[Sidepot]

8/8 Update:

Magus_23 is the champion!



The four contestants in the final four were:

• Magus_23
• imthatguy
• Fins
• Johnny5

Not a bad talent pool, eh?

May the best chip line win!

Protege Contest

Progress to date:

• Mold: Cigar & Snifter
• Weight: 9.7+ grams
• Default Edge Spots & Colors: Decided, see below.
• Shaped Inlays: 99% confidence on availability
• Inlay Design: On deck. Initial submission deadline is July 2nd. Final submission deadline is July 17th (NOTE: This changed from the 10th to the 17th to allow for a longer discussion/feedback phase)

Complete Official Protege Contest Rules Can Be Found Here


Inlay Design Voting Schedule (tentative) - Changed on 7/17
This may change a bit... never know what will come up, and with the CT site acting a little buggy, we may need to adjust the voting times, but here's what I'm thinking.

• Monday, 17th (midnight PST - end of day, not beginning) - Final submission deadline
• Tuesday 18th 9am PST - Start a 24hr general election poll to determine seeding for the face-off rounds. No one gets eliminated here, just seeding is determined, and the front-runners may become evident.
• Wednesday 19th 10am PST - 24 hr Face-offs polls for round 1 (Cut the field from 24 to 12)
• Date TBD - 24 hr Face-offs polls for round 2 (Cut the field from 12 to 6)
• Date TBD - 72 hr (to account for the weekend) Face-offs polls for round 3 (Cut the field from 6 to 3)
• Date TBD - Announce the final 3 + an optional 4th as selected by Sidepot. These will be the final four, and we'll give them a week or so more of feedback/tweaking (if desired), and they'll also each be able to put together different edge spot configurations and colors for their set (if desired).
• Date TBD- If any contestants submit an alternative edge spot / color pattern for their chip line, we'll face that off against their same inlay on the default color set. Which ever one is favored by the group will be their color set.
• Date TBD - 24 hour Semi-Final face-off polls (cut the final four to two)
• Date TBD - 24 hour Championship face-off poll, where we crown the Protege Inlay Design Contest Winner!

*********************************
Inlay Submissions Received (as of noon July 3rd) = 21

Current Protege Contestants

• #1 - imthatguy
• #2 - grath
• #3 - Fins
• #4 - cmoses
• #5 - Magus_23
• #6 - DoubleDeuce
• #7 - Rowlin
• #8 - beowulfe
• #9 - BrakeDust
• #10 - JM
• #11 - 9_baller
• #12 - Stank1000
• #13 - JumpingJack
• #14 - mizuchaud
• #15 - Poboy
• #16 - OnTheButton
• #17 - agalvan
• #18 - JT-Bird
• #19 - PinataUT
• #20 - VegasMike
• #21 - Johnny5 NEW!

Final submission date is midnight July 17th, so new submission may be made at any time up until that point. As they come in, we'll create a thread for them. From the initial "show of hands" of who would be submitting a design, there are still about 20 that haven't yet submitted as follows:

Post	Designer
2	tastic
6	Rakdesign
13	burnvalley
18	Thosefive
21	21player
25	faker
26	BlondWidow
27	Matthew
28	scottwire
35	Trav
36	demars45
39	mumpsman
46	WINTERS
47	Justin6587
49	BigKyle
57	zbme
61	Mok
70	michael000
71	Seitz333

And, of course, any new person who would like to participate and submit may do so at any time up until the 17th.

Default Color Set (Thanks to everyone who participated in the color selection process. It took almost 2 months, and a ton of effort from all involved, but IMHO the colors turned out better than I anticipated. It was a true gentlemans contest, and a pleasure to administer. Congrats to all who participated, not just the individual chip winners!)



********************
Inlay Submissions
********************

IMPORTANT NOTE TO CONTEST PARTICIPANTS: Full and exclusive rights to all design submissions belong to Sidepot Gaming Company
By submitting a design in the Protege contest, Contestants are giving the exclusive and worldwide rights of their design to the Contest sponsor, Sidepot Gaming Company. The full and exclusive rights of the winning design will remain the property of Sidepot in exchange for the $750 fee paid to the winner (cash or merchandise). Additionally, Sidepot retains rights for 60 days to, and has a 60-day option from the announcement of the Contest winner to, purchase the full and exclusive worldwide rights to any of the two or three non-winning designs that make it to the semi-final round for a $400 fee paid to the contestant. The rights to all design submissions that do not make it to the semi-final voting round (either by election of Participants or at Sidepot’s option following the general election) will be returned to the individual Contestants at the conclusion of the semi-final voting round.

Official inlay submission process:

