Great idea! As a daily shaver, I’m never going to do a traditional Atlas Shaves in Feb. I don’t have anything to add that others haven’t already. I like the idea of DQs. Certainly works for the (my) geezer generation. I’m not sure how generations that grew up receiving a prize even for losing will like it.

As DJ says, those with a well-stocked den will have an advantage, but it’s wetshaving and that’s part of the hobby.

First of all, I love it and I'm in (of course).

Now the big caveat: the winner will be the participant with the deepest den. Good? Bad? IDK.

Now the minor caveat:

LatherBot shenanigans:

1. How about taking the last soap before the deadline instead of the first after? That solves the "Latherbot dead for a few hours" problem.
2. Let's add "not on the dnb list" as qualifier: The last soap from a soaper not on the dnb list chosen by LatherBot. It doesn't make sense IMO, (and also doesnt add fun, which should be the main objective) to have everyone burn their Mulligan on PAA

I really like this idea.

Things that pop into my head:

1. Have a backup soap choosing method in case ShavingInCT's Discord bot takes a dump at an inopportune time.
2. If the first quiz answer is PAA, for example, consider waiting for the next one.
3. Maybe give a tad bit of flexibility in case the game picks some super odd-ball soap that nobody has with scent notes from another planet. If it seems like everyone is going to burn their airbud allowance on one day, that would stink. Maybe 2 airbud days?

It's not a stupid idea. Actually, I like it even though I'd most likely forget to participate. In fact, I even liked the OG Atlas Shaves... sure it was some goofy ~~shit~~ stuff with "pics of your scruff and pics of your dirty sink with the hair in it" rules but not everything needs to be serious business. It sure would've been better suited for November as that's also a month with beard/moustache growth challenges, but it was funny. Personally I like the strongman theme, but the actual competitions are hard to translate to wetshaving challenges anyway.

Plus 1 point for actively engaging with someone else

That's what I like the most. Fostering actual engagement with others is great.

Not the kind of challenge you can win by planning ahead.

That's probably what perfectly translates to strongman/strongwoman championships - participants have a general idea about what events will take place, but they're all subject to change - even last minute. Also, hell yeah for DQs - you can zero an event in strongman sport, but that generally costs you the competition.

I think something like this is a great idea. Caveat that I’ve never been around for previous atlas shaves events.

What I like:

• Points are good, both for tracking standings and determining the winner.
• I like that folks can be knocked out, feels on theme with a strongest man competition.
• I like that this encourages cross-channel participation. Many folks probably don’t know about anything but Reddit (I sure didn’t at first!).
• I think it would be helpful to use some sort of randomization for the SOTD challenges, like your idea for using the LatherBot database. This reduces the burden on those organizing.
• I think the surprise aspect of the daily soap of the day challenge would be a lot of fun.

The format you proposed would certainly bias toward folks who have been accumulating soaps for longer. I’m not sure whether that fits with “strongest” in my mind.

I don’t have a better idea right now, just offering my initial thoughts.