TOP Builder Contests - English review

[Colonel32]

The shortcut, "TOP", stands for Czech "To je opravdu pěkné", which translates into English as "This (is) really nice", also using the fact that the word "top" itself is commonly known in Czech language due to "top 10s" in computer games etc.

The TOP builder contests were developed for the Castle and Pirates section of Kostky.org forum. There are different variations of the contest depending on the selected topic, for example Castle Builder, Pirate Builder or Sand Builder.

The idea of the contest is to separate forum users to two categories. The first ones are the experienced ones, whose models were good enough to be awarded the *TOP* title. The referees should come from this group. The contestants, on the other hand, should come from the group of newbie builders. You see, the contests is not about presenting a final work, but to show it in progress, being able to improve it based on the suggestions of others (mainly the experienced builders). But it is always about the original artist to actually put the pieces together.

The models are judged by their size, presentation (quality of accompanying text - both story or mistakes, quality of photos) and primarily overall quality of the model itself. The contest is not anonymous, but that is not considered a problem, as I still believe that the referees can be unbiased enough to ignore who the author is. And why do we have a committee of professional builders, rather then letting the results rely on general public? Because sadly, when general public is involved, the contest always turns into a contest about "who has got more friends". You see those "vote for me" things everywhere". 

Prizes are donated mostly in the form of "coupon credit" from local Bricklink stores, but sometimes individuals donate sets or money as well. The prizes are not assigned to places, but placed in a "pool" instead. And after the contest is finished and the order of contestants is decided, they go "fishing" into the pool by their order, each one selecting the prize he or she considers most interesting (from the ones that are still left).

The topic of the contest is always presented in advance of few months, which gives the builders enough time not only to think about the idea, but also purchase the necessary parts, since they are often beginners with a very limited supply of Lego bricks.   

[Colonel32]

The first contest was themed "Castle". Announced April 20th 2009, started April 30th and with deadline of June 26th same year.

The judging committee consisted of Colonel32, gearcs, JimB, linhi, Radegast and robbed. Each of them rated every contest entry with 0-20 points, thus making possible to reach up to 120 points. 

8 builders presented their creations and this are the results:


The last, 8th place, belongs to Dragon Castle 2 by Drakyr, with score 21/120. 5 out of 6 rated this the worst one, mainly due to the presence of the ridiculous building on the right side, as well unfinished looking of both main castle and terrain around it. On the other hand, there are some interesting things, like the ballista.

7th place is occupied by Yellow House by Siegnord, with 29 points. It is not really that bad, but the colors do not really match medieval era. Could use more details as well as more minifigures. Nice library, though.

6th place is occupied by Medieval Town by Miketuk, scoring 38.
The author claims he ran out of bricks. That is a common problem, but if he decided to make the city half the size, I would expect position one or two places better. There are some nice interiors.

5th place is occupied by Supplies have arrived by Fox666111, scoring 40.
Simple construction, could use more work on details.

4th place is occupied by House named "At the Crown" and "At the Black Knight" tavern by Germik, scoring 68.
From now on you start to see more positives than negatives in the entries.
Many interesting details, especially the metal bird standard. Author claims he didn't want to present it at first, but luckily for him, he did.

3th place and first one to reach for a prize, Lindholm by Hardegon, scoring 82 points.
Although large solid areas (water, city square) are a small flaw, still it is a decent and compact build. And it was this author, who profited from the suggestions of bystanders the most. Mainly because he was not afraid to follow them.

At last, the second place was taken by Dusk over Camelot by maeror, with 90 points.
According to score only, this model should have been the winner. But after counting the votes, the whole committee had decided that the way how to award points was set incorrectly, focusing on presentation too much, and this model was thus moved to 2nd place.
Although there could be some small construction flaws, the presentation is just outstanding, and the funny story is a very nice bonus.

And the winner is Gateway Tower by Ryxe, scoring 87 points out of 120 possible.
The model was greatly appreciated for its robust construction and realistic medieval look. Although there aren't many details on this one, it still looks very good.

