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Description
Current structure of writing competitions on DeviantArt: tournament, matches are single elimination. Each round has a goal for the characters to complete; whichever writer has the best entry, that entry becomes canon to the story of the tournament. Writers who lose a round can no longer submit canon work.
Problems with this format:
*There are occasional issues with the nature of the character reward and how exclusive it is, as well as elimination of characters.
*Once a writer is defeated, they no longer have any incentive to participate (and sometimes are actually forced to not write anything further) -- waste of material and creativity.
*The number of canon participants (and thus interest in the tournament) decreases over time.
*Format often discourages cooperative victory and makes teams problematic.

Possible solutions:
*Do away with the only option being tiered elimination. Have large scale plot advancement. Set up multiple smaller, single or double round events with specific requirements to enter, separate from the general plot (requirements could be character design based, getting together a certain number of other writers and forming a team, canon score... options are wide open). Plus, let writers themselves be active in setting up plot points that they can compete to advance to.
*Instead of a tournament being the be all and end all of your reputation and effort, you would compete within a league, drawing win/loss record from different sub-league settings and competitions. The win/loss record would be more of a CANON SCORE, a set of three numbers that represent how many canon entries you have (I.E. how many times have you beat an opponent in a moderated setting and had your entry become canon), how man official non-canon entries you have (times that you've submitted during an official match but not had your entry chosen to become canon -- but it was still judged and critiqued) and then the number of spectator entries or fan entries that you've submitted. So if you've had 5 official matches, lost two of them and wrote spectator entries for 3, your canon score would be 3/2/3.
[Spectator entries would have a minimum number of words required (1000?) and would need to have a good critique from another writer attached to them before they would be scored]

*Having a large community that does not decrease over time as a matter of course will keep people involved and help fight burnout.

The sub-league would provide a basic starting point for all characters so that they share a common background (setting, character guidelines ect). The first big plot arc should be open to all sub-league members so that everyone can participate for one or two plot advancements before any exclusive events are offered.

SO. THE IDEA IS:
You have 30 people join your sub-league. You hold some kind of audition process and select 14 of them for have control of the plot at the start - these 14 people make characters and pair off 7v7. Each of these 1v1 matches controls a thread of the plot, and the two people in the match are battling over who controls that thread - who controls what is canon. Winners are decided 7 of those people now have canon entries, HOWEVER, you could split the group into two sections now and have the noncanon material be an alternative plot arc. The sub-league leader and his administrators take the material that has been written so far and work with it to further the plot and create new prompts, while taking suggestions from the members through mini-events. Then the second set of matches is held, where 14 new people can come in. They pair up with the 7 of the canon and the 7 of the alternative plotline and battle again for control of the plot threads.

You could hold special events that have specific requirements if you want to have the number of writers in the pool whittled down. EX have a special side event that requires a certain number of canon points to join, that pits a group of 8 writers against each other 4v4, 2v2, 1v1 and then that one writer gets to control a certain specific plot element exclusively for a while.

Also, the setting of the sub-league and really all of the details for it could be built from the ground up by the members. The admins would just supply a few very basic ideas and then hold contests to gather more material. Taking the best from the submitted stuff, they could combine it and produce the world that the competition would be held in, while rewarding good submissions with control of starting plot threads, canon points, or other such things.

Things you could hold competitions for member-submitted material:
*geographical location of setting
*history of setting
*location details
*factions
*technology
*NPC designs
*plot arc suggestions

Description
Current structure of writing competitions on DeviantArt: tournament, matches are single elimination. Each round has a goal for the characters to complete; whichever writer has the best entry, that entry becomes canon to the story of the tournament. Writers who lose a round can no longer submit canon work.
Problems with this format:
*There are occasional issues with the nature of the character reward and how exclusive it is, as well as elimination of characters.
*Once a writer is defeated, they no longer have any incentive to participate (and sometimes are actually forced to not write anything further) -- waste of material and creativity.
*The number of canon participants (and thus interest in the tournament) decreases over time.
*Format often discourages cooperative victory and makes teams problematic.

Possible solutions:
*Do away with the only option being tiered elimination. Have large scale plot advancement. Set up multiple smaller, single or double round events with specific requirements to enter, separate from the general plot (requirements could be character design based, getting together a certain number of other writers and forming a team, canon score... options are wide open). Plus, let writers themselves be active in setting up plot points that they can compete to advance to.
*Instead of a tournament being the be all and end all of your reputation and effort, you would compete within a league, drawing win/loss record from different sub-league settings and competitions. The win/loss record would be more of a CANON SCORE, a set of three numbers that represent how many canon entries you have (I.E. how many times have you beat an opponent in a moderated setting and had your entry become canon), how man official non-canon entries you have (times that you've submitted during an official match but not had your entry chosen to become canon -- but it was still judged and critiqued) and then the number of spectator entries or fan entries that you've submitted. So if you've had 5 official matches, lost two of them and wrote spectator entries for 3, your canon score would be 3/2/3.
[Spectator entries would have a minimum number of words required (1000?) and would need to have a good critique from another writer attached to them before they would be scored]

*Having a large community that does not decrease over time as a matter of course will keep people involved and help fight burnout.

The sub-league would provide a basic starting point for all characters so that they share a common background (setting, character guidelines ect). The first big plot arc should be open to all sub-league members so that everyone can participate for one or two plot advancements before any exclusive events are offered.

SO. THE IDEA IS:
You have 30 people join your sub-league. You hold some kind of audition process and select 14 of them for have control of the plot at the start - these 14 people make characters and pair off 7v7. Each of these 1v1 matches controls a thread of the plot, and the two people in the match are battling over who controls that thread - who controls what is canon. Winners are decided 7 of those people now have canon entries, HOWEVER, you could split the group into two sections now and have the noncanon material be an alternative plot arc. The sub-league leader and his administrators take the material that has been written so far and work with it to further the plot and create new prompts, while taking suggestions from the members through mini-events. Then the second set of matches is held, where 14 new people can come in. They pair up with the 7 of the canon and the 7 of the alternative plotline and battle again for control of the plot threads.

You could hold special events that have specific requirements if you want to have the number of writers in the pool whittled down. EX have a special side event that requires a certain number of canon points to join, that pits a group of 8 writers against each other 4v4, 2v2, 1v1 and then that one writer gets to control a certain specific plot element exclusively for a while.

Also, the setting of the sub-league and really all of the details for it could be built from the ground up by the members. The admins would just supply a few very basic ideas and then hold contests to gather more material. Taking the best from the submitted stuff, they could combine it and produce the world that the competition would be held in, while rewarding good submissions with control of starting plot threads, canon points, or other such things.

Things you could hold competitions for member-submitted material:
*geographical location of setting
*history of setting
*location details
*factions
*technology
*NPC designs
*plot arc suggestions