Clear rules before anyone competes.

Starting a duel

The challenger names both participants, sets the acceptance and challenge deadlines in GMT, supplies entry URLs, writes the competition rules and judging criteria, proposes 1, 2, 3, or 5 judges, and defines the concession sentence.

The acceptance deadline must be at least 24 hours after publication. The challenge deadline must be at least six hours after acceptance closes and no later than seven days after publication. Judging then lasts 24 hours.

Responding

The opponent reviews the complete private proposal and can accept the challenge and that exact version, decline participation, or request a revision. A revision request keeps the challenge open. The parties coordinate elsewhere, and only the challenger can publish a replacement version.

A decline or unanswered challenge is not a loss. Just Duel never awards a winner because someone refused or did not respond.

Judging

Each approved and confirmed judge chooses one overall winner. Criteria guide the choice and are not scored or weighted. Every judge on the selected panel must submit before the result can be finalized.

• One judge: that choice decides.
• Two judges: agreement decides; a split is a tie.
• Three or five judges: the majority decides.
• Missing decisions at the judging deadline: the result is incomplete.

Crowd voting

Public votes are anonymous, repeatable clicks shown live. They are entertainment and engagement only. They never affect the official result and are not described as one-person-one-vote, verified, representative, or bot-proof.

Fairness and records

Sponsors never affect discovery, rules, judges, votes, or outcomes. Accepted terms, public milestones, judge choices, and results remain on the permanent duel page.