Ladies and gentlemen,
My apologies for the delay in making this announcement - we have been having a lot of discussions about the OR Awards behind the scenes and, when you read the following, you'll understand why it's taken so long.
Firstly, and most importantly, we are changing the competition to run only
once a year. The reasons for this are simple. We want to make the competitions something extra-special, and running them annually can help this - it gives everyone a chance to really focus on the awards and give it their best shot.
By making this change, we are able to offer
first and second prizes in each category, including the Master Craftsman. We are also able to take away the rule that winners of the previous competition are not eligible to enter the next one.
So when will they start then?
June 1st will be the time that the entries will begin being accepted, and entries will close on 30th June, with voting to commence on the 1st of July for a period of 2 weeks.
Master Craftsman Changes
But we need to make a change to rules for the Master Craftsman category - mostly to try to encourage people to really excel. So the Master Craftsman category must now include the following:
- It must be a diorama and have a terrain element in it.
- There must be more than one figure in the entry, unless it is dramatically important to the scene to only have one.
Each year, the theme of the Master Craftsman will be chosen from a selection of chapters from Tolkien's books. We will list several chapter titles that you use to can draw inspiration from. The entry must be themed to a scene or inspired by a passage form the chapters mentioned. The chapters will be in sequence (and you should be able to work out what the next year's chapters will be too). If you've never read the books, then the equivalent phases of the movie are also acceptable.
This year's theme- A Long Expected Party
- The Shadow of the Past
- Three is Company
- A Short Cut of Mushrooms
- A Conspiracy Unmasked
- The Old Forest
- In the House of Tom Bomdadil
Hopefully, this will be the last significant change to the competitions. The intention is to make them into the best online competitions in the world, so get your paintbrush, grab your hobby knife, and make a special effort. There are great prizes up for grabs!