[Colonel32]

The second contest was themed Castle as well. There really weren't any crucial changes to the concept or rules of the contest. Announced August 19th, 2011, starting August 21th, and a traditional deadline of Sunday 23:59, this time September 25th. It took me 2 years to organize a new round, but it needed some time for new builders to appear. Because based on their models from CBC I, some builders had advanced to "veteran"category. It was nice to see CBC I #3 builder Hardegon to join the committee, followed by gearcs, Linhi, Rhox an myself.

There were 6 prizes in the contest, interestingly all of them of same, $15 value, but each in the form of coupon credit to a different store, so it still played a difference on which place the person had ended. At the beginning some people were afraid that not enough people would attend, so that the prizes would be awarded just for entering the contest. All fears had soon disappeared, as contestants were joining one after another, and the number actually stopped at 16 entries, which was the biggest number so far for a contest organized at Kostky.org forum.

Also, a sponsor who wanted to remain anonymous joined the prizes with 33 euro for each of 3 contestants, however, awarded only according his own decisions, not by official order of the contestants. Which, since it was his money, was something I could disagree with, but not really effect it. Because from my point of view, a winner of the contest selected by 5 judges could still end up with much cheaper prize then a person who was third or second, which, in my opinion, could be discouraging for further contests.     

And now to the entries:


Last, 16th place is Peasant rebelion by Ulrich14, gaining 233 points out of 500 possible. Unfortunately, this are not building techniques for an AFOL. On the other hand, compared to the last place of CBC I, this surely is an improvement.


Second to last, 15th place is Wizzard brothers and the clueless king by Mr. Cube, scoring 244 points.
The author was aware that it was done in haste and did not expect good results compared to the competition. The only thing I actually liked was the magic trick that changed the horse rider into a monkey on a dog.


14th place is Medieval Modular House by nerow, with 282 points. It is hard to say what exactly made this entry end so low in the rank, but it got very similar scores from all the referees. Better luck next time.
   

13th place is Defensive castle on a small hill by Luky1987, scoring 301 points. The author kept his specific building style. It fits town buildings and space crafts, but unfortunately not castles. 


12th. place is Lighthouse by Márty, with 303 points. At first sight a pretty cute construction, but the lack of parts is obvious, and so it really doesn't have much in common with how lighthouses have been built. It is a question what the result could have been if the author had torn down the burning dist and called it a "Island guard tower" or something.


11th  place is Goblin arena by mizdas, gaining 332 points. This surely proves an old Czech saying, that "even with a small puppet you can still make a big play". Nothing really to complain about the model, however, what the author gained on construction, he lost on presentation. It is really hard to overlook many mistakes and sentences so long that you get trapped inside them.


10th is Fortress by RalinCavira, with 334 points. Unfortunately, this does not have too much in common with a fortress.   


9th place is Ankh - Morpork - waterfront by germik, with 338 points. I actually read only one book by Terry Prachett and it was a guide how to breed cats. And the only thing i remember from it is that most common cat names are "Getoutofhereyoubastard" and "Mooooomthereissomethingunderthebed".
The author based his entry on a book that not all people have read. Is that a positive or negative? For me a negative. Because I can't fully appreciate all the jokes that are implemented. And however neutral I try to keep, I always get  stuck with things I don't understand and take a few points down for them.


8th place is Witch hunt by Justin, getting 340 points. A very controversial build. In my opinion it was #2, but another referee called it the worst of the whole contest.  Looks like you will have to make your own opinion regarding this one (instead of trusting ours). 


7th place is Settlement under the hills by Ivansliz, getting 346 points. Major flaws are the spotty fabric behind, photographs almost unwatchable and patches of dark green grass - for some reason always appearing in a 2x4 shape. Lets hope the author had learned a lesson of starting earlier, not to finish presenting just within the deadline. There was no time to fix that and that cost him a position or two.
But a big plus for the Jesus on a cross statue


6th place, first one with a prize: Yearly reunion of the rangers by tonysize, gaining 360 point. I do no know what to say, I think it is much better then how it ended. Others do not think so. Rhox suggested to break the uniformity of the walls and roof by some different parts.


