First Annual BrikWars Army Building Contest
Between the raucous frivolity and shenaniganry of the bozon-infused month of April and the cross-cultural exchange and unbridled creativity of the Jamboree in June, the minifigs birthed only a couple of months earlier during the FigBarf join their grizzled elders in the gleeful konstruktion of the factions which set to dominate the BrikVerse for the remainder of the Rekon to come. Here, they'll set down their cultural identities, choose their weapons of war, and (most importantly) pick out their Hats. When fortune and glory await, who will emerge to claim them?
Participants and Entries
Participants will each compile a small group of minifigs and a small, thematically associated build that together represent a BrikWars Faction. There aren't really any hard limits on part usage for this contest but the Judges will be looking for entries that mirror battlepacks from existing toy lines. As a general guideline, you may consider this around 4 minifigures and a small associated build like a vehicle, a building, or a tiny diorama. Deviate greatly from this guideline at your own risk; the Judges will each have their own idea of what constitutes a BrikWarsian Battlepack.
Participants can submit their build in one of two categories:
- Legacy Factions is for Battlepacks representing established BrikWarsian Factions, whether they are Cameos or Community Factions.
- New Factions is for Battlepacks representing new entries into the BrikVersian Kanon.
Please Take Note: This contest respects the "Everyone's Boss of Their Own Toys" community guideline. While you are free to create lore and the like for your own new and established Factions, as well as any Community Factions, you should only do so for other players' Cameo Factions if you have some kind of permission to do so, respect their lore, and accept that you're borrowing it as an homage. Fair parody and transformative content are acceptable entries, obviously, but again, please keep in mind the spirit of community and respect. As it stands right now, I am unaware of any Faction that isn't in the creative commons. If you would like me to note in this contest's annual original post that your faction is off limits, send me a message and I'll include it in a list. Otherwise, your faction should already include such information (whether on the wiki or in that faction's posts). Finally, if you create a new faction, feel free to include whether it sits in the public domain or not.
Those wishing to participate in the contest should submit a battlepack entry with between 1 and 10 images to display it via a new thread in the Armoury or LDD forum between May 1, 2023 and June 8, 2023, including the identifier tag [BM23] in the title.
Participants may submit more than one entry. Contestants can only win one Reward per category entered, 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.
Judges
Judging of the entries will commence immediately following the contest, beginning June 9, 2023, and will end no later than June 16, 2023. The final scores will be announced and formalized in this thread on June 17, 2023.
For the 2023 Contest, the following are Judges:
- Bolicob
- ninja_bait
- Lunchboxninja
- aoffan23
- Theme -- The cohesiveness of concept, how well the Faction is represented in bricks. For Legacy Factions, judges should score based either on how well the entry expands on the faction's themes in new and interesting ways or how strong of an homage it is to its source material. For New Factions, judges should score based on how immediately evocative the theme is and how well its components are tied together.
- Substance-- The mechanics of the builds, the viability of their construction for other BrikWars players to build and field in their own games (as well as the potential for any expansion on the core idea presented), the inventiveness and creativity (particularly any NPU) of the builds, and the technical skill with which the concept is rendered recognizable to the audience.
- Story-- The lore behind the concept, how well the faction is represented in words. For Legacy Factions, judges should score either by the same criteria as New Factions (for transformative or divergent content) or based on how well the story fits within the existing lore structure of the faction. For New Factions, judges should score based on the strength of potential to become an important part of BrikWarsian Kanon and how easy it would be for other players to integrate the idea into their own games.
- Photography, Tie-Breaker Category-- The quality of the entry's photography, the use of clean lighting and clear pictures, the capture of the purpose of the piece such that it is clearly conveyed to the audience.
The Photography 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. There are countless creative avenues entrants might take to present new, transformative, parody, or homage style content in strange and interesting ways.
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 Winners of each category will each earn a unique title and associated Badge (Founder and Pioneer, respectively) which may be pinned to the winning posts and generally used however the winner sees fit (such as its inclusion into their forum signature). They will additionally join the ranks of BrikWars Royalty.
Enjoy the MAYhem! Happy Army Building and, as always, Have Fun.
2023 Entries and Final Scores
