A Short Preamble
If there’s one thing that my darling Tobberz taught me, it’s that no good forum post is complete without a paragraph of preamble. Now, it’s been 2 years, 4 months and 14 days (at the time of writing) since we last hosted a build-off on our humble little server, and I for one feel that we are well overdue another one. With the server being at a nice, steady rate of active players recently, and an influx of new green named builders, I thought what better timing than now? Strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. Now let’s get onto our theme for this competition.
Theme
For this build-off, we have chosen the Theme of Beorn’s Hall. Whilst shown only briefly in the movie adaptations of The Hobbit, this location is a good place to show off some nice, naturalistic scenery, and has the potential to produce some beautifully decorated pieces. I will include as much reference as I can, both in official and non-official images, and from Tolkien’s writing in The Hobbit. To begin with, you can read up on though this article on the Tolkien Gateway.
Competition Details
This competition will begin this Friday, the 13th of October until Sunday, the 5th of November. You’ll have three weeks, plus a bonus couple of days at the weekend of the deadline. This should give everyone a fair amount of time to finish their work, and hopefully no-one will feel they cannot compete as this is a length amount of time.
All entires should be built on our build server, at build.epicquestz.com. To get started, just head over to /warp buildcontest and then do /plot auto!
Some brief rules are as follows:
-One entry per player.
-Each entry must be built solo, no teaming up with your friends.
-Each entry must be original work, no copy/pasting an old build you might have made.
-Judges may enter, but will be excluded from the final judging (i.e. can build a plot for fun, but won’t be entered into the competition).
-As per our normal rules on the server: use your common sense. Don’t claim a plot just to build inappropriate structures.
Judging and Prizes
Judging will be kept in the same format as usual, with the panel of judges giving you a score for three categories: Originality, Artistic display, and Accuracy.
Originality will be scored from a 1-10. It refers to how unique your build is, whether you’ve added elements that make it stand out or not. For example, several years ago we had a Hobbiton built in a Soviet military style.
Artistic display will be scored from a 1-15, and is reletively self-explanatory: how good does it look?
Lastly, Accuracy will be scored from a 1-5 refers to how well you’ve followed Tolkien’s description of the place. Can you feel his words in your build? Whilst this is the lowest scoring category, to encourage more unique and exciting builds, it can still be an important one.
For your judge panel this time around, the lovely trio consists of:
@lee_yam11
Now, no competition is complete without a good incentive: the prizes. I’m sure most of you are aware that our beloved sister server, Empire War, has recently been opening its doors on their new, revamped server. So what better way to reward you than some lovely shiny Gold over there? You can use this to buy classes or boosters, and all you have to do is beat the competition. Easy right?
1st Place: 150 Gold.
2nd Place: 100 Gold.
3rd Place: 75 gold.
References
First, let’s see what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about Beorn’s Halls.
“They soon came to a wooden gate, high and broad, beyond which they could see a cluster of low wooden buildings, some thatched and made of unshaped logs: barns, stables, and sheds, and a long, low, wooden house.”
"On the southward side of the great hedge were rows and rows of beehives. The noise of the giant bees flying to and fro filled the air.
“Soon the reached a courtyard, three walls of which were formed by the wooden house, and its two long wings. In the middle there was a great oak-trunk with many branches beside it.”
“They found themselves in a large hall with a fireplace in the middle… They passed though this dim hall and into a sort of veranda propped on wooden posts made of single tree trunks.It was warm and filled with the light of the westering sun, which fell golden on the garden full of flowers that came right up to the steps.”
And to finish: some images. It’s important to note that your entires need not look exactly like any of these images, they should only be viewed as inspiration, and an article to take note of whilst building.
Closing
That’s all from me today folks. If you have any questions at all, please drop in my discord DMs, or in the EpicQuestz discord server. See you around, and happy building!
