Community Contest
Each year, a number of Community Contests are held, typically on the forum, to challenge the collective might and magik of BrikWarriors the world over. The winners of these grand contests are given Eternal Titles and take their rightful places in the annals of BrikWars History. Most Contests last about a month but some last for two and almost every contest is presided over by a council of volunteer judges approved by the contest's Host. The general purpose of each contest, while certainly including a healthy amount of competition, is really more about generating and inspiring more community driven Ossum content. They are opportunities for community members to show off their varied skills and talents, appreciate the skills and talents of their fellows, and earn constructive criticism. As our oldest and most popular contest, celebrating the birthday of BrikWars, our contest year begins in October with the Halloween Hellhunt. The rest of the current contests are described chronologically below.
Contents
Schedule of Contests Held
- January: Rekon Kickoff
- February: February FigBarf
- March: Blarney Build
- April:
- May:
- June: June July Jamboree Begins
- July: June July Jamboree Ends
- August:
- September: Hundred Piece Hullabaloo
- October: Halloween Hellhunt
- November: BrikFiction Festival Begins
- December: BrikFiction Festival Ends
Halloween Hellhunt
 |
[...] to celebrate this glorious year of death and destruction, we will once again be holding the Annual Halloween Hellhunt Battle Report Contest, held in honor of Brikwars's birthday. Here, the Brikwarriors fight for the title of the Lord of Battle, topping each other with mad tales of war and conquest. [...] Yes, this is just a reason for everyone to get to read a megaton of battle reports on Halloween, night of madness and the birthday of Brikwars. Get out there and record those battles, mates. Good luck. |  |
| - From the Annual Introduction
|
||
The Hellhunt is a Battle Report contest held every October. The first was held in 2010. Participants record a game played at home (as opposed to a game played by post over the forum or chat) and submit a polished presentation of the proceedings to the "Reports from the Field" subforum. Often, this game will have spooky, Halloween based theme to it but this isn't strictly required. Three judges are chosen from among community volunteers (traditionally, one of them is the previous year's winner) to rate each submission to the contest based on the quality of categorical values including Gameplay, Photography, Violence, Writing, and Overall Appeal. Secondary Judges are called for to judge submissions entered by a current judge. Each category is rated by a single judge on a scale from 1-5. These values are added together and divided by five. Then, those results, representative of each judge, are averaged together for a Final Score, the highest of which determines the contest's winner. The winner is titled a "Lord of Battle," receives a unique custom digital badge (pictured below), and is marked down in the BrikWars Hall of Fame.
2010 Lord of Battle Badge
2011 Lord of Battle Badge
2012 Lord of Battle Badge
2013 Lord of Battle Badge
2014 Lord of Battle Badge
2015 Lord of Battle Badge
2016 Lord of Battle Badge
2017 Lord of Battle Badge
2018 Lord of Battle Badge
2019 Lord of Battle Badge
2020 Lord of Battle Badge
2021 Lord of Battle Badge
2022 Lord of Battle Badge
2023 Lord of Battle Badge
2024 Lord of Battle Badge
2025 Lord of Battle Badge
BrikFiction Festival
|
Welcome to the coming end of another Rekonstruktion, BrikWarriors, as we prepare to dive into a two month long celebration honoring the Stories of the BrikVerse. We stand upon the precipice of time as our minifigs and sigfigs, creatures and creations, castles and kingdoms, and starships and space empires are cast into an ever evolving community Kanon. The deadly perils of countless battlefields, the twisted and labyrinthine halls of power and politiks, the epic struggles of Heroes and Villains. They fight and dance and collide together at the heart of our interest, the Stories of their sheer Ossumness demanding to be told. Told and, in the age old tradition, passed on to the next generation, shooting like brilliant stars through the bright imaginations of those yet to arrive. And in the telling, reigniting the old creative flame and giving rise to new Stories for the Rekons to come. | |
| - From the Annual Introduction
|
||
The FicFest is a short story contest held every year in the months of November and December. The first was held in 2015. Participants pen an original short story of between 500-2500 words, using any style or theme and approach to subject matter, covering any part of BrikVersian Lore. The stories are submitted to the BrikFic subforum and are judged at the end of the submission period by three community volunteer judges based on the quality of categorical values including Concept and Theme, Form, Voice, and Style. Presentation (grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and usage) is downplayed to lower the barrier to entry and is used only as a tiebreaker category. The first three categories are rated by a single judge on a scale from 1-10, while Style is rated 1-20. These scores are added together to get a judge's single Total Score. Total Scores are added together to get the submission's Final Score, the highest of which determines the contest's winner. The winner is titled a "LoreMaster," receives a unique custom digital badge (pictured below), and is marked down in the BrikWars Hall of Fame.