5th place isThe legend about Golem by Diidy, with 370 points. See wikipedia for more info. Diidy has got a talent to combine totally common parts into something absolutely special, however, I think he didn't use his full potential at this one. The alchemist's workshop is just wonderful, but the thing on the left? I just don't see the Golem in it. Diidy claims it couldn't have been done better. Maybe he is right. The question what would the result be if he removed the Golem character and presented just an Alchemist's workshop will remain unanswered.     


4th place is "The Nest" Fortress by Miketuk (with some help of his unnamed friend) scoring 371 points. For me I must say that my feeling from this construction is "I have many bricks and try to beat me". I do not see any really innovative building techniques, just a big mass of bricks, looking fair, but not amazing. I suggest that structures like should be used for exhibits, not for contests.


3rd place is Kirklees village by blackrabbit, with 378 points. There was still an unused potential to improve or finish "the Hole".


2nd place is Wedding celebration by Petronel, with 394 points. A small weakness is the perfectly flat castle wall as well as easy battlement, but there are many fabulous details. And the presentation is just perfect and should be an inspiration to others.


And the absolute winner is Celtic settlement by Apollo, with 404 points. It was very nice to see that a newbie can still win a contest like this. But he just came with a good idea and listened to suggestions of others. Hope to see this author try a bigger challenge, to fly the Czech banner on a world-wide contest like CCC. 

[Colonel32]

The third contest was a first round of PBC, the Pirate Builder. Although this forum had a "Castle and Pirates" section ever since, the threads posted in the section were always in favor of castles, and even the remaining pirate threads were mostly just presentation of original sets or links to builds by foreign authors (from other communities). Maybe it was caused by the fact that Bohemia never really had access to any ocean, so it was spared of the era of exploration and colonization. And on the other hand, we have a very rich history in castles and medieval era. Although almost all of us had dreamed of owning a Black Seas Barracuda at least once, for some reason most of us still tend to build castles.

It seemed to me that it was a good time for a change, so instead of just waiting for the right time for CBC III, I decided to organize a PBC instead. Since it was the first round and basically nobody had a "TOP" rank for a Pirate model at that time, it was decided to make the contest open for everybody. I was hoping to get enough referees just from the expert builders of CaP section. I have also added a possibility to become a judge for those, who donate a prize of at least $25 value. I've got many prizes, but almost no referees, so I was forced to broaden the search criteria (into other themes).
So the final committee consisted of:
me
tonysize - #6 from CBC II
P4tr1cius - donated a prize
otaznik - never really built anything, but he is collector with excellent taste, and a fair critic, never afraid to say "Wash that dust!" or "Learn to use i/y correctly!" (An often mistake in the Czech language)
M;tron - obviously a M;tron fanatic. Check his M;tron thread.
and eNTy (previously known as xtepn01) - a technic genius. See his Tatra 815 for example.


To give the contestants enough time to prepare for a new theme, the PBC was announced October 15th 2011, with an official start date December 1st (from that moment people were allowed to actually send photos). Initially, the deadline was set to December 31st. I was expecting that people could use their Christmas presents and Christmas holidays, but it was pointed out that it would be colliding with the Lego exhibition at Railroad Kingdom, where some of the builders had their parts blocked as displays. So the deadline was extended to Sunday 15th, 2012. Unfortunately, that still turned out not to be enough as some people started asking for another extension in early January. And others were strictly against it, claiming that they had a hard time building and finishing on time. So I decided for a poll - if more then 75% voters (from all forum members who wanted to vote) agreed for extension by January 10th, I would approve extension of deadline to end of January. Well, as you might have guessed, it was EXACTLY 75. And since the rules were set as "more then", the deadline remained. Which actually turned quite interesting, as the winner claims that when he learned there was not going to be any extension, he actually took 2 days off at his work, so that he could finish on time.