Welcome to the 5th ever Grimdark Story Battle Royale, a collaboration between the Grimdark Fiction Readers & Writers Facebook page and Negative HP.com. We have 17 entries this time, so I’m pumped to see how many cool stories we have from both past and new contenders.

First, I’d like to post some rules I’d like participants to follow in order to make this competition as fair as possible:

1. If you are a participant, please make time to read other participants’ stories and vote each round. If your story is featured during the round, please do not vote during that round.
2. As a courtesy, please don’t ask friends or family to vote during your round as it also kind of defeats the purpose of being anonymous. If you have friends or family interested in the competition, please encourage them to vote every round to make it balanced and don’t tell them which story is yours.
3. Please try not to “like” or comment on votes as it also reveals that your story was featured that round.

These are all things that I’ve noticed from previous Battle Royales or were brought up by other people, so please try to follow these guidelines to make everything as fair as possible.

If you are only reading stories and voting, then thanks for participating!

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s reveal the voting periods and brackets for this tournament!

Note: These dates are subject to change, but this is the tentative schedule.

April 19-April 25: Block A

Match 1: The Grey Crypt vs. The Price of Ink vs. The Low God

Match 2: From Sand and Ruin vs. Blaise

April 26-May 2: Block A

Match 3: Death by Venison vs. Bastards Get What They Deserve

Match 4: Soul Eater vs. Black Oyster

May 3-May 9: Block B

Match 5: The Damned vs. He Cares Not From Whence It Comes

Match 6: Painless vs. The Flesh Weaver

May 10-May 16: Block B

Match 7: To Cry Wolf vs. Atonement

Match 8: Residue vs. A Fable of Blood

May 17-May 23: Block A Quarterfinals

Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2

Winner of Match 3 vs. Winner of Match 4

May 24-May 30: Block B Quarterfinals

Winner of Match 5 vs. Winner of Match 6

Winner of Match 7 vs. Winner of Match 8

May 31-June 6: Semi-Finals

Semi-Finals Block A

Semi-Finals Block B

June 7-June 13

Finals