OC Tournament: The Season of Neon

Seeing so many artists in anime club and wanting to have an activity of epic proportions...
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!
(Those who are familiar to dA's "Endzone" and "Law of Talos" here is something similar.)

The Story:

The Concrete Jungle looms over the sky and casts a unforgiving shadow on your being. It disrupts the horizontal horizon, creating alleys and streets for secrets and dirty deeds to be done cheaply. The sun goes into its slumber, and the faint reflections of hope are given off by the skyscrapers with their tinted glass windows. The city begins to stir. Lights, of different colors, shapes, and intensities start to glow, marking the night's creeping entrance. A trail of ruby red and diamond white hits you like a sunrise...

The spotlights of the Umi Corp. begin to expose the night sky.

You look to the distance and see the tallest towers...

People run for shelter, a curfew clock is shown by several monitors in the city.

The sun now sleeps, the dark has overcome the sky...

The clocks reach zero and five figures in shadow appear.

You stare at the screen closest to you and remember the invitation given. It promised the power of granting a single wish of your deepest desires. No matter how great or how horrible.

One figure steps forward and says cheerfully, "Winner Take All..."

You now see the monitors show arrows pointing to the gargantuan towers connected by a bridge at the top floor of at least one-hundred stories. The destination is clear. The distance is formidable enough, but are you ready for the challenges between the streets of this cyberpunk environment? "Do your best, contestants...".

...Of course you're ready.


The Contest:

A tournament should be deliciously immersive. The idea of entering your character should be exciting to you as well as to the other entrants, seeing combatants from all walks of life and areas of the ‘world’, so to speak. In this case, our little anime club. Your character should have something to offer, fill out a part of the spectrum that no one else does, sport a style all their own. Just like actual fighting games, where the roster is comprised of a cast with differing abilities, pros, cons, goals and endings.


The Audition:

Important! Please Read!
Unlike first-come first-serve OC tournaments, this one will operate a little differently in its inception. In an effort to discourage those who would enter on impulse and later drop due to lack of interest/etc, there will be an audition phase to choose the 16 combatants.

Interested parties should draw a picture of their character encountering/invited/being chased/etc. from the outskirts of the city to the giant metropolis that all will be taken place in.

The picture can be as simple or as epic as you want to make it, but just enough to show this is something you’d enjoy being a part of.

Have either a reference sheet of your character ready, or images in your gallery to assist your opponents in drawing your character. These will be needed if you are selected for the roster.

Example (From Law of Talos): Link


Spectator Entries:

If you'd like to make spectator entries to show your support of contestants but are not a contestant yourself, feel free to have your character enter the city where all the spectators gather. (But remember, anyone in the city is fair game to the contestants.) Please note me with spectator entries.


The Judges:

- Ovan Tiasco
- LJslilfox
- Grandmother
- Kesani
- Vanna Rauko


The Prizes:

Grand Prize: $50-$40, plus a full scale, multiple-page final showdown sequence between the winner and the ‘last boss’ of the tournament, drawn by myself. Who is the last boss? You'll see.

The winner will also get a commission from each of the contestants who have agreed to participate in contributing to this prize (which is, essentially, all of them). The commission itself is up to the contestant and how much time they have, be it a pencil sketch or a full-color extravaganza.

Runner-Up Prize: $25-$15, plus an illustration of their character fighting a 'mid boss battle'


The Stages:

There are a number of places you can set your battles here, with the last four combatants taking place in the Umi Corp. Buildings. You are encouraged to use the settings, but not adhere to any particular details. It should be how you personally envision it. Nor do you have to use a different setting each time.


1. The Umi Corporation Buildings - The two tallest buildings in the entire city. Both being connected by a bridge near the top and at the bottom is it very wide foundation know for producing goods for the city, from medical labs to weapons production to breakfast cereal and etc. Building led by a group of five board members who have their own secret agenda to attend to.

2. Kurasu scramble - A pentagon scramble crossing about the size of a football field. Directly in the center of the city with each road leading to a landmark of some sort. Inspired by Shibuya crossing (look it up)

3. Mega District - A diverse, lively mall which is the center of capitalism and consumption of fashion, arts, goods, and other useless swag. is an outdoor shopping center, (similar to Chinatown), with three stories of shopping delight.

4. The Shrine - A holy place and one of the rare places of vegetation and greenery still intact with the natural land. Has a mysterious aura around it.

5. Bullet Station - Massive transportation depot. Very modern and technical theme dwells here with rails running from kilometers away. If you're not careful, it can be a very dangerous place.