2015 LoreMaster Badge
2016 LoreMaster Badge
2017 LoreMaster Badge
2018 LoreMaster Badge
2019 LoreMaster Badge
2020 LoreMaster Badge
Rekon Kickoff
|
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. | |
| - From the Annual Introduction
|
||
The Kickoff is a Battle Report contest held every January. The first was held in 2016. Participants record a battle played at home, over the forum, or over the chat (so long as the entirety of the battle takes place within the contest's submission period) and submit a polished presentation of the proceedings to the appropriate subforum (typically, "Reports from the Field" or "Forum Battles"). The Kickoff is meant to begin new stories for the new year, so theme and content are left to the participant's imagination. Three judges are chosen from among community volunteers to rate each submission to the contest based on the quality of categorical values including Fun, Violence, Photography, and Writing. Story is used as a tiebreaker category. Secondary Judges are called for to judge submissions entered by a current judge. The last three categories are rated by a single judge on a scale from 1-10, while Fun is rated 1-20. These scores are added together to get a judge's single Total Score. Total Scores are added together to get the submission's Final Score, the highest of which determines the contest's winner. The winner is titled the "Monarch" of that year, receives a unique custom digital badge (pictured below), and is marked down as BrikWars Royalty. In the event that other BrikWarriors participated in the submission, they may be titled as a "Royal," compose the Monarch's Court for the year, receive a smaller, unique custom digital badge (also pictured below), and are similarly recorded in the annals under their Monarch.
2016 Monarch Badge
2016 Royal Badge
2017 Monarch Badge
2017 Royal Badge
2018 Monarch Badge
2018 Royal Badge
2019 Monarch Badge
2019 Royal Badge
2020 Monarch Badge
2020 Royal Badge
2021 Monarch Badge
2021 Royal Badge
February FigBarf
|
Following the chaos and battle of the Rekonstruktion, the Brikverse is often left covered in the dismembered parts and spare doohickeys of slain minifigures, leaving a wealth of perfectly good ABS elements just scattered all throughout the multiverse, waiting for their time to come. Occasionally, in the months after the Rekonstruktion, a mysterious cosmic alchemy will occur, causing these parts to spontaneously mix and bond together, suddenly birthing legions of brand new minifigures into the world. This event is colloquially known as a FigBarf. | |
| - From the Annual Introduction
|
||
The FigBarf is a minifig build contest held every February. The first was held in 2019. Themes are presented as part of the yearly contest. Participants create specialized minifigs using either unmodified elements or modified elements, take images, and submit them to the Armory subforum in one of the two categories: Purist Pugilists and Kustom Kharacters. Three judges are selected from among community volunteers who rate each minifig on Style, Story, and Photography, with Thematic Potential as a Tie Breaker Judging Category. Each is rated on a scale from 1-10 and added together for a Total Judge Score and Total Judge Scores are added together for a Final Score. Final Scores are compared for the winners of each category (Purism Prometheus and Kustomizer Kraftsman) and the winner overall is awarded the coveted StudGod title. Every title comes with a unique custom digital badge (to be pictured below) and is marked down in the BrikWars Hall of Fame.
2019 Purism Prometheus Badge
2019 Kustomizer Kraftsman Badge
2019 StudGod Badge
2020 Purism Prometheus Badge
2020 Kustomizer Kraftsman Badge
2020 StudGod Badge
2021 Purism Prometheus Badge
2021 Kustomizer Kraftsman Badge
2021 Digital Diva Badge
Blarney Build
|
Welcome, BrikWarriors, to the age of Brikbuilt Escalation. In this storied fragment of the shattered chronology, all manner of characters (from lowly minifig to lowly human) gather at the most famous bar of them all, that grand old ORANGE TRANSPARENT motherfucker of a meeting place, the Four Rums. Whether drinking or not, these epic personages sweep in between adventures from across the spectrum of spacetime to swap tall tales and exaggerate their own Ossum. Bawdy fish stories and bold, raucous boasting are the order of the day and only the most skillful storytellers are raised in esteem in the eyes of their fellows. But only those who live by the age old adage "pics or it didn't happen" can truly "prove" their Ossum with a show and tell that will spread their name and legend out among the stars. | |
| - From the Annual Introduction
|
||
The Build is a brick building contest held every March. The first was held in 2016. Participants create any kind of build (ranging from single figures to entire vignettes) using construction brick toys or representative digital programs (such as LDD). Themes may be presented as part of the contest, in a non-restrictive role, but typically the builds need only be representative of the BrikWars game, setting, and/or community. Submissions are entered as one of three specific Types of builds: Brik by Brik (IRL builds typically posted to the "Armoury" subforum), Digital Dimension (LDD or similar digital builds posted to the "LDD" subforum), and Drunken Madness (either kind of build crafted by the participant while legally drunk posted to the appropriate subforum). Three judges are chosen from among community volunteers to rate each submission to the contest based on the quality of categorical values including Style, Substance, and Photography. Boast (a brief written embroidery of the truth explaining why the submission is the grandest build or an interesting story about it) is used as a tiebreaker category. Secondary Judges are called for to judge submissions entered by a current judge. Each judge rates the categories on a scale from 1-10, which when added together produce the judge's Total Score. Total Scores are added together to obtain the submission's Final Score, the highest of which is the winner of the contest. The winner is given a title based on the Build Category their submission won: "BrikMason" for Brik by Brik (the title was called StudLord in the first year), "Digital Architekt" for Digital Dimension, and "Town Drunkard" for Drunken Madness. The winning submissions of these three winners are then compared together to create an overall winner for the contest, who is additionally titled "StudGod." Every title comes with a unique custom digital badge (to be pictured below) and is marked down in the BrikWars Hall of Fame.
