[WAR] Season II Judge Applications

[Neo Emolga]

Welcome to the WAR Season II Judge Applications!

If you're interested in joining this WAR as one of the judges (and earn points for your team as a reward), this is the place to do it. If chosen as the section judge, YOU decide how it's run and what themes are declared for that week (if there are any). Several of these sections, including graphic art, pixel art, and creative writing, have used different approaches and formats throughout time, so if you've got a great idea in mind for how to handle the section, let us know and include it in your application!

Here are the sections the WAR will have for 2015:

2015

Role Play
Creative Writing
Humor

Drawn Art
Pixel Art
Graphic Art

GCEA
Showdown
URPG (will be handled by swiftgallade46)
ASB


Judges need to be fair, unbiased, active, and respectful. Also, pretty please with sugar and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on top, if you don't think you'll be able to be active throughout the entire WAR, please don't apply, as the WAR depends on judges being active and submitting results on time. We understand if life pops up surprises and you might need a little extra time, but please, let us know as soon as you can if you're going to be absent and need someone to cover for you. Dropping out of the WAR unexpectedly without saying anything is pretty brutal. With this in mind, you need to accept the fact that if you do not post judging results on time (before the end of Sunday), a WAR Leader can and will need to judge your section for you, which will result in you losing your reward point for the week and the WAR Leader will need to set up the section for the next week, such as posting a new theme or resetting the weekly scoreboard. We aren't doing this to be mean, but we do need things to run smooth and steady.

Weekly judging format will look like this:

MONDAY (12:00AM EST) through FRIDAY (11:59PM EST) - Standard submission period. This is when participants will submit entries and participate in the section's activities.
SATURDAY (12:00AM EST) through SATURDAY (11:59PM EST) - "Last minute" submission period. Judges are allowed to judge the past week's activities and post results now, but participants can still "sneak" in a last minute submission if they post it before the section is judged. But, if the judge posts the results for the week, it's too late.
SUNDAY (12:00AM EST) through (SUNDAY 11:59PM EST) - "Final Judging" period. The week is done and no more submissions for the past week can be made. When the judge posts the results for the past week and puts up a new theme or resets the scoreboard, submissions for the next week begin.

So with that said, it gives you a good, solid weekend to post results. If you submit results on time in both the thread and the WAR Scoreboard thread, you will be rewarded with a point for your team. But if it hits Monday and you miss the deadline, you will lose your reward point and a WAR Leader will have authorization to judge the section's last week performance and prepare the section for the upcoming week. So please understand, we're not doing this to be pushy, we just want things to keep running smoothly.

Anyway, with all that said, if you're ready to apply, here's the submission form. You have until MAY 10th to submit your application(s).

Name:
What sections are you applying for? <You can apply for multiple sections and if you think you can handle it, potentially judge multiple sections>
What is your experience in the area(s) you want to be a judge for? <Skills, past WAR experience, etc. Please give details for each section you want to apply for and why you think you would be a great candidate.>
If chosen for the judging position, how would you go about judging it and distributing points (you will have 6 each week to distribute)?

Cheers!

[bronislav84]

Name: Bron

What sections are you applying for? Role Play

What is your experience in the area(s) you want to be a judge for? I've been in every WAR and Team RP since the first on Elite. Though I was involved more in some than others and sometimes lost my internet access, I always was involved in some way. I RP on other forums which have a more active RP section on a pretty much daily basis. I have run my own RPs in the style of the WAR and am well familiar with what's fair/balanced. Writing and reading RP is a way of life for me pretty much.

If chosen for the judging position, how would you go about judging it and distributing points (you will have 6 each week to distribute)?

3 for first place, 2 for second, and 1 for third.

Quality over quantity generally, but many quality posts would be better though since it's both quality and quantity. I always read all posts and have no problem doing this as judge.

I have had an RP idea drafted since this year's WAR was announced, and it just needs to be finished when teams are all created. How's that for initiative? Neo was extremely instrumental in the process and I appreciate his input.