6. Saigo River - A clear running river behind the shrine leading south. A place of natural beauty and wonder.

7. Suburba-plex - The residential area of the city. Big apartments and living complexes tower the semi-green lawns of the peaceful place. But after curfew, this place is patrolled by Umi enforcement mechs and can be quite dangerous.

8. Umi Corp. Road - A wide street with major buildings from both sides lighting the whole area with neon and fluorescent light. Has a Vegas-esque design to it.

9. Prodigious Freeway - Exactly as the title says. Freeways stacked up on another making pillars of stone support the massive trafficking coming in. Runs through near the middle of the city and is the major mode of public transportation.

10. Umi Corp. Entrance - An 11 foot, barbed electric wire, heavily guarded wall which scares small children. Entrance is invite only, lucky for the contestants they all received an invite prior to coming (after auditions are over)


The Rules:

Characters:

1. Fancharacters will be turned away at the door. Nothing from any popular franchise’s universe, unless of course, it is your own franchise. :3

2. One combatant per slot. HOWEVER, each entry can be a collaborative effort between artists. If you are a writer who gets an artist friend to draw for you, fine. If you can only pencil and want a friend of yours to color, sure, go for it.

3. Characters can use familiars, summons, dopplegangers, separate entities, etc. I just don’t want squads of OC’s squishing into ‘one’ combatant slot. All the same, big giant Capcom-esque group special moves could still work. Haha. I have a soft spot for those. So basically, other characters can ‘lend a hand’ a la fighting game special moves, but not be consistently battling alongside the combatant in every match. The focus should always be on your main combatant.


Battles:

1. Battles can be done one-shot portrait style or in comic format. Though I’ve noticed a trend of comic format entries always doing much better, so just realize from the get-go, that’s the type of thing to get noticed. They are encouraged. This contest should be, after all, about expanding your artistic horizons, and there’s nothing like trying your hand at comics to learn you a thing or two about perspective, composition, pacing.. and of course backgrounds.

2. Comics don’t have to be in color. Of course a masterfully colored/grayscaled entry is going to stand a much better chance than flat pencils, but it’s entirely up to you and what you feel most comfortable with.

3. Battles don’t necessarily have to end in death. Nor are they going to be judged by gore, badassery or cleverness alone. It just needs to be a ‘defeat’. We’re looking for creativity here, an overall high standard in all categories, or whatever makes your art ‘you’. If you err on the side of comedy, be funny. If you like super gore, go for it. (Try to stay decent with accordance of the rules..) The main thing is, bring yourself to the table here, with your own cards laid out, the way you want them. And do it with some pizzazz.
Long story short, just show your original character defeating who you are matched up with. And make the judges want to see more.

4. 16 combatants means six rounds. 16 - 8 - 4 - 2 . Is meant to be short and sweet, but with matches that really count. You will have a full two weeks to submit your entry, in an effort to encourage working at your own pace and giving it your all. And if school demands extended time to enter, I will be more than happy to let the remaining folks have it.

Oh yeah...

AUDITIONS BEGIN NOW


DUE DATE: 11:59 PST. DEC 1, 2008



SUMMARY:

1. Have an original character. They can be old, or created just now. Any character of yours. Provided it is not a fan character from an established series.

2. Create an 'audition image' which will act as your registration for the roster. Not everyone will make it. There is a limit of 16, after submitting your audition image, the judges and I decide who is in and who isn't based on the overall creativity and dedication displayed in the audition image.
The audition image must depict your character and Umi City, as your character is being approached in their native turf to be taken to the city where the tournament is being held. This can be a portrait, or a comic in itself, simple or complex. Just show us that you want in, and you're in this for the long haul. It can have any number of other characters in it. Just make sure your combatant and the city are there.

Upload your audition image and note me with a link to it.

3. Wait until the audition period closes on December 1st. A week or so later the roster will be announced, and you will be paired off with an opponent.
In the mean time, submit a reference sheet of your character, or link to images of your character so your opponent knows how to properly draw them.

4. Draw either a single image or an entire comic about your character defeating your opponent, somehow or another. Death doesn't need to be included, it can be defeating them, humiliating them, just basically putting them out of your characters way so you can move on.

5. The judges will view your entries and pick which displayed more creativity, composition, cleverness, etc. The winners will be announced when all the entries are in.

6. Rinse, repeat, until someone is the top winner.

Good Luck. =)

The Theme in this tournament is Cyberpunk, to those who need some visual aid, here are some picture that demonstrate the style:












Umi Corp. is similar to this: