chikasole wrote:Not to complain or anything but was it an intentional choice to have the third round aka groups ab, cb and ef clash with Japan Expo?

Nein. I polled a bunch of people to find out when the best start date for most would be and figured the rounds around it. Round 3 actually clashes with the biggest convention in the US (Anime Expo) also but it's difficult to hold a contest in the summer months without running into at least 1 big convention. If it was held starting in Mid-July then it would run into Otakon and if it was run any later, it would run into Anime Weekend Atlanta and Connichi. Plus, I personally need to be free of all online contest duties by August so I can dedicate 100% of my time to getting ready for NDK.
Sadly there isn't really a way to hold a contest without it running into some kind of big event for at least 1 person, unless it's a short weekend thing of course.