[SassySnivy]

Name: Speed-X

What sections are you applying for?

Pixel art! Duh! :D

What is your experience in the area(s) you want to be a judge for?

I was in last year's WAR, though I really didn't participate much. I only participated in one section...so I was really surprised when I got the "[WAR I] [3rd] Most Valuable Player" token! o A o And yeah, I'm still a budding pixel artist of about somewhere around ten years or so. It's just what I do!

If chosen for the judging position, how would you go about judging it and distributing points?

Wow. I typed up a WHOLE BUTTLOAD of stuff earlier and then my computer magically shut down and now everything is LOST. T^T I'll try to remember everything that I said.
I'd like for this year to be a little different than last year. Instead of focusing on the mainstream stuff such as the recolors, fusions, retypes, and whatnot, I'd like to change things up a little bit so that they're both more interesting AND fun. That's not to say it won't still be related to Pokemon, though; plus Xanthe did a really good job last year with pushing this category into the right direction. :> The thing is with a lot of the art sections is that as the weeks progress, people lose interest because the challenges get to be too difficult and require more prior knowledge on the category. I'd like to think this is really bad with the pixel art section since we have so few pixel artists here.
So the actual quality of the art will be important, sure, but I'd like to focus just as much on creativity and innovation as well as quality. After all, when it comes to art, creativity is a BIG factor. Though mind you, we won't get into anything absurd like intricate character design (Fakemon). That's a little too much...and that's not really what we want to focus on! I just want to make it so that the super-creative minds have almost just as much of a chance at winning as the more skilled artists.

I think that when it comes to the art section, fewer novices join because they feel intimidated by the more experienced participants. While I can't TOTALLY control this, I plan to make it so that anyone can jump in at just about any time. And I'm hoping for a similar turnout to last year's WAR, in which a couple of pixel art novices joined in on the fun, stuck with it through to the end, and actually learned a lot from the critiques they received. :D I want to make it challenging but fun! Of course I also need to go relatively easy on the judging as well. I'll make sure that along with what was wrong with the entry I'll provide pieces of advice and point out the things that I enjoyed about their entry, since we want them to keep coming back. ^^ Being harsh is a great way to get your point across, but we want this war to be as un-elitist as possible. :>

Oh and as for the points, most likely the standard format: 3 for 1st, 2 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd.

Wait...is it supposed to be 2 for 1st and 1 for 2nd?

[Dragon Master Mike]

Name: Dragon Master Mike
What sections are you applying for?
Humor
What is your experience in the area(s) you want to be a judge for?
I was the judge for Humor in last year's WAR. While I was far from the best judge in the WAR, I don't believe I did too bad, and if I get picked, I would take what I learned last year to make sure not to make the same mistakes twice and to just overall do a better job.
If chosen for the judging position, how would you go about judging it and distributing points?
I would run it similarly to how I did last year. Every week I would pick a theme (Parody, Bad Jokes, short story) that the entries would have to follow. I would grade on a scale of 0 to 200. 100 of those points would be for how funny I thought the joke was, 50 for how original the joke was (Have I heard it a million times before, or did they make it up?), and 50 for how well the joke fit the theme. First place would win 3 points, second place would win two, and third would win one.

[Rival Max]

Name: Dredd
What sections are you applying for? GCEA
What is your experience in the area(s) you want to be a judge for? I created GCEA. I set in place all the systems and I know all the rules because I made them. This seemed like a logical choice for me since I am the one who looks through information normally.
If chosen for the judging position, how would you go about judging it and distributing points (you will have 6 each week to distribute)?It depends on the points given. I think last year there was a 1 point for 2nd place and 2 points for 1 first place. GCEA War last year was built around a series of a events leading up to the the last week. Because of that I think the last week of the grading should be worth more since its going to look at the overall to see who completed the best trainer.

[Coru]

I would gladly be a Section Judge again, but before I apply, could I ask when the period would be that it would be going ahead? I have exams from 13th May - 3rd June so it would not be the best idea for me to be a Section Judge if it clashes with that period as I will have to prioritise my exams over the contests, which would be unfair on the applicants and put more pressure on me so I wouldn't judge to the best of my ability.

