The 2017 Arena Champion!

[James]

THE 2017 ARENA

After 22 stories, dozen of reviews, and four rounds, we have a new Arena Champion. The winner of the 2017 Arena, in a close fought match, is:

Ad Absurdum (Sam)

Congratulations, Ad, on a hard-fought victory!

As well as a victory in the team competition, Ad has been a finalist before, so it's great to see him pull out a win. The -exact- same could be said for his opponent too, Ink, though. So bittersweet; you both would have been deserving winners.

This Arena had a few drop-outs, but ultimately I think we can put it down as a success. As an aside, this is the second competition in a row where we had an admin-free final. Which I think is great. Here is how the competition went down:

Round One
72 Hours:
Entry One (Sensar) – 10pts
Entry Two (Pete) – 18pts
Entry Three (Sam) – 14pts
Drop-out: Matteo

Deaders:
Entry One (Schro) – 19pts
Entry Two (Sawyer) – 8pts
Entry Three (Alex) – 15pts
Drop-out: Joe

Tokyo Towers:
Entry One (Silver) – 4pts
Entry Two (Ink) – 15pts (won on tiebreak)
Entry Three (Adam) – 15pts
Entry Four (Kwan) – 8pts
(So, Sensar voted right at the bell and I neglected to count his votes. Before Sensar voted, it was Ink 14, Adam 12. In the end, it worked out fine because I would have picked Ink on the tiebreak anyway. If I would have voted for Adam, I would have just neglected to tell you all of this...)

Round Two
Forum Comes:
Entry One (Sam)
Drop-out: Silver & Sawyer

Paliomembus:
Entry One (Alex)
Drop-out: Kwan & Matteo

St Kilda:
Entry One (Sensar) – 2pts
Entry Two (Adam) – 10pts
Entry Three (Joe) – 6pts

Semi-Finals
Memory Girl:
Entry One (Pete) – 1pt
Entry Two (Sam) – 4pts
Drop-out: Adam

Impossible Void:
Entry One (Alex) – 4pts
Entry Two (Ink) – 7pts
Entry Three (Schro) – 1pt

Final
Entry One (Ink) - 3pts
Entry Two (Sam) - 4pts

As we reach the end of this competition, I want to direct your attention to the revived Monthly Assignment and, of course, the King of the Recluse competition. I also want to repeat what I said at the end of the last competition:

I really urge you all to keep writing even when we don’t have competitions. Write the things you want to write, not what a competition demand of you. Post it up on the forum and get feedback from people. Read the stuff people post on the forum and give them feedback. Competitions are fun, but there’s no reason the writing should stop because they are in hibernation. 

Whether you’re aiming to be published or you do this as a hobby, or even just as therapy: just write and make art. 

You did a great job, everyone. There were some really impressive stories. Those that stick out in my mind are Ink and Adam's stories in Tokyo Tower and Adam's St Kilda story. But a lot more stories inhabited a “good” area.

Hope to see some great stories in the Assignment! And, again, congratulations, Sam!

[Jenny (Reffy)]

Massive congratulations to Sam! Is quite the achievement.


Relevant: www.uarts.edu/neil-gaiman-keynote-address-2012

Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do.

Make good art.

I'm serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it's all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn't matter.

Do what only you do best. Make good art.

Neil Gaiman

[Ad Absurdum]

Thanks a ton! Had a blast writing. As noted in the Skype chat, my favourites of the competition were Ink's Void, Ink's Tokyo, and Adam's Tokyo. Highly recommend them all...as well as Neil Gaiman.