As I see it, there will always be people who disappear during the game, so either the songs in each match-up will have to be chosen before the start of the game, or the same songs will be used in every match-up.

What I'm think we could do is have one bracket with the top 32 artists on AM and another with 32 artists outside the top 32, as chosen by their "Managers", and the winner of each faces off at the end.

To resolve the problem me and Henkrik have been discussing, we could have the "Managers" list the songs they would use for each round in case they dropped of the forum, but they could change the order up to 24 hours before the matchup started, to keep strategy involved but prevent issues.

As this is a focus group and an open discussion, I hope it's OK if I speak my mind. This is a really cool idea for a game and a lot of thought has clearly gone into it already. But... please remember that most people respond to music intuitively. With this game (and I daresay other recent "games" like the underrated albums poll) the rules tend to be a bit too complicated. It puts people off. I can completely see how this forum attracts people who like mathematics and statistics, but you have to remember that most people would prefer not to reach for their calculators to participate in a poll. Please keep it simple. The goal of these games must be to allow maximum participation, and the more complicated you make it the less likely people will participate. Just saying...

Don't worry, I have no idea what's going on in the underrated album thred either.
AM is half (more like 3/4) or the reason I'm taking AP stat next year. This game doesn't involve any math (yet).

Yes, it's always possible to find replacement managers if we need, and we can always have people declare their choices at the beginning, then change them later.

@Dan

But, I don't think these ideas are very complicated to the participants. To the people who run them, they're a bit complicated, but to the managers all you have to do is pick an artist then pick the songs you want to play, and to the voters, all you have to do is look at two songs and pick your favorite. Nobody has to reach for their calculators except the person who runs the game.

I agree the underrated albums poll is making people do too much work. I would just say 'You can't pick the top X AM and top Y RYM, otherwise use your own judgment'.

I have to admit that the Underrated Albums poll is a little complicated, but it's as complicated as you make it. It does require some effort to look up the AM and RYM rankings, but there is really no requirement to apply formulas to get your ranking. That's just kinda fun to some of us.

I hope you guys will still participate despite the extra work you need to put into it to create your list, but even if you don't I'm sure you can find some nice recommendations through the final and individual lists.

If you feel that it's too complicated, just submit a top 50 list of your favorite albums not in the AM or RYM top 500 (with your personal all-time ranking) and I'll check the eligibility. I just don't have the time to do that for everyone though.