DeathScore is what's called a Dead Pool, in which the participants, basically, attempt to predict which famous persons will die in the coming year.  (Apologies to those who are already familiar with the concept.)  Since there are a lot of first-timers here, we're going to keep it simple -- merely make a list of TEN people, all of whom are now alive and under age 90, and are generally-known public figures (please don't submit your Uncle Eddie who Is Not Looking Well At All, unless, of course, he's famous.) and send it in.   And here is the fine print:

1. All players must submit a list of exactly ten (10) candidates, all of whom must be, to the best knowledge of the player: (a) Actual natural human persons (no animals, fictional characters, etc.) (b) Generally-known public figures, whose death is likely to be reported in national/international news media; (c) Alive when submitted; (d) Have not celebrated their 90th birthday prior to 1 January of the contest year.

2. The player's list must be received at the address "deathscore@deathscore.com" at or before 12:01 AM, Pacific StandardTime (GMT -0800) on 1 January of the contest year.   Late entries will be accepted only at the discretion of the Judge, and you'd better have a pretty damn good (or amusing) excuse. Entries are to be made by e-mail only.

3. Each player will be awarded one (1) point for each candidate who dies during the contest year.  Time/date of death is California (Pacific Standard) Time, regardless of the location of the decedent.

4. Ties will be broken by the average age of the players' decedents, with younger decedents prevailing.  For example, assume John and Mary both correctly picked three decedents.  The average age of John's decedents is calculated to be 71.5, while Mary's is 76.0.  John will be ranked ahead of Mary

5. A further tiebreaker, if needed, will be the player who picked the single youngest decedent among the tying players.  An ultimate tiebreaker, if needed, will be based on bribing or influencing the Judge.  :-

6. The decision of the Judge (and the Grim Reaper!) is final. The Judge will not participate in the game.

7. All players are required to maintain an e-mail address with the Judge (which will be kept confidential if requested) for official communications, prizes, inquiries, etc.  All players will be subscribed to the deathscore-announce mailing list (deathscore-announce@deathscore.com) which is for official announcements.  Players may (default is "yes") subscribe to the deathscore-chat mailing list (deathscore-chat@deathscore.com) which is for discussion, questions, banter, death notices, bragging, etc.  To subscribe/unsubscribe from this list send the message

subscribe deathscore-chat

unsubscribe deathscore-chat

8. The DeathScore lists, standings, results of previous years' contests, etc., can be found on the DeathScore Web site at http://www.deathscore.com/ .

9. Feel free to tell your friends, lovers, family, acquaintances, co-workers, etc., about DeathScore (and encourage them to enter), or put a link on your home page if you like,,  but please do not post a mass-market invitation  since it will probably overwhelm the Judge. 

10. All prizes are deemed awarded in the state of California, and taxes (if any) on prizes are the responsibility of the recipient. Prizes have no cash equivalent and may not be substituted.  DeathScore is a trademark of Michael C. Berch dba DeathScore Ventures. All rights reserved.