Darth Daddy and Mando Assassin, I hate to see you drop out completely. The contest was announced a week in advance in order to give people a chance to get pieces together and then 5 weeks to complete your projects, which is a LOT of time. Trust me, I know as well as anyone about time constraints due to work and family obligations, but we still felt that 5 weeks was a lot of time. I've seen some great things come out of both of you and all of the others and would be disappointed not to face off with you! Please give it a go, there's still a LOT of time yet.
I would love to, but I still have to finish Elias' birthday present and I still have a ton of work left on the Nightsisters, plus I still have to create a custom a week for the blog. The weekly obligation just isn't going away. Coming up with 4 brand new customs is too big an undertaking if I can't do the Nightsisters. I totallly understand the position that you need to take as admins.
I'll definitely promote the contest as much as I can though. I just already put in 65-70 hours a week at my job and about 25-30 hours a week in at the blog. I already only get 4 hours of sleep a day. I just don't see starting again from scratch happening.
I just hope when customizers participate in contests in the future they focus more on the fun than a strict adherence to the rules. We as customizers need to look at these contests as being more about community and less about the competition. I'd definitely like to see contests try and include as many people as possible as opposed to exclusion. When we're booting out enthusiastic 11 year old's like Mando Assassin, we have to question whether or not some rules are helping to promote the future of the hobby or are counterproductive. I know complaints were made specifically about my entry. Unfortunately, several PM were sent to ISY complaining that I was already almost finished with my project. I don't believe other customizers should be commenting on how finished another person's work is. That is for the customizer to decide. Personally, I didn't feel that way at all. I still had 6 headsculpts to create in 5 weeks. No easy task. My fourth team member hasn't even been received in the mail yet. Heck, Phatty already had all four figure builds completed. It's a shame that a few people that were excited to participate in the contest, all have to start at square one again if they want to participate to satisfy the ones complaining. I have an entire shelf of about 40 WIP's sitting in front of me. I could have entered any one of those figures. Some are closer to completed than the ones presented in this thread and I started them months ago and they have never been photographed. The contest wasn't about who can finish 4 customs first. It was about who could create the best team. This isn't a rant to criticize the administrative team of ISY, but I do want the complainers to get a sense of perspective. Let's try and make an effort to keep a tight knit community rather than figuring out ways to divide us all. I felt awful when I felt like my entry got others excluded.
If you didn't think my entry was fair because I started making them on the 13th of September, then just don't vote for my team. There's no need to harass the staff of Imperial Shipyards, because I had coincidentally started creating a team a few days before the contest was announced and I decided to enter it.
