The phrase "affects contests" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing how something influences or has an impact on competitions or events.
Example: "The new rules implemented by the governing body significantly affects contests in the league, altering the strategies teams must adopt."
Alternatives: "influences competitions" or "impacts events".
Wasps were weighed to ± 0.01 mg on the day before the contest and contestants within each replicate chosen to be of closely similar mass (± 0.08 mg), so as to minimize size asymmetries that are known to affect contests [ 7, 10– 10].
We find that both an objective (host size) and a subjective (contestant age) component of RV affect contest intensity in the parasitoid wasp Goniozus legneri.
Although the overall proportion of males that won aggressive contests and were larger than their rival on PC1 was not significantly different from random chance (28/47 = 60%, binomial p = 0.243), the magnitude of the difference in PC1 between males did significantly affect contest outcome (χ2 = 4.271, p = 0.039, Nagelkerke R2 = 0.116).
In summary, both objective and subjective components of RV affect contest behaviour simultaneously and additively.
Recent studies indicate that subjective components affect contest behaviour in several animal taxa but few have simultaneously investigated objective RV components.
You run the practices, you pick the lineup, you set the substitution patterns, you call the plays, and yet, as is painfully apparent when your team blows three straight defensive assignments, there are times when none of this affects the contest you're hellbent on winning.
The proposed changes do not affect any contests except Republican presidential primaries.
Redistricting doesn't directly affect those contests; Collin trumps El Paso, for instance.
Intense interest in the presidential election is expected to bring a massive voter turnout that many politicians believe could affect legislative contests.
Our results suggest that male motivation has little (if any) affect on contests in male N. vespilloides.
