Earthclan Elite (EE) 3.5 Billion Celebration

Grats to EE for making the Top 10! The CC was great, even if the Clockwork Paladin kind of crashed the party. It was probably the best organized CC I have seen.

Oh, and many, many, many thanks for picking me (Bronze Guard)!

Well done Earthclan Elite. You guys had an awesome event. There was alot of people and alot of fun. I managed to win Sexiest Female (Electra Voltara) and overall had a blast. Thanks again.

I was asked for my opinion regarding this event. This was likely a tactical error but here goes; Kyengen's pseudo-review of the Earthclan Elite's celebration. (I would like to point out that I was an outsider on all of this, consideration may well have been given to the points I make, I'm just calling it as I see it)

I'm sort of a fringe member of the group as well a friend of the two leaders, so I elected to watch the festivities from the sidelines. Starting from the beginning I'll touch on organization first. Putting an event like this together takes planning and strategy that your average gamer is incapable of even fathoming. Particularly considering how fickle and impatient some of Paragon's vigilantes have become since AE premiered. The Arena events were pretty much flawless, there isn't a lot of to be said there, but there seemed to be a bit of an oversight where the costume contest was concerned.

Having all the contestants line up at once and letting the judges do their thing is likely the most expedient and efficient way of handling that, but one has to wonder if this did not spark some confusion regarding what the participants were actually going for. I noticed that more than a few people had taken spots next to one another and began to strike similar poses, or activate like powers. Often their costumes didn't 'match' but even so, it seemed like these people were trying for the "Dynamic Duo" category. It's possible the judges were aware of this, but also possible they wrote it off as coincidence, or perhaps didn't notice as there was quite a bit going on. I'm not saying that the Tex couple didn't deserve their prize, just wondering if proper consideration was given. When EE makes it to the top spot on Guardian, as we all know they will, it might be prudent to break up the categories to selected areas or times. This would complicate things a touch, but also serve to avoid bits of confusion like the one described by Agent009 on a different thread.

Then there is the criterion for judging something like this. There really isn't one. Toons that have taken first place in events such as this have gone through other contests without so much as an honorable mention. Still, given the amount of time and effort put in already, and the rather lavish prizes, a set of standards would well be in order. Most of the categories were well met, there may have been better there may not, the judges made their call. But in the case of the "Best Non-Human" and "Best Casual" categories a few things need to be pointed out. The winner of "Best Non-Human" was Ghost Rider. A thoroughly uninteresting Marvel comics character who made appearances in several of his own comics series, and was later played by Nicholas Cage (which should tell you something right there) in his own movie in 2007. I'm not trying to aim the Generic Bat at anyone but really, beyond the oversight that the character is essentially human, there is a searing lack of originality.

Regarding the case of "Best Casual", let me start by citing Webster’s (the 4th definition on the website if you are interested). This states "appropriate for wear or use on informal occasions; not dressy: casual clothes; casual wear.". E'lan's costume, while impressive and certainly worthy of merit, is casual only should the person happen to be the Scarlet Pimpernel. The last thing I am going to say is that while McPeaceBringer's concept is founded on hilarity, the outfit itself is actually terrifying. But that's probably just based on my poor relations with clowns.

Overall the event was brilliant and that it went so smoothly is miraculous given the size. I've indicated the flaws as they appear to me, and am prepared for the angry messages that tend to follow my opinions like a kite tail. Anyway, really great job EE and I'm looking forward to the next one. (Assuming any of you are still talking to me then)

Hi, Kyengen!

I'm not really sure why you think anyone from EE would send you angry messages -- we actually appreciate your feedback very much!

These are some very helpful suggestions -- we always are looking for ways to make our events better, and that's why we love to get long reviews like this one.

Some of your suggestions (such as segregation by category) had already been discussed. It would probably be good for me to explain the rationale behind our final arrangement, and also some of the challenges of smoothly judging the event -- not to defend it, but rather so that you (and other interested readers) can see where the discussions went that led to the final layout.

The reason that we decided to not separate contestants by category was simple -- it was so that each person had multiple chances to win. If we were to segregate contestants, each person would have a lesser chance to win a prize.

Sgt. Taylor Jones, for example, was quite astonished to win the "Sexiest Male" Category in the Costume Contest. He hadn't been going for it at all.

Similarly, there were very few contestants vying for the actual description of the "Best Casual" category. So the judges fell back on outfits that could pass for non-heroic looks. The winner of the category, E'lan, was garbed in a fashion that he could be attending a State Dinner or High Society ballroom event -- while not "Casual" as per the dictionary definition, he was not garbed as stereotypically as most of the other Heroes and Heroines were, and you wouldn't expect him to be stalking the streets in search of Hellions. I would like to think in this instance that the Judges made the best call from among the assembled heroes and heroines that they could.

There were also very few Comedic contestants this year -- but among them, McPeaceBringer's stood out to the two Category Judges as the most amusing -- clown phobias aside.

In the case of "Best Non-Human", I personally thought that there were quite a few good contenders this year, among them a giant lizard-man who was particularly impressive and closely vied for not only "Best Non-Human" but also "Most Intimidating". For the winner, the Judges stated that they felt that although Fire Kinetic was humanoid in shape, he was clearly not human, so he qualified. The closeness of his motorcycle-jacketed appearance to Ghost Rider was not discussed with me, so I don't know if the Judges had a big inner battle over it or not. I know they were weighing several close contenders.

The judges all had a limited amount of time to carefully review and evaluate the contestants and their bios. We kept it locked to 30 minutes to make the process smooth and to help prevent the crowd from growing bored (the door prizes, trivia game and the many related 1-5 Million Influence prizes also helped in this regard).

To speed the judging process, we set it up that each pair of judges had ultimate authority over their Category. SG Leaders did not overrule or suggest alternatives to them. Each team was encouraged to carefully discuss and weigh the merits of their chosen candidates as best they can between each other and only ask for outside help if they can't reach a decision between themselves. This helps a lot -- we've found that people tend to not make frivolous decisions when given responsibilities like this.

While two judges is a good start, I hope that next year we will be able to have three judges per category. The more people we have that together can agree on one category "look" being superior to all others, the more universal that decision will be. Of course, getting 30 SG Members all on at the same time is the challenge -- you usually need to plan for 40 to have 30. Our Secret Identities often intrude.

Again, thanks so much for taking the time and effort to write the above comments.

I hope you will come and be a part of our planning meetings for next year's big event!

-- Vivian

Besides, how do you know I'm not the Scarlet Pimpernel
8-p