Contest Results!
Alright, first off, the obligatory "You all did awesome work, give yourselves a pat on the back, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera" part of the post. You did a fine job just for meeting the deadline and for that you all get...commentary! Yes, Mikey, Buster, and I reviewed every submission and have feedback for you all!
Cue the cringing and crickets!
Anyway, despite everyone doing a great job and what-have-you, the winners have been chosen, so either read through this feedback to find out who won what, or just flip back to the first post in the thread where I've pointed them out for your viewing pleasure!
Chiz:
"You tried so hard at winning the cheese award that it became evident that you were both fully aware of what you were doing and totally capable of writing a poem. Out of every entry, yours is the one that demonstrates the most that every word was placed intentionally and with purpose, so we're giving you Best In Show. Better luck next time, fishmonger." - Dashe
"Out of all of the poems, yours has the most consistent structure, rhyme, and rhythm. Throw in a colorful vocabulary with that, and emphasis on ensuring the judges have a positive outlook towards seafood before the entries go live and you've got an entry that begs for two awards at the same time. Unfortunately, you can only have one. There's only one cheesy line in your entire entry, so the judges agreed that yours is best in writing." - Mikey
“Chiz, I have to admit, your writing ability really caught me off guard. The sentence structure, the clever references, the inspirational message, the fact that I’m now craving seafood…everything came out wonderfully. Out of all of the entries, yours easily shows the most adept writing proficiency. Well done!" - Buster, immediately before running off to Red Lobster
Dragge:
"More so than any other entry, yours feels like a narrative from start to finish. It’s not just about the emotions, you also talk about your experiences with the games themselves, and how much you enjoyed them. Who doesn’t know the feeling of getting a new game on Christmas and firing that bad boy up? While it’s not at the top of the food chain in terms of composition, there was some clear effort here and it shows." - Buster
"It's amazing to see an entry directly after Chiz's that appears to rival his, but unfortunately, some of the rhymes were slightly redundant (reminds and minds), and there's an absence of colorful vocabulary compared to Chiz's. Additionally, the misspellings hurt the overall presentation, as well as too much 'badass'. The entry itself is great, but it just can't stand against the competition for a premium reward. Thank you so much for the effort! I bet there'll be a lot of people who will come to see this!" - Mikey
"Dragge, I wished I could have given this higher marks than I did. Betrayal and gauge should probably be edited in the future, because I hope you send a copy of this to the 100k feelingsbook. I think Capcom or at least Skybane and friends would really enjoy reading it." - Dashe
ravenf6:
"The fact that you had the misfortune to submit a haiku immediately after Dragge submitted an epic and immediately before fAB submitted the cover to a potential metal album fully encapsulates the kind of terrible, terrible luck all of us have had to put up with, yet none of us could control. Even Blyka managed to use your exact format, then tripled it and added an image so it stood out a little. If there were an award for meta in this, you'd get it, no questions asked, but in the vein of terrible luck for things we can't control, we didn't think to make one. Well done!" - Dashe
"I really do appreciate the simplicity involved in this one. In two sentences you manage to convey the collective struggle of the Legends fandom. If there were a ‘brevity’ category I’d hand it over to you with the quickness, but alas." - Buster
"Your haiku is a fine effort and contribution to the contest, but the briefness of it can't qualify it for any premium awards to me. The spirit of the contest does shine brightly in your entry though!" - Mikey
fAB:
"Careful fAB, don’t cut yourself on all that edge! This is a creative, well-written piece that captures the angst over a sequel that will never see the light of day. The imagery really brings it home." - Buster
"I think your entry is great. I really wanted to try and make it fit into one of the premium categories, but if I had to see it as either best-written or creative, it always seemed to not entirely fit either. It's almost a perfect balance of creativity and writing, and it saddened me that I couldn't categorize it. The font-job certainly helped set the tone for the writing, and that's a job well done." - Mikey
"Please contact Dash Myoku immediately and get him to create a screamo metal version of this piece with the top portion as the album cover." - Dashe
MegaTuga:
"MegaTuga, I think your entry's really nice, and it even has the same structure as Chiz's! There's a couple of minor flaws in that "eagered" should have been replaced with a synonym, and that "story" doesn't rhyme with "memory" in a way that helps the opening. Nevertheless, this entry is solid in its own right." - Mikey
"Not bad for someone whose first language isn't English. Props just for entering. Next time, though, make sure you go into google and see how these words are actually pronounced instead of just trusting the rhyming dictionary. Sometimes they're a stretch, and since English is weird there's a chance you might end up with words like story and memory, which end in the same three letters but don't actually rhyme. There was a poem in one of the Wayside School books like that, where a kid wanted to write a poem about the color red, and the teacher suggested he use words that end in -ed. He came up with:
"The fire truck is red!
It hurried!
The siren wailed!
The house burned!
The firemen saved
The baby who screamed."
