The 'Shroom:Issue 103/Anton's Awards Impressions

Anton's Awards Impressions Written by:


 * "We would like you to hear your thoughts on how the awards with and possibly any plans for next year."

The 2015 awards events all went very well! There weren’t too many bumps along the way and the ones that we did hit didn’t really...do anything! So that’s good! This was my first year really running things and at first it was a bit intimidating. I’ve done work for the awards in the past, as well as managing a bunch of other things in the community, but nothing was really as prolific and an endeavor as this was. I had a decent time doing this but I know it could've been better, so that's what next year is for!

Presentations this year went very well, as well!! The midway checkpoint we started this year was fantastic at helping filter out people who dropped for one reason or another sooner than 2 days before the ceremony. The overall presentation quality was absolutely amazing this year too, proving that it can keep getting better than the years before. Some people have suggested increasing the time between each presentation post to allow for better viewing of longer ones, but I think what we have now is fine. Good presentations don’t have to be long presentations. Some people in the past have already opted, for their long comic presentations, to draw the story out across several award categories, which can be very nice if done effectively. Either way, there’s breaks between each awards section and the posts stay up on the forum forever so you can always go back and check out ones you didn’t get to fully enjoy, or want to enjoy some more.

There's probably more I could say and forgot to, but it's most likely already posted or will be posted in some other awards conversation elsewhere. For more things and ideas for next year check out the campaign we posted last month over at the Awards_Director_Election. If you don’t like some of the ideas, that’s ok too! That’s what joining the Awards Committee is for, and we (me, Edo, and 22) intend on listening to what people want.

I also want to thank everyone who participated this year, because without you guys helping and having fun and taking part in planning and events and everything else, this would all be for nothing. So, thanks!


 * "We would like you to hear your thoughts on how you felt the tournaments you participated in went and if you have any plans to participate next year."

Hosting
Along with this year being my first with actual control over the flow of events, it was my first year hosting tournaments and boy maybe I should’ve rethought that! It was quite a time commitment but I wouldn’t say I regret it. I had fun!

Guess The Results is a ceremony standard and I have a thing for spreadsheets and grunt work so getting that accomplished gave me a great sense of...accomplishment!! It was really neat seeing how many people got screwed over by oddball winners ehehe. I wouldn’t say there’s really too much that needs to be improved upon, except like maybe some clarifications of rules that were thought to be inherent and assumed, as well as perhaps delegating work over multiple people instead of just myself.

The Art Contest was something I wanted to try and make special for the wiki’s 10th anniversary. After mulling over ways to make it special I decided to make it not special! Leaving it as a general theme of anything Mario or community related made it more fun and appealing. One thing that was up in the air this year most likely as a result of this being the first year was people not knowing which skill category they fit into, or exactly how much work everyone else is putting into it, which I think is now effectively resolved for next year now that we have results for this year.

Awesomenauts was both a failure and a success. It was my first real tournament I even tried to accomplish and it did bring people in and got them playing and stuff. Unfortunately the way it worked demanded that 6 people be online and active and able to play at a single time. That’s not really too possible on a global scale and accommodating everyone’s work and school schedules. As a results only 5 of 16 matches got played and I had to default to just setting a few dates where anyone could show up and play for tokens for 24 hours. That’s a very simplistic way the TF2 tournaments were held a few years ago and I think that’ll be the best way to approach it next year if people want to give Awesomenauts a shot again. I am glad, though, that it dragged a few people who’ve never played it before into it now being one of their favorite games!! cough cough Atooben cough

Participating
Winning the art contest which I totally didn’t rig as the host was something that made me feel fantastic. I’m not the best artist but I’m trying really hard at it and getting better and I’m glad my silly idea was well received!!! I already have some ideas for next year~

Placing in the 3DS Smash Doubles tournament was…..I’m not sure if it was a surprise to me or like... justified? Words are hard. I know I’m not a tourney pro but I know I’m not awful, but the way Singles went down had me feeling crappy because I kept losing match after match to bad things like a botched teleport in the middle of lag, and then I’d be too frustrated to pick it up in the next match. All of the games were well-fought and I’m proud that Edo and I held true to the great name of Team Chex Mix.

I also did have to drop out of some tournaments for one reason or another, which was unfortunate, but I do hope to broaden my participation next year. As a side note I also hope to broaden the prize pool next year to better accommodate people not located in North America or with Steam accounts. I'm not able to fund the entire awards myself so donations are always welcome and accepted.