Hello, everyone. It's been a while since we've last hosted a tournament here at WIFL, hasn't it? Well, I'm proud to announce that we are in fact beginning a brand new tournament scheduled to for January 2010! We have some never creative minds behind this incarnation of WIFL and this next tournament (T4) is going to play out a bit differently than the previous three tournaments. Because it's more-or-less an experimental tournament, we are limiting the roster to 16 participants. What makes this tournament different, you may ask. Well, let's get down to the details.
In the past, we've hosted tournaments that would pit characters from various webcomics on DA against one another is a "Smash Bros" tradition, being portrayed through the competition. In those tournaments, we have received complaints from various members and spectators that the tournaments were unfair because some characters were better known that others and some members had more pageviews than others, thus being able to accumulate more votes in their particular faceoffs. Well, we've come up with a way to make T4 fair for everyone participating without getting ruining the tradition of WIFL. Here are the new rules to enter T4:
- You must CREATE a brand new character for WIFL T4 that has never existed prior to this tournament. It can no be a character from your comic or anything you've ever made before. This character must be brand new. After the tournament, then you are allowed to incorporate your character into your comics, artwork, and whatnot.
- You must fill out a description and a backstory to this character on an Character Info Form that we will provide. You are not going to draw this character or design them. You are only giving us a detailed description and explanation of who they are and what they are capable of.
- You must paste the Character Info Form into a note and submit them to WIFL anonymously. You are not allowed to tell anyone who your character is. If you want this character to win the tournament, you have to make them a solid, believable character with a good story for voters to reference. If you tell anyone who your character is before the match is over, you are immediately disqualified (sorry, we have to be more strict this time around due to past tournaments)
- With the information provided on the C.I.F. one of three WIFL administrator artists will create the design of the character. (The reason we're requiring you to create a brand new character is so you won't be as picky about the character's appearance after our artists design them.)
- We are not reserving openings for anyone! You are entered into the tournament once your C.I.F. is filled out and submitted to WIFL through a note.
- Once all 16 characters are submitted, then we will create their profile art (the reason we're doing it is so no one with a lot of pageviews and a distinctive artstyle can be identified. We want this tournament to be basely SOLEY on the quality of the character participating.)
- After the profile art is completed and we have a final roster in place, the remainder of the tournament will be very similar to the previous ones.
• Competitors can request their character be pitted against a certain character (through NOTES only)
• Volunteer artists will illustrate the Face-Off Artwork
• Winners will be determined by votes (the polls will have links to the character info)
We have yet to decide on a title for this tournament and have not yet picked a theme, so suggestions will be taken into consideration. Remember, if you are entering the tournament, you are only allowed to communicate with WIFL through notes unless it is unrelated to your character entry. Please respect the fact that this is anonymous and don't send anyone notes telling them to vote for your character. That's not what T4 is about. If we find out that you try to round up voters for your character, then you will be disqualified from the tournament (and possibly every tournament thereafter). You will be allowed to advertise the tournament itself and ask your watchers to vote, but they can't know who your character is. Once the a match is over and a character has lost, then the owner of the character will be announced and the character will be released of WIFL secrecy into your own DA account.
I know it sounds like we're being really strict, but remember that this is supposed to be a fun event. It's supposed to get you into a creative mindset and possibly give you a new character to use in your webcomics and artwork.
If you want to enter the tournament, send WIFL a note with the subject "Enter" and we will provide you with the Character Info Form. Keep in mind that this is a smaller (experimental) tournament and we're only allowing 16 people to enter. If you're the 17th entry, I'm sorry, you'll have to wait until the next tournament. And keep in mind that there are no reservations: you aren't entered until your C.I.F. is submitted. We will be preparing for the tournament for the remainder of December and will hopefully be ready to go by January.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
If it turns out that most of you absolutely hate this new method, then with T5, we'll go back to the traditional style.
Thanks for reading and be sure to note us with entries! There are only 16 slots!
~Jason