2016 Digital Arkitekt
2016 StudLord Badge
2016 Town Drunkard Badge
2016 StudGod Badge
2017 Digital Arkitekt
2017 BrikMason Badge
2017 Town Drunkard Badge
2017 StudGod Badge
2018 Digital Arkitekt
2018 BrikMason Badge
2018 Town Drunkard Badge
2018 StudGod Badge
2019 Digital Arkitekt Badge
2019 BrikMason Badge
2019 Town Drunkard Badge
2019 StudGod Badge
2020 Digital Arkitekt Badge
2020 BrikMason Badge
2020 Town Drunkard Badge
2020 StudGod Badge
Feast of Fools
|
BrikWarriors, rejoice! The time for shenanigans and frivolity is at hand. Throughout the shattered spacetime of the BrikVerse, at some point in each Rekonstruktion, the background Bozon radiation suddenly, mysteriously, and violently spikes and sends a shockwave of ridiculousness roaring with laughter throughout existence. Everything briefly goes wonky in the wake of the hijinks. Parallel universes are born and die. Forgotten fragments of time and space suddenly reappear and vanish without a trace. Empires great and wide cease to exist while he tiniest of factions becomes powerful beyond measure. Heroes are born with different faces. Forces and phenomena have different names and exude new powers. Every troll is trolled and as new background music is hilariously chosen to blare across the Far-Ums Emergency Broadcast System...again, the natives chuckle and shrug and the chaotic mess called the BrikVerse gets on as it always has. | |
| - From the Annual Introduction
|
||
The Feast of Fools was an event that took place in April, from 2017 to 2018. In it, participants created any kind of presentation they wished (battle reports, forum battles, chat battles, magic soaps, brikfics, setting content writeups, graphics or art, videos, etc.) that non-canonically expanded upon, recognizably transformed, or otherwise explored the content creations of other community members (with respect given to "Everyone's the Boss of Their Own Toys" and similar community guidelines). Primarily, contest entries explored alternative possibilities such as What If scenarios, Elseworlds like content, Mirror Universes, and so on. The contest was held in good fun and celebrated collaboration and brainstorming community based content. Obviously, this contest's core concept was found broadly (one might think of fanfiction, for example) but this forum had a notable precedent called "Maeby's Cannon." Posts were often tagged with this identifier to denote content that is, at least initially, non-canonical. Coined by forum user Silverdream, the phrase is an intentional misspelling of "Maybe Canon" and is a Schrödingeresque description of materials that are not canon until, in fact, they are. Submissions were entered anywhere on the forum and linked to from the contest's thread. Three judges were chosen from among community volunteers to rate each submission to the contest based on the quality of categorical values including Fun, Transformation, and Depth. Presentation was used as a tiebreaker category. Secondary Judges were called for to judge submissions entered by a current judge. Each judge rated the categories on a scale from 1-10, which when added together produced the judge's Total Score. Total Scores were added together to obtain the submission's Final Score, the highest of which was the winner of the contest. The winner was titled a "Grand Jester," received a unique custom digital badge (pictured below), became a member of that year's Royal Kourt, and was marked down in the BrikWars Hall of Fame. The contest lasted two years before being cancelled due to lack of participation owing generally to the poor timing of the contest.
2017 Feast of Fools Badge
2018 Feast of Fools Badge
June July Jamboree
|
Welcome, BrikWarriors, to the midpoint of the year. It is a time of celebration across the BrikVerse as kanon settles into the comfortable, repeating pattern of staggered briks. For many, it is also a celebration of shared community as the various and sundry factions for the rekonstruktion come together in a conglomeration of cross-cultural creation and exchange. Fireworks flare in the skies above parties full of dancing minifigs drunk on the Rule of Cool (and more than a few on Maniac Beer). The denizens of the Brikverse let loose in full swing and, for this brief period each year, really allow their creative sides to shine. Where minifigs of the past may have fought viciously during these times for the sake of nationalism and the natural minifig inclination for violence, modern minifigs have discovered they have just way more fun this way and have way more stuff to play with later if they do things this way anyway. These celebrations, the relationships that form during them (whether friendships or rivalries), and all the badass stuff from ships and vehicles to bases will set the tone for the remainder of the rekon. | |
| - From the Annual Introduction
|
||
The annual introduction used to read: "Welcome, BrikWarriors, to the midpoint of the year. It is a time of celebration across the BrikVerse as kanon settles into the comfortable, roaring pattern of repeated fire. For many, it is also a celebration of nationality and homeland pride as the factions for the rekonstruktion settle into the deepest state of warfare and fueding. Fireworks flare as often as rocket fire and parties, both the dancing and war varieties, spontaneously erupt everywhere. The denizens of the BrikVerse let loose in full swing and engage in the best acts of debauchery and butchery seen all year. These celebrations will set the tone for the remainder of the rekon." This was changed in 2020 during a challenging time when folks didn't need yet another special event satirizing violence but instead might find something unifying more useful. The event still operates wholly within the bounds of the BrikVersian Setting and extended community canon.
The Jamboree is an event that takes place in June and July, beginning in 2018. In it, participants create any kind of scenic build using construction brick toys or representative digital programs (such as LDD). Themes are presented in the contest as tiebreakers, with entries hewing closer to events that have occurred within the calendar year within the canon edging out a victory over the competition. Submissions are made to the Armoury or LDD forum. Three judges are chosen from among community volunteers to rate each submission to the contest based on the quality of categorical values including Style, Substance, and Photography. Secondary Judges are called for to judge submissions entered by a current judge. Each judge rates the categories on a scale from 1-10, which when added together produce the judge's Total Score. Total Scores are added together to obtain the submission's Final Score, the highest of which is the winner of the contest. The winner is given the title of "Master of Ceremonies" and an associated unique badge. In a unique twist, a second and third place winner are chosen as well and each have titles and badges as well (Director and Photographer, respectively).
2018 Photographer Badge
2018 Director Badge
2018 Master of Ceremonies Badge
2019 Photographer Badge
2019 Director Badge
2019 Master of Ceremonies Badge
2020 Photographer Badge
2020 Director Badge
2020 Master of Ceremonies Badge
Hundred Piece Hullabaloo
|
In the month of September, all across the Legitimitium MultiVerse, ABS and established parts grow mysteriously rare. Building slows and, as it does, minifigs all over the BrikVerse begin to lose their grip on reality. They panic. They riot. It's really just another excuse to beat the snot out of one another. Some point to the sudden appearance of massive SHIPs during this month as a correlation but many BrikVersian scientists are dismissive, citing a favorite adage that correlation is not causation. Perhaps they are right or perhaps they are covering for their governments. Either way, for the average minifig, it's just another reason to pick up a pitchfork. Maddened, howling minifigs the BrikVerse over frantically scramble to tear up as many briks as they can find and assemble some kind of reality out of them. Mechaniks and Konstruktion Workers who have let their little contractual projects and sites sit untended for the entire year suddenly get all their work done this month and collect overtime pay for doing it. Like a busy hive, minifigs swarm creation, desperate to do anything at all to avoid the existential despair of endless blank baseplates and massive bugger off starships in their skies. | |
| - From the Annual Introduction
|
||
The Hundred Piece Hullabaloo is an event that takes place in September, beginning in 2017. Like the Blarney Build, participants create any kind of build (ranging from single figures to entire vignettes) using construction brick toys or representative digital programs (such as LDD). Themes may be presented as part of the contest, in a non-restrictive role, but typically the builds need only be representative of the BrikWars game, setting, and/or community. The builds must be constructed from one hundred (100) pieces or less. Submissions are made to the Armoury forum. Three judges are chosen from among community volunteers to rate each submission to the contest based on the quality of categorical values including Style, Substance, and Photography. Boast (a brief written embroidery of the truth explaining why the submission is the grandest build or an interesting story about it) is used as a tiebreaker category. Secondary Judges are called for to judge submissions entered by a current judge. Each judge rates the categories on a scale from 1-10, which when added together produce the judge's Total Score. Total Scores are added together to obtain the submission's Final Score, the highest of which is the winner of the contest. The winner is given the title of "StudGod," joining the existing pantheon. The title comes with a badge unique to the contest.
2017 Hullabaloo StudGod Badge
2018 Hullabaloo StudGod Badge
2019 Hullabaloo StudGod Badge
2020 Hullabaloo StudGod Badge
