[PXFIRE] Team Spirit Challenge

[Noblejanobii]

@Arrow-Jolteon @azura evley @Pokemon Trainer Sarah @Soups @Spiderc @The Nonexistent Tazz @Shruikan @arnisd @Soulmaster

Section 1: Preparation and Team Creation

Spoiler:

The Gracidea Order began its journey as Team A with the two greatest shaymin lovers on PXR as its leaders. A few ideas were bounced back and forth such as the A-team or reviving a theme from one of the previous wars. But soon enough, what started out as a joke by both of the leaders ended up evolving into the true identity of the Gracidea Order.

Obviously since Shurikan and I are leaders we need to be Team Shaymin. It's the only acceptable solution.

#Team Shaymin 2017 :P

We discussed back and forth what names to use, ending up narrowing down to two that were suggested by Pokémon Trainer Sarah.

Team name ideas...
Gracidea Order (GO for short, which is cool xD)
Order of the Flowers (reminds me of war of the roses xD)

It was unanimously decided shortly thereafter that we would become the Gracidea Order.

So then came the creation of the various graphics of the team. It was split up across Shurikan, Pokémon Trainer Sarah, and myself.

Shurikan took care of setting up the main thread, since I am a super moderator and can edit the first post whenever I wanted. So with a great title graphic and a list of all the members, the Gracidea Order became the first team to step into the PXFIRE spotlight.

Spoiler:

Welcome to the Gracidea Order. We devoted few follow the example of the legendary pokemon Shaymin, working to protect the natural world around us from those who would pollute it. We are delighted to have you at our side in this noble cause.

Pokémon Trainer Sarah handled the userbar, which you can see here:


I then took care of the signature bars, creating ten unique banners for the members to choose from are taking critiques from my fellow teammates on an initial beta banner, all of which you can see below.

Spoiler:

And to make the signatures stand out even more, Azura Evley gave the great suggestion to add little flowers beside them, even going so far as to give her teammates a link to a great site for flowers.

Spoiler:

i got them here --> http://getemoji.com/
for some reason it only works if i click the 'go advanced' box
��

And with that the Gracidea Order was set and ready to spread its cuteness and flower power across the world of PXFIRE.

Section 2: Artistic Expression

Spoiler:

In our quest to spread the word of Shaymin's greatness to the world, many members from our team have included it and the team's true spirit in their recent artistic entries.

Drawn Art
Week 1:
Inspired by the theme of summer fun in the sun, I drew and colored the entire Gracidea Order team relaxing out on the beach doing every activity from volleyball to swimming to just relaxing out on the beach. And while the entry was not able to snag a perfect score, it overflows with team spirit!

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Here's my entry! Did the best I could with what I had, since I don't have a tablet, all I could use was a pencil and some crayons. Anyway, here's all the members of the Gracidea Order chilling in the summer sun! The archen ready to be the best at volleyball is Pokémon Trainer Sarah. The sky form shaymin serving the volleyball is Shurikan. The lugia spectating from the water is Soups. The jolteon relaxing under the umbrella is Arrow-Jolteon. The sneasel clutching the juice box and ready for some action is Azura Evley. The ivysaur guarding the cooler full of snacks and drinks is Spiderc. The pikachu reclined in the beach chair is The Nonexistant Tazz. The Salamence with the rocking shades is Soulmaster. And finally, the snoozing land form shaymin in the inner tube is me!

Graphic Art:
Week 2:

As soon as I laid eyes on the week two theme for Graphic Art, I knew this was the perfect time for the Gracidea Order to show off just how great Shaymin is! Calling together my teammates, we banded together to tell you why you should support the Shaymin cause!

When thinking of a promotional poster, I knew I had just the Shaymin for the job. Paying homage to the original Uncle Sam poster, I put together a poster filled to the brim with shaymins to show you just how great they are in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Spoiler:

Poster Link: here
Poster Title: A Call for Gratitude
Image Credits:

Spoiler:

1. Center Shaymin- Neo Emolga
2. http://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms...ull/492_f2.png
3. https://poketouch.files.wordpress.co...ork.png?w=1200
4. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20161104183205
5. http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/...20141010191357
6. http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/20...FanPikachu.png
7. http://www.propokemon.com/wp-content...DP_anime_3.png
8. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20141010185911
9. http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/x...aymin_big1.png

Shortly thereafter, my fellow team member, arnisd decided to spread the word of Shaymin through a very different lens. Titled “the last tree”, arsnid gave us a preview of a world similar to what the Black Lotus Empire from the roleplay section has created, a world where nature is not valued like it should. He does a fantastic job in depicting exactly what us Shaymin-lovers stand for!

