Halloween Deco Contest

[+Nyx]

I am hosting a Halloween-themed deco contest for the month of October. All players are welcome to participate, all you need is a house plot or two and your creativity!

Participants will decorate their plot(s) with a Halloween theme. Houses will be judged on the overall aesthetic effect - plots that are thoughtfully and carefully decorated with an eye for detail will be ranked more highly than plots with numerous Halloween themed addons placed in lieu of actual decorating. Using addons will not reduce one's chance of winning in and of itself, but placing them willy-nilly instead of actually decorating will.

Rules:
These rules are subject to change at any time.
- Participants may decorate a maximum of 2 house plots to be considered for the contest. Houses may be combined as part of a larger plot, but must be easily accessed via a rune marked within 10 tiles. If your rune is marked further than 10 tiles, you will be disqualified.
- If submitting more than one plot, they must be combined plots. You cannot submit 2 castles or a home in one area and another placed elsewhere.
- The submitted property must be owned by the person who signed up by dropping the rune.
- One entry per account. Any attempt to circumvent this rule will result in disqualification for both parties.
- Deco must be shard-appropriate, and to a Halloween theme. Be creative, Halloween doesn't have to mean blood and guts!
- Premade Halloween addons may be used, but may detract from the overall score if used in lieu of actual decorating skill.
- +Veritas, +Colibri, +Requiem and myself will judge the plots on November 1st. Each staff member will rank the entries and the houses with the highest rank will win.
- In the case of a tie, I will reward both participants with the reward for the prize they tied for.
- House location will not be taken into account when scoring the properties. This is decoration only, so those with plots in the stars or other 'special' places will not receive any special consideration for environmental perks they did not design, just as houses in less attractive locations will not be marked down due to their placement.
- Any infractions resulting in jail during the course of the contest will disqualify that player. NOTE: This means infractions above 'warning' and jail tasks above 10.
- Houses must be "open to the public" from November 1st - 6th, as all participating houses will be displayed for everyone to visit during the judging period.
- If you enter the contest you must actually participate - if you submit a rune and then all you have is a couple of spiderwebs on an otherwise not-to-theme house, you will be disqualified.
- If you are disqualified for any reason you will not receive a participation reward.


To enter the contest:
- Mark a rune close to the house you will be decorating for the contest. You may submit the rune at any time, even before your decoration is completed.
- Drop the rune into the Sign-up chest in TC
- Decorate your house and complete it before November 1st.

On November 1st, the rune box will be removed and gates to the houses will be made available for the public to visit the participants' submissions. Each staff member will visit the submitted houses and score them according to the criteria outlined in the rules. The winners will be announced on or before November 6th.


Prizes (subject to change):
1st place - 500 ED + banner
2nd place - 300 ED + banner
3rd place - 200 ED + banner

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

[Melkor]

If you have a 3 or more slot house, can you enter just a section of the house for consideration in the contest?

[+Nyx]

Yep, you'd just want to mark your rune nearest the plots you're entering into the contest

[Ornias]

Hi. I'm not sure yet whether I'll be able to participate yet or not, sorta short notice deco/supply wise. One question though, where will the rune box be located?

Thank you.

[Ornias]

Ah I must read more carefully, the month of October. One more question the plot I have was recently turned customizable and I haven't gotten to the customizing, if I try to be creative may that kind of plot be used?

Thank you for the event, sounds fun.

[+Nyx]

Yep, any type of house you'd like to enter is fine.

I'll have a sign-up sheet posted on opening day, and then I'll announce where the rune box is when it's out

[Ornias]

Okay, thank you Nyx.

[aintfungalcream]

after or around Nov. 1st
Are the Halloween Deco Contest Houses going to be on display for other players to see?
i really enjoy seeing all the work other people put into their Halloween house

[+Nyx]

Edited the original post to clarify the jail rule. I won't count warnings (which usually come with 2-5 tasks) as a disqualifying event for the contest. Anything that gets you 10+ tasks, however, will.

[+Nyx]

The gates to view the deco contest entries are open outside of TC for the next few days

[Anna Marie]

I just went to each of the house gates and I am very impressed at the creativity on this shard. Is there a way to get a screen shot of all the houses on here just to show how awesome each one is?

[Mystery Man]

Think that may be alittle hard since some are multiple levels like mine :)

[Anna Marie]

Yea you're probably right. Unless they took a pic of each level and named it MM floor level MM top floor etc..... That would be quite a few screenshots. Oh well it was a thought anyway.

[+Nyx]

The votes are in!

Each staff member was given 20 points to assign across any or all participants that they chose. All 5 staff members visited every participating house and then submitted their votes.

Here are the points:

1st place: Redforrussia - 16 pts
2nd place: Dimir Borgu - 12 pts
Tied for 3rd place: Lust and Lestat A Zero - 11 pts each

Honorable Mentions:
Zolla - 9 pts
Sol/Kellson - 7 pts
Spartan - 7 pts
Aryanna Conners - 6 pts
Vraxxus - 5 pts
Vara - 3 pts
Cornbread - 2 pts
Stile - 2 pts
Dain Ironwill - 2 pts
Modvs Qvintvs - 1 pt
Loki - 1 pt

Prizes have been distributed as well as participation rewards. Rewards will appear in the top left of your bank in a sealed package.

I hope everyone had fun with this event, I know we had fun browsing all the very creative and clever decorations!

The gates to participants' houses will remain open until Nov. 6th, go check them out if you haven't already

[Alex]

Congratulations to the winners. I viewed all of them and was amazed by the creativity!