Winter Awards 2016: Official Nominees and User Voting

[AceTrainer14]

Hello once again! After a week of mildly enthusiastic voting, we have our collection of Official Nominees for this year's Winter Awards!

Best Journey:
Land of the Roses by @Eliza Prescott
A Sine of Things to Come: a Journey of Rediscovery by @chaos_Leader
Love and Other Nightmares by @diamondpearl876
Illumination by @VTP-Dawkins93

Best Expansion:
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Legends Unraveled by @lucarioknight56
Pokemon Island Sun by @LightningTopaz
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Ghosts of the Past by @GastlyGibus

Best Dark Fic:
Phantom Project by diamondpearl876
{some rise by sin} by @kintsugi

Best Crossover/Non-Pokémon Fic
Evanescence by @ArvAl
Bee-Nevolent by @TwinklingCupcake

Best Alternate:
Malegænt by @Constellation
Pokemon Academy Year III: Childhood's End by @Flaze
Flying in the Dark by diamondpearl876
Star Performer by @Fulcrum
Crossover Battles by Various

Best Protagonist:
Annie from Love and Other Nightmares
Andrea Dennison from Land of the Roses
Peter Sine from A Sine of Things to Come: a Journey of Rediscovery
Markus Samaras from Flying in the Dark
Reggie Damon from Pokemon Academy Year III: Childhood's End

Best Antagonist:
Silver from {some rise by sin}
The Monster from Malegænt

Best Supporting Character:
Kenneth Chitenay from Flying in the Dark
Bates from {some rise by sin}

Best Pokémon Character:
Senori from Phantom Project
Gaia from {some rise by sin}
Jolteon from A Sine of Things to Come: a Journey of Rediscovery

Congratulations to all the authors and best of luck over the coming judging period. I will remind you all that any chapters posted after this are not counted in the judging round. We also ask that you do not edit older chapters during the judging period – you may edit your first post for your table of contents, but any editing of recommend reading chapters or a large number of chapters may result in disqualification.
Speaking of, for all those who have stories that have moved on, you are now welcome to submit to us your recommended reading.

Spoiler

All of those people who have moved on, you now have the option to submit your recommended chapters. For those not in the know, these chapters help the judges with reading the longer stories in contention. The judges will read the first few and most recent chapters, but they cannot possibly read every chapter as they are volunteers with busy lives, so your chapter submissions will help make it easier for us to read your work. In order to submit, simply PM me the links to your chosen chapters. Here is how to link them properly; the formatting is up to you in this case.

Spoiler

Step One: Highlight the name of the story

Step Two: Click this icon

Step Three: Paste the link in the red box

Step Four: You’re done! It should look like this

Since I have made it so easy to do it this way, if links are not submitted this way your nominations will be ignored.

- You can submit four chapters if these chapters are of a reasonable length, and no more than two if your chapters are over 10,000 words. You have freedom with how many you can submit, but use your common sense: look at the length of the chapters in comparison to the length of the story and how many chapters there. Submitting four novella-length chapters will not win you any favours with the judges.

- You do not need to submit any chapters if your story is a one shot or there are only a small amount of chapters of a reasonable length. If you have eight or fewer chapters of a reasonable length (ie they don't total more than 20,000 words), you should not and do not have to submit all four chapters. If your story has over fifty chapters, you should use all four available.

- DO NOT submit your first chapter/prologue or your latest/last chapter as judges will read these regardless. If you have so few chapters that these are your best two, it likely means you don’t need to submit any.

- Please message these to me within 72 hours even if the chapters are the same as last time. Chapters not in by then will risk judging beginning and being done without them.

When it comes to choosing your chapters, you should find the ones that best convey the things that make your story shine rather than the chapters with the funniest lines or the biggest twists. If you excel at plot, character or style the most, highlight those areas with the chapters you select. Try your best to find the chapters that will make the judges want to read more, to learn more about your story and why it deserves an award. It may seem a given, but you will be surprised by what some people submit. If a character moved on, I would recommend submitting at least one that specifically highlights them.

Please note that if you do not submit recommend chapters (and should have) and win your category, your story cannot be taken into consideration for Best Story. This is because when our judges come to deliberate on the winner they need the option to read the recommended chapters of the other stories outside their category.

While we judges are working, the rest of you can vote for the three User Voted awards. You may vote for one user per category. I will let you know closer to the conclusion of judging how long you have left, but there are at least three weeks in which you can cast your votes. Good luck to these users as well!

Best Newcomer: @MatrixChap, @Mia Blaze
Best Reviewer: @System Error @Beth Pavell @Flaze, @AetherX, @diamondpearl876
Best Contributor: @AetherX @Eliza Prescott, @Constellation, @diamondpearl876, @Beth Pavell, @Fulcrum

Thanks to all that nominated and voted. Best of luck to everyone involved - may the votes be ever in your favour.

PS We are potentially in need of more judges, so anyone that has some spare time and would like to lend a hand reading just two stories, please PM me and let me know ASAP.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Best Newcomer: MatrixChap

Best Reviewer: Flaze

Best Contributor: Eliza Prescott

 

[kintsugi]

oh whaaaaaaaat! was so engrossed in doing my judging that I put this off, haha. sorry.

Best Newcomer: Mia Blaze
Best Reviewer: Beth Pavell
Best Contributor: Eliza Prescott

 

[Arkadelphiak]

Best Newcomer: MatrixChap
Best Reviewer: Beth Pavell
Best Contributor: Fulcrum

 

[Misfit Angel]

Gonna throw my hat in for:

Best Newcomer: MatrixChap
Best Reviewer: Beth Pavell

 

[AceTrainer14]

I am putting a 48 hour time limit on this. I would appreciate, and I am sure the nominated users would as well, if a few more people cast their votes so that there is a better sense of competition about it. It takes only a few seconds to post, so don't let time stop you sharing your support for your fellow writers!

 

[AetherX]

Best Newcomer: MatrixChap
Best Reviewer: diamondpearl876
Best Contributor: Beth Pavell

 

[AceTrainer14]

I am casting my votes - please note that I have not yet tallied anything up so am not voting with the scores in mind

Best Newcomer: Mia Blaze
Best Reviewer: AetherX
Best Contributor: Fulcrum

And with that, voting is now closed. We are waiting for just two more scores in the judging and then we will be deliberating, so expect results in the coming days! Thanks to everyone who voted.