The BrikWars Forums

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here but since we talked about it a few times, I thought I'd put forward my idea for a new contest. I'm porting format for my own convenience, in case it looks too familiar. And I hope the idea is a solid one, given all the talk of content creation around here for the past few months. So, we can gauge interest and see what happens. Anyway, at the basic level, here's what I'm thinking it looks like:


The 2,016 Rekon Kickoff
First Annual BrikWars Battle Contest

Welcome, BrikWarriors, to the dawn of a glorious new Rekonstruktion! In some places, the streets are swept clean, the fields are lush and green, the sun dappled forests are thickly boughed, and the majestic peaks stand tall and proud. The army regulars are all lined up in neat little rows, their equipment shiny and new, their uniforms starched and absent of explosive debris. Freshly painted starships sit in their docks with weapons systems fully charged while creatures and critters on planets far below scent the air for the coming danger. Because in other places, the battle has always been and always will be. Minifigs stand, blades dripping blood, in piles of corpses as lasers lance overhead and topple the last remnants of once great empires. Realities smash together and collectively reassemble. The whole BrikVerse heaves in a breath of newly minted, grade-a, fresh friggin' air as the New Year rolls in.

Participants

Those wishing to participate in the contest should submit an original battle report via a new thread in the Reports from the Field forum between January 1, 2016 and February 7, 2016, including the identifier tag [RK16] in the title.

Participants may also submit Forum or Chat Battles via the Forum Battles forum with the same identifier tag in the title, provided that those entries are begun and ended within the contest's timeframe. Incomplete Forum or Chat battles may still be considered for judging at the request of the Entrant but it should be kept in mind that the judges may dock the report points in any category for being incomplete.

Participants may submit more than one entry. Contestants can only win one Reward, however, and only their highest scoring piece will count in this regard.

Entries may represent any BrikWars tone, style, etcetera. The BrikVerse is a wildly diverse setting and the purpose of this contest is to encourage more awesome new content. In terms of general theme, keep in mind the New Rekon and its implications. Entrants may feel free to continue older storylines in new ways but should also not feel beholden to any existing Kanon (basic common courtesy and community groundrules notwithstanding).

Judges

Judging of the entries will commence immediately following the contest, beginning February 8, 2016, and will end no later than February 15, 2016. The final scores will be announced and formalized in this thread on February 16, 2016.

For the 2016 Contest, the following are Judges:

• RedRover
• Zupponn
• Silverdream

The following are Secondary Judges:

• Kommander Ken

Judges will read each entry and score it based on the following categories:

• Fun -- Relating to the conceptual gameplay, the inventiveness of the actions taken during the game, the tactics striven for, the general level of amusement and shenanigans, and overall "wow" factor.
• Violence-- Relating to the mechanical gameplay, the clever and creative use of (rather than strict adherence to) the general rules to keep the game fast and fresh, the amount of straight up action movie carnage wrought, the general level of conflict (whether abstract or visceral).
• Photography-- Quality of the report's photography, the use of clean lighting and clear pictures, the appropriate capture of the action and turmoil of the piece, the overall visual attractiveness of the playing field, the characters and armies involved in the conflict, and the action of that conflict.
• Writing-- Overall quality of the writing, consistency of appropriate tone and pacing, clarity of characters and narration, general level of originality, and accessibility of emotional or cerebral engagement.
• Story-- Every battle tells a story, even if it's a simple one. This tiebreaker category is used to judge the overall quality of that story or concept and how well it was conveyed through the combination of the report's general gameplay, photography, and writing. Secondarily, judges may wish to use this category to judge how well the theme of the New Year was pushed by the story the report told.

Each Judging Category is rated on a scale from 1-10, except Fun, which is rated on a scale from 1-20. The scores from each category will be added together, with the exception of Story, for a Final Score of between 4 and 50. The Story Score will only be used in the event of a tie between entries. Judges are encouraged to keep an open, diverse mindset when judging entries as they are not inherently required to adhere to any particular interpretation of Kanon or individually preferred tone. In short, we all have a good general idea of what constitutes as Brikwarsy but a great many of us have some pretty different ideas about the specifics.

Judges may enter the contest as Participants (see above) but may not judge their own entries. Instead, the Secondary Judge will take their place in the scoring of those particular pieces.

Rewards

The 1st Place Winner will become our BrikWars Monarch of 2,016, join the ranks of BrikWars Royalty, and gain full on bragging rights. They will also earn a unique custom badge, which will be pinned to the winning post and generally used however the winner sees fit (such as its inclusion into their forum signature).


Enjoy the Kickoff and the New Year! Happy BrikWarring and, as always, Have Fun.



Go To: 2016 Entries and Final Scores

I volunteer for judging duties!

I'll sign up to judge. I figure that I'll be working a little behind the scenes anyways since I'm the mod here. If you need anything QS, just let me know.

EDIT: I just moved this to the Announcements section and bumped the 4Chan Report to sticky to give this some more visibility.

Oh man, and I've been planning a forum battle for a few weeks too. Its going to be weird because of school starting in a couple weeks, though. However, if you don't get enough judges you can count me in as one! Secondary works too.

Thanks, Zup. Much appreciated.

I'll judge.

All Judge Positions filled. Awesome. Let the battles commence.

Can forum battles apply if completed within the cutoff date?

Zahru II wrote:Can forum battles apply if completed within the cutoff date?

Yes. It says right in the rules.

I will submit my chat battle, The Bleeding Crown.

I'd love to join and do a battle, you know, give people more stuff to read even if they don't necesserily want it. but there are only three days left so I will probably just do a normal battle report just for fun(and to confuse the judges)

motorhead fan wrote:I'd love to join and do a battle, you know, give people more stuff to read even if they don't necesserily want it. but there are only three days left so I will probably just do a normal battle report just for fun(and to confuse the judges)

Quantumsurfer wrote:Those wishing to participate in the contest should submit an original battle report via a new thread in the Reports from the Field forum between January 1, 2016 and February 7, 2016, including the identifier tag [RK16] in the title.

Come on guys, you can at least read the rules.

Oooooooooh, february, sorry.
I'll make an entry then!

Zupponn wrote: Yes. It says right in the rules.

Oh, I checked it twice even before posting - talk about an oversight! Anyway, time to ponder what to do!

Just a reminder that the Rekon Kickoff ends in two weeks.