And this kid's first language was very probably English, so hey, you beat him out. Or next time you could do that on purpose. I'd get the reference." - Dashe
"Your entry was very well-written from start to finish. While there’s a few hiccups in terms of composition (’story’ and ‘memory’ don’t audibly rhyme although I see what you were going for”), your poem tells a story from start to finish. Good stuff." - Buster
Homunculus:
"I think this one could have been considered for an award if you hadn't gone full-out with the shipping at the end. I can't imagine being forced to kiss anyone being enjoyable. I do like the perspective of not being in the fandom for very long a lot. It's not a perspective we see much around here and it's really refreshing." - Dashe
"The perspective in your poem as a newcomer to the fandom is great. The first few stanzas are a really solid representation of that. Additionally, the included picture literally shows me the tone for the whole presentation. However, the wording for the tone was probably a little too strong at the end, and it felt like it was sudden anger for a couple of lines before jumping right back to sadness. Despite that, I really liked your entry." - Mikey
“Alfie, what makes your entry unique is that it comes from the perspective of a new fan, and it’s an interesting read coming from a guy that’s been hanging around this corner of the web for over a decade. One line in particular that stood out to me was ‘my own sadness doesn’t compare, it’s only borrowed’. I liked the fact that you show yourself trying to identify with the older fans, while admitting the internal conflict you’re having as someone that hasn’t been around for that long. While the shipping aspect in the final stanza seemed to come of out left field, as a whole I liked your entry." - Buster
Blyka:
"The background you chose for your entry gives me a heavy ‘Yosyonke’ vibe, to the point that the town tune is now stuck in my head. As with Raven’s entry, the haiku really encapsulates what the fandom has gone through using few words, which in itself is appreciated. Sometimes, less is more." - Buster
"If your entry's dimensions were swapped, compressed, and squeezed horizontally by about 33%, this could probably make for a very solid MMLS sig from 2005. Sadly, it's about 11 years outdated. While the content itself isn't the edgiest, it's definitely one of the more depressing ones, and if the visuals had been a little more on point with that aspect of it, it would've made for a stronger piece overall." - Dashe
"Your poem looks as if it should have been written by the stars themselves. It's a bit refreshing to see a poem that didn't try to force any rhymes, and that's what makes your poem so cool and collected. The choice of image certainly helps too." - Mikey
Space Apollo:
"Polly, this legitimately looks like something one of my friends might have written during my 10th grade gym class while pretending to pedal an exercise bike. The only thing missing is the really bad handwriting I'd have to decipher before the bell, and if you'd included that, nobody would have been able to read the poem. Electing to use the POV of a character in the game gives it a refreshing outlook as well, so it's easily got the best, most creative presentation of the lot." - Dashe
"You really went all-out when it comes to creativity. I love the fact that it’s written from Tron’s perspective! The bloody thorns surrounding the rocket is a great illustration that captures the events of MML2’s ending, and the other details like the font, the little note at the top, and the broken Servbots show an incredible amount of polish. This is easily the most creative entry here!" - Buster
"Apollo, that's a heck of a perspective you decided to tackle. It's easy to imagine Tron writing something like this, but it's not easy to imagine what compelled her to do so. Fortunately, such a scenario has boosted your creativity rating by 200%. Congratulations, you're our Van Gogh and receive the creativity award! Your perspective is literally one-of-a-kind among the entries." - Mikey
Avegodro:
"Oh hai Ave. I'm not entirely sure if your entry was serious or not, which was my telling benchmark for the Narmy Cheesefest Award. On one hand, we have legitimate emotions and commentary on the state of the fandom, presented with a very definite emo flair. On the other, I could easily imagine some of the more awkward people who've come through this place unironically adopting the chest thump at the end and attacking other fandoms and it kind of makes me want to pour on some brain bleach. Content aside, too = also, and to = the preposition you were probably looking for. I'd definitely have broken up the paragraphs into verse to make it easier to read because it's probably one I'm going to be quoting for a while later. Congrats on your win! Try not to let it tear you apart or anything." - Dashe
"Well Ave, I certainly wasn't expecting anything like this. The fact that there's rhymes within paragraphs without spacing to help with rhythm, and bad grammatical usage of the word "to" threw me into the river. But when I pulled myself out of the river, I noticed with a little help from Dashe that yours is actually the cheesiest entry there is. It's just a shame you couldn't be around to ensure we read yours with preemptive chest-thump salutes the way Chiz ensured we had a positive affinity towards seafood before reading his.
" - Mikey
“Avegodro, your entry gets to the heart of the anger felt within the fandom, and it’s an interesting contrast to a lot of the entries which focus on the sadness felt in lieu of the cancellation. While there’s some cleaning up that could be done in terms of composition, I do like the “rise up and fight” theme that this gives off." - Buster
thesilver64:
"Congratulations on finishing your entry on time! Your poem certainly speaks words that I could relate to five years back. If we imagine the rocket being the prototype, then your words most certainly ring true. It doesn't appear to have anything that sets it apart from other entries, but you gave good effort, and that's what we like to see." - Mikey
“Silver, I do like the fact that you were able to squeeze an entry in despite the limited time you had to work with. Your entry was solid, and I liked the fact that you asked the important question of “was all our hard work for nothing?” Some of those contest entries were time-consuming, and it stung quite a bit to have it all shelved with the cancellation. The entry could use some polishing, but a good entry nonetheless." - Buster
"I must commend you on sticking to the same meter throughout the entry. Some of the words look forced into it, though, which is one of those risks you run when you've got a set meter to work with, and a struggle I know all too well. It's hard to do when you've got a short amount of time. Good on you for sticking with it, and I like that it's still hopeful in the end, even in this sea of emo we've all dredged up for this." - Dashe
Everybody give yourselves a round of applause and feel free to chime in with your own comments if you'd like! Badges, titles, and fanart will be distributed in the near future!