Well, there's still someone alive in the judging den. All five of the judges, even. The task you set them with these contributions was ...  not easy. Definitely not. But with gallons of coffee and some other stimulants it was done.

What the judges did:

🛸 read and re-read the stories

🛸 read and re-read the poems

🛸 discuss them

🛸 compare them

🛸 lose sleep over them (or rather the scores)

🛸 call in a few more judges with unbiased minds

🛸 discuss and compare some more

🛸 meditate

🛸 hope for inspiration or intervention from above (the aliens, duh!)

🛸 drink more coffee

🛸 and some other stuff we don't dare to mention here

To what end?

That's the question... a good one, hopefully.

The scores were incredibly tight. Let us agree that we should allow all of you to continue. But alas, this is a SmackDown and we said only four will move on to the semifinals, so four it is. So, who's in?

⭐️

The three who made the cut are:

potatoturnipbean — wdhenning — theidiotmachine

Congrats folks! 🚀

⭐️

And then we have two with an identical score, and don't believe we didn't try to break the tie and lost some sleep over it. We even checked all your scores back to the humble beginnings of the Ultimate ScienceFiction SmackDown and there is only one point separating you, way back in the first part of Round One. So, it all comes down to this: you both delivered great work so far and will have to engage in a duel to fight for your place in the semifinals. Of course, this will have to be done — as befits great writers — by writing. But more on that in the next chapter, where we will launch the fight of the titans:

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Wuckster vs. RJGlynn

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And for the rest of you, AngusEcrivain, elveloy, sacredlilac - well fought, and well lost. You're going down with flying colours. We immensely enjoyed all your stories and poems. We hope to see more of you soon — and of course meet you in the next SciFi SmackDown! Or perhaps before, as there are other opportunities to showcase your talent in the SciFi-verse of Ooorah & ScienceFiction.

⭐️

And in this spirit, a call to all SmackDown-ers:

April 10th Ooorah will publish the next issue of TevunKrus, the amazing SciFi Wattzine. Please consider letting us add your BDO-stories from Round 3 to this issue. If you are happy to join us, please let us know either in the comments or by direct message. Or send us a link to a Google doc containing your story to the Ooorah profile. 

Thanks in advance and happy writing!