[CCOS] April Results are here at last!

It's that time again ladies, gents, and assorted disembodied spirits of mischief! The CCOS results are in and we have not one but TWO winners for this month. We'll get into that in a moment, but first give a resounding round of applause to our two judges. By and far they have been the best judges I have had the privilege to work with. These guys not only gave an immense amount of feedback but they got it to me super quick!

Dyslexai and Auryiel!

You guys both rock.

#A Brief Note

I am up to my ears and running around campus like a headless chicken wrapping up my spring semester over here at VT. As such I haven't had time to address a few things in their own posts, so I wanted to point out two important things about the CCOS here at the top and a little more bluntly than I'd like.

1. Judges are a precious commodity, and like all great things they're always in short supply. This creates issues. As awesome as Dyslexai and Auryiel were this month they are still two people and two judges (3 if I had time myself), which means a total score of 200 and more weight on their individual opinions and preferences. This leads to more ties and a more (innocently and unavoidably) bias scoring. I've made tons of changes to the CCOS's structure to accommodate judges as easily as possible, but this will always be a problem if no one signs up in the first place!

2. The feedback that is given both in the scoresheet below and throughout the competition by judges or otherwise are there as tools for assistance. Critique usually means suggestions and pointing out flaws with a concept and that is understandably hard to hear about something you've worked hard on. Even so, keep an open mind to what others (judges or otherwise) have to say, provided they're being respectable about it, and use your best judgment to respectfully agree or disagree. At the end of the day it's still your concept. This is the first month I've noticed this being an issue in a CCOS entry (you know who you are) and I wanted to remind everyone that mutual respect is something core to the concept community here. Whether you're the one giving or receiving the critique.

#Now that that's done....

Here's a gif of a puppy. Everyone loves puppies.

http://media3.giphy.com/media/f8s3dJugoJZZK/giphy.gif

Oh yeah, and the winners too. I'm getting to that :P

You've given your thanks to the judge and beared with me in my less-than-exciting ramblings, so it's only fair I tell you who has won the CCOS in the glorious month of April! Oh yes, you heard me right, there is a tie! Again!

The winners of the April CCOS are:

#Ronin, The Blademaster by Arcane Flux

AND

#Heneshenasharadaan, Drihten of Pinnacle by Fury and Emperor

both at a score of 179/200 (89.5%)!

Congratulations! As I mentioned before I am super busy at the moment, and I actually haven't even gotten the medal gif from last month out yet. But luckily with finals ending next week I'll have oodles of time to render gifs then, so be on the lookout for your prizes late next week!

#Runner-ups

|Place|-----------------------------Concept----------------------------------|------------Author-------------|---------Score-------- |- |2 | Kain The Sin Collector | The Red Goat | 172/200 (86%) | |3 | Alice, The Black Star | Secluded Death | 166/200 (83%) | |4 | Fog, The Psychomancer | LeachimKorruts | 162/200 (81%) | |4 | Horux and Horax, Pallbearers |Raptamei | 162/200 (81%) |

#And YOU get something, and YOU get something!

Don't fret if you didn't make the leaderboards, you'll still be entered into the CCOS Official Archive as well as a good chance at getting some useful feedback to your concept from this month's judges.

Find your concept's feedback here! Steps to access:

1. click link
2. page 1 (Final Count) is a quick way to see all the scores, switch to Page 2 (Judging) by clicking the tab at the bottom. This is where the specific feedback is.
3. be sure to scroll to the right to find the feedback for your concept. The spacing can get weird do don't be afraid to zoom out a bit to scroll more evenly!

Be sure to tell me of you have any trouble accessing the document, I'll be sure to help out as much as I can and can give you your score directly if needed.

#Next Month!

Judges. Always need em! E-mail me at '[email protected]' with your IGN (in-game username) if at all interested. There's absolutely no harm in giving it a shot! All you need is an interest in concepts, time and an opinion. So unless you're an old time-locked wizard or a unfeeling monstrosity from another dimension you're eligible to judge!

Also, to note on this. There is absolutely no harm in giving judging a shot but having to walk away for whatever reason, time constraints, family, emergencies or otherwise. This all purely voluntary at all points in the process, the only catch is I can only use the scores of someone who finished all the concepts.

#Addendum

As always, please don't hesitate to suggest improvements or give feedback to any point of the CCOS. What problems you have and what you'd like to see out of it. I may be busy now, but I promise I will get back to you on anything along those lines. If you'd prefer to discuss it privately feel free to e-mail me at '[email protected]' as well.