: Users give out minus points in addition to normal points. They may have 20 minus points to allocate however they wish, added together and ‘awarded’ at the end like a televote
 * No music videos
 * Media special: entries must be from or based on a TV show, film or video game
 * Single-elimination tournament: knock-out/1v1 battles)
 * FIFA World Cup themed: Groups & knockout rounds
 * That sounds familiar: Only song titles that have previously been submitted to RSC are permissible
 * Below 100,000 views on Youtube
 * Homegrown: The artist/act you submit must be from the country you currently live in

Each participating user will be randomly assigned a country and the artist must have some connection to the country in question. Grand final host u/stardust112 is the only one exempt from the theme and will participate and host as Armenia. Due to the nature of the theme, country claiming will instead be confirmations from participating users. A live show will be held at the end of the confirmation period where all users receive their assigned country. The song submission period will be extended so each user has more time to find a suitable song for their country. Certain small nations will likely be blacklisted.

Participants
A total of 55 users have signed up for the edition, an incease over the 37 people who participated the previous special edition.

Grand final
The top six from the first special edition will be automatically qualified for the final.