A&S Guild Makers’ Madness

With the Frithstow being postponed due to COVID-19, the A&S Guild has decided to host a virtual competition where contestants battle for ultimate glory, and cash - BUT THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. Brand new to Markland, courtesy of the pandemic, we give you the A&S Guild Makers’ Madness, a three month long battle pitting the best of the best against one another. Intrigued? You should be.

An  entry fee of $5.00 buys you a spot in the competition. Once entered,  your name will be assigned a spot in a bracket and you will have to  battle your opponent and win your way through to the next round (picture a March Madness bracket. Got it? Same thing.)

Your  battle item will be your craft. You can make, sing, illustrate, or filk  your way through the rounds, knocking down opponents right and left  until you claim your victory!

Your  crafts will be judged in a double-blind battle by a panel of judges so  secret, they don’t even know they’re judging the contest yet. Basically,  you will need to send (1) pictures or video of your crafted item and  (2) a brief description of your item to me (via email or FB Messenger)  by a certain time and I will send them on to the judges. Judges will  pick winners of each battle, and those contestants will move on to the  next round, until only one lucky maker remains standing. AND THERE CAN  BE ONLY ONE! Judges will be judging on aesthetics and applicability to  Markland, and pretty much whatever else floats their boat.

So what’s the catch? There’s always a catch.

The  catch is: the further you get in the competition, the less time you  have to work on your project. And of course, your competitors are  fiercer. Oh, and did we mention you can’t submit the same project twice?  You can, however, submit projects in stages, as long as you build on  the original project in a materially different way - and using a  different set of skills. For example, if you spun wool for round 1, you  could dye it for round 2, and naalbind the yarn into a hat for round 3.

Now  you may be saying to yourself, this sounds AMAZING (because it does),  but you mentioned cash earlier? That’s right - first place winner gets  50% of whatever the competition brings in. And bragging rights. Second  place winner gets 25%. And the Guild keeps the rest.

So there are a few rules, but not many. 1 - All crafts must be “substantially completed” in 2021. Honor system folks. 2  - As stated early, you can only enter a project once, unless is is  materially different and you demonstrate a new set of skills (your brief  write up should probably mention this, so the judges know) 3 - Your  craft must be usable in Markland: It does NOT have to be medieval or  period, it could be something useful to camp instead. 4 - Nothing  edible. Judges can’t taste food through pictures, unfortunately.  However, if this works out we are totally doing the edible version of  this at a war. Promise. 5 - Please, no identifying images or marks in  your photos. This is to keep it fair. If you sing, sing off camera. If  you have to model garb, put it on a stand. Or edit your head out of the  picture. 6 - Anything written, please limit it to two pages. 7 -  If you can’t complete your craft in time, we understand. It is a pandemic and everything is crazy right now. That’s ok. We would ask that you  submit a (short) article about what you intended to do, along with any pictures, so we can use it in the Plague.

Almost lastly - the dates:

From now to January 30 (Althyng) start working on those crafts! And register! Send your name and $5 via PayPal (lisenm023@gmail.com) or  Venmo (@Todd-Minetti). Saturday January 30 @ midnight - Registration CLOSES Tuesday February 2 - Brackets will be posted on Facebook Thursday  February 11 @ midnight - Round One Submissions are due to  lisenm023@gmail.com or to Lisen via FB Messenger Monday February 15 - Brackets will be updated on Facebook Thursday  March 4 @ midnight - Round Two Submissions are due to  lisenm023@gmail.com or to Lisen via FB Messenger {THREE WEEKS FROM CLOSE OF  ROUND ONE} Monday March 8 - Zoom Meeting to unveil the Round Two winners and brackets will be updated on Facebook Thursday  March 18 @ midnight - Round Three Submissions are due to  lisenm023@gmail.com or to Lisen via FB Messenger {TWO WEEKS FROM CLOSE OF  ROUND TWO} Monday March 22 - Zoom Meeting to unveil the Round Three winner(s) and brackets will be updated on Facebook

If needed: Thursday  March 25 @ midnight - Round Four Submissions are due to  lisenm023@gmail.com or to Lisen via FB Messenger {ONE WEEK FROM CLOSE OF  ROUND THREE} Wednesday, March 31 - Zoom Meeting to unveil the Round Four winner(s) and brackets will be updated on Facebook (Dates may change slightly depending on how many people enter, and, life)

Lastly, lastly: If we have enough kids who show interest in this (16 and  under), Lisen will create a kids only bracket that will be FREE for the kids, and all kids will get a prize, but the higher they place, the better the prize. Note, if a kid wants to compete in the other one, that  is totally fine, but they can’t compete in  both with the same project(s).