Edit: Ok, as the time period doesn't seem to clash, I will apply for the Drawn art section for judging (then it still allows me to participate in pixel and graphical art if i wish to)
So here is my application:
Name: Corrupt_Voidlich
What sections are you applying for? Drawn Art
What is your experience in the area(s) you want to be a judge for? I have been a judge in many many contests before so I know the way to critique successfully, the way to distribute judging points to come to an overall winner and how to be an unbiased judge. I have also participated in many contests, so I know just what the entrants would want from it. I have a lot of ideas for themes that I could use, which would vary from week to week, one week being a very open broad theme that allows creativity to roam free but the next would be a focused theme, that puts to test people's abilities to stick to a brief. These would test the skills of all the entrants so to make them better, along with the critiques helping with this too, so that would mean if they didnt win, at least they got something out of it. Finally, I held the Drawn Art contest in last year's WAR so I know exactly how things are done, how they run and what is expected of me.
If chosen for the judging position, how would you go about judging it and distributing points (you will have 6 each week to distribute)? The standard way. 3rd- 1 Point 2nd- 2 points 1st- 3 points (If I get a draw at first, there will be no 2nd and third place as they will both be awarded 3 points, if there is a draw at 2nd place, there will be no third place and no third place for the following week as they would both get 2 points, which would make 7 points distributed that weeks so I will balance it out the next week, if third place wins, i will do the same for the previous example, there will be no third place the following week to balance out the distributed points)

I want to make this war much more fun than last year so I will have to think outside the box now. Can't wait. Also, as Drawn art and Graphical art have branched off, it will be much more focused.

[Lord Celebi]

Name: Lord Celebi
What sections are you applying for?: Humor
What is your experience in the area(s) you want to be a judge for?: The funny gifs I post usually get a lot of likes.
If chosen for the judging position, how would you go about judging it and distributing points (you will have 6 each week to distribute)?: 1 point for the top six things that make me laugh. I will rank said laugh outputs ordinally by how deep of a belly laugh it evokes from me.

[Neo Emolga]

Name: Neo Emolga!
What sections are you applying for? Graphic Art

What is your experience in the area(s) you want to be a judge for? I've been working on graphic art ever since high school, sixteen years ago. I started with Adobe Photoshop 6 and kept going with it, moving to CS and now CS6, although I have worked with CS2 and CS5. At one point, I also worked on graphic art projects in a professional setting as a Flash designer for International Flavors and Fragrances. In addition to all that stuff, I've also been making banners for well over a decade, learning how to incorporate new styles, methods, and experiment to create new trends and interesting new results. Heck, I started a massive trend with fragmentation banners on Serebii.

If chosen for the judging position, how would you go about judging it and distributing points (you will have 6 each week to distribute)? With 6 points, the "gold" winner that knocks me off my feet with their stuff will get 3 points. "Silver" gets 2 and "Bronze" gets the remaining one point. Each week will have a theme with several fun twists and tricks to keep things interesting. A few ideas I've been poking with is everyone works with one particular picture for one week, then another week people create a banner/image for their favorite song (which they'll need to link as well), and stuff like that.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

I would gladly be a Section Judge again, but before I apply, could I ask when the period would be that it would be going ahead? I have exams from 13th May - 3rd June so it would not be the best idea for me to be a Section Judge if it clashes with that period as I will have to prioritise my exams over the contests, which would be unfair on the applicants and put more pressure on me so I wouldn't judge to the best of my ability. (If I can enter and decide to, I will edit this post with my application rather than create a new one so this post becomes more relevant)

@Corrupt_Voidlich

You made the drawn art section really fun last year. I really enjoyed participating. You should definitely judge again if you have the time! :) The WAR is starting June 7, if that helps!

[XaiakuX]

I was going to sign up for judging graphic arts. But now that Neo is jumping on as judge, I have a lot less to worry about in competition. =P

Unless Gemma magically appears. .__.;