Spoiler:

Poster link: http://imgur.com/196TZZj
Poster title: The last tree
Image credits:
http://i0.wp.com/www.cleancutmedia.c...size=485%2C340
http://comps.canstockphoto.com/can-s...sp10669666.jpg
https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/t...aymin-Land.png
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...cec66df089.jpg
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...Dystopian-City
http://www.maplecraftinc.com/media/c...s_white_02.jpg

Sprite Art
Week 1:
For week one in Sprite Art, I decided to create a challenge that required a color palette swap. I was a bit worried about participation, but leave it to my team to be the ones most present in the sprite art competition for the first week! Even more, team member Azura Evley even included shaymin in her entry!

Spoiler:

Username: azura evley
Team: Gracidea Order
First stage sprite: Attachment 1671 jiraji ---> latias
Second stage sprite: Attachment 1672 Latias ---> Shaymin
Final stage sprite: Attachment 1673 shaymin ---> jiraji
Additional comments: Well that was fun!

Section 3: Representation and Presence

Spoiler:

The Gracidea Order has been working very hard to ensure that everyone hears the great word of Shaymin. How, you ask?

Well firstly, before the event even started, several members of the Gracidea Order stepped outside the boundaries of PXFIRE to show their devotion to Shaymin!

Spoiler:

As thanks to @Noblejanobii for updating in my absence, the Pokemon of the Dya is...

#492 Shaymin

my rating: 7 (Land Form), 7.5 (Sky Form)
Shaymin is the adorable Mew stand-in of Gen 4, and to date it's the smallest Legendary to date at least when it's in Land Form. I admit I prefer the more agile and hard-hitting Sky Form, but Land Form is adorable and you can't deny that.

10/10 Best Pokémon

It's no secret to anyone that knows me that Shaymin is my all time favorite pokemon. Not only is it absolutely adorable but its actually pretty decent in battle. In fact it's not too uncommon to see me use one on my team if I'm allowed. Shaymin is the gratitude pokemon, resembling that of a hedgehog in one form and a reindeer in another. It's also unique in that it is one of the only pokemon that has two different cries depending on its form, the only others being the forces of nature and kyurem (excluding megas of course). It was the first to feature this different cry trait, and was also the first pokemon to feature two different movesets based on form. Honestly there's nothing to hate about shaymin, in one form it's adorable, in the other it's pretty darn cool. In Sky Form it's a great grass type to battle with, and it is a trendsetter in more ways than one. So show some gratitude and give shaymin a little love!

Shaymin is nothing short of awesome. It's incredibly adorable and I don't understand how anyone could NOT like it.

9/10.

I've never used one, sadly. BUT LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS! <3 8/10

8/10 the ground form is just a cute little hedgehog and the sky form looks quite slick. Never got to catch or use one in the games, probs cause I haven't played any of the games it's available in.

On top of that, Gracidea Order members have participated in every section, making sure that the word of gratitude and Shaymin reaches every corner of PXFIRE. You’ve seen samples sprite, graphic, and drawn art, but those sections also had some great non-shaymin works from Pokemon Trainer Sarah, Shurikan, and Arrow-Jolteon that do well in showing that while the Gracidea Order loves Shaymin, it welcomes pokemon from all walks of life! The entries in Comic Art from arnisd, Shurikan, and myself further this, by including entire other species such as dragons! Shurikan also made sure Showdown was not forgotten during the first week while I dove in and handled the second week. We’re holding out hope that one of the challenges lets us battle with full Shaymin teams in the future though. Just last night I posted an entry for creative writing that subtly emphasizes how much nature can affect someone through something as simple as a butterfly. Arrow-Jolteon scored second place in humor this week by challenging our inner pro-battlers and the troubles with misclicks. Finally, with the roleplay section, The Nonexistent Tazz, Soups, and I may not have been the largest team or cast of characters, we made sure to make our posts count. The Nonexistent Tazz and I even got the highest scores out of the group!

Spoiler:

Gracidea Order: 41 points
The Nonexistent Tazz - 20
Noblejanobii - 18
Soups - 3

And of course, there’s no denying the scoreboard, with our flower power putting us high above the rest when it came to week one’s scores.

Spoiler:

Gracidea Order: 202 points