• No Prior Discussion: There will be no discussion prior to submissions (to avoid any issues of who thought of what first, and who owns what)
• "Initial" Submission Deadline: All initial submissions should be in by midnight PST July 2nd (don't worry - changes will be allowed to submissions up until the "Final" submission deadline) and PM'd to both Sidepot and TenPercenter. The initial submission is primarily for purposes of "staking your claim" to an idea/concept and/or original artwork representation.
• Submission Content: Submissions should include relevant supporting images and, if desired, a brief text description of the inlay concept. Concepts are OK as submissions at this point, and this is what you should do if you want to "stake your claim" on a particular idea/concept. Of course, there may be close duplicates, but the blind submission process should ensure nobody has "copied" anyone else at this point. What constitutes an adequate initial submission is largely dependent on each Contestant’s design concept. An initial submission of one design is fine for concepts where the only thing that varies from chip to chip is the denomination, while A/B design concept submissions should include two designs, one for the front and back, and multi-design concept submissions should provide 3 or more designs (whatever is necessary to adequately convey the concept). And, obviously, once someone has staked claim to an idea/concept, blatant copying will be very transparent and likely frowned upon. The community will self-police such discretions.
• Official Public Unveiling: All initial submissions will be posted live to the CT board the morning of July 3rd. Each submission will get it's own thread, and discussion and "constructive criticism" is welcomed.
• Concept/Idea Discussion Thread: Closely following the public unveiling, a separate thread specifically for inlay concepts/ideas will be started. Ideas posted in this thread are "public domain". If you don't want to add an idea/concept to the public domain, don't submit it publically in this thread or in any exclusive contestant thread. Any ideas submitted in this thread or in any exclusive contestant thead can be used by anyone. What credit and/or compensation is given to the original idea and/or originating person is 100% at the discretion of the person who ultimately submits something from a posted idea/concept. The social norms of the board will be suffice to police this, but the default premise is that "Ideas/concepts by themselves are essentially worthless. Executing on an idea/concept is where the value is created". If this doesn't sit well with you, it may be best to refrain from posting publically, and instead to rely on PM and other means of private communication.
• Shaped Inlay Concerns: For the purposes of the inlay design contest, we are assuming that true punched/shaped inlays (not printed shapes) can be done at this point. If it turns out that shaped inlays are not possible, we will have to revert all shaped inlay submissions to round ones. If this transpires, designers will be given ample opportunity to modify their designs to accommodate the inlay shape changes. As more information on the reality of the shaped inlay situation becomes available we'll share it here.
• Copyright Infringement Concerns: Anything that is too close to a protected image (trademarked image, service mark, person's face, etc.) is at risk of being disqualified, but the disqualification will come in the later stages of the competition. With over 40 potential submitters, and designs that may change with community feedback, we can not "pre-judge" any submissions (sorry, but no upfront guarantees that you're image gets the green light), so use your best judgement and heed the following guidelines:
  1. Any person's face or identity will need sign-off from that person.
  2. No pornographic images (not that I even need to mention this)
  3. Anything that looks too close (less than 30% different - yes, it's intentionally vague) to an existing protected image will most likely be turned down (totally at the discretion of the manufacturer, to be judged as we get down to the final few contestants)
  4. Specifically, anything that looks too close (less than 30% different) to an existing casino chip will more than likely be turned down (For you "Coming to America" fans, no, McDougal-types will probably not get thru).
• Final Submission Format: Final inlay submissions must be on the default chip edge spots and colors (later on during the competition, designers may tweak the colors and edge spot should they choose). Final inlay submissions must be made utilizing the Chip Factory on Sidepot. Please follow the instructions for uploading your inlay graphic to the chips. The chip factory is located at: http://www.sidepot.com/poker_chip_factory/tool.html
• "Final" Submission Deadline: New submissions from CT members will be accepted after July 3rd, and existing submissions may be changed, up until midnight PST Monday, July 17th. At that point, all submissions should be in a "Final Submission Format". New submissions should be PM'd to both Sidepot and TenPercenter, whereupon they will create a thread for that submission. Modifications to existing submissions should be done within that entries exclusive thread. Submitters can make any changes they like, and make take suggestions from the community.
• Inlay Size Guidelines: The Cigar & Snifter mold is designed for a round 7/8ths inch inlay as it has a slight topographical depression designed to fit that size inlay . That is the inlay that will look most natural in the chip mold. Nonetheless, inlay size is entirely up to each Contestant. Any shaped inlays will have to be at the 7/8ths size. If your design utilizes a size larger than 7/8ths, the chip factory won't work for your mock-ups. Use whatever means necessary to get your submission to look close to the result the chip factory produces (special thanks to X-Files and Johnny5)
• Thematic Guidelines: The theme should be that of luxury, style, opulence, or something signifying high class. Think Bellagio or the Palms, not Treasure Island or the Luxor. . This doesn’t mean the design has to be void of all thematic elements rather just that it does not rely too heavily upon one. The Starbucks logo is a good example of this. While their logo has a mermaid in it, people don’t think of mermaids when they think of Starbucks. They think of the experience of the coffee house.

Upon the midnight July 17th final submission deadline, TenPercenter will re-assume the contest administration duties for the remainder of the Protege contest.

Enjoy! This should be a lot of fun, and if the participation in the color selection was any indication, we're in for some great design concepts!

[boondocker96]

(ding-ding!)


lets Get It On!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JM]

In what format should submissions be PM'd to you & ten? .jpg, .png, imageshack link?

[Sidepot]

Originally Posted by JM

In what format should submissions be PM'd to you & ten? .jpg, .png, imageshack link?

Imageshack link would be ideal - so the PM can just be copied and pasted into a new thread.

[Magus 23]

Glad to see how much thought went into finalizing the process. I can't wait to get this part rolling -- as much to see what everyone comes up with as to have my own shot at the "prize"!

Best of luck to everyone in this!

[VegasMike]

Design submitted via PM's...

Great job running the contest thus far.

[Poboy]

Originally Posted by Sidepot

[*]No Prior Discussion: There will be no discussion prior to submissions (to avoid any issues of who thought of what first, and who owns what)

No discussion in this forum, or at all? What if I post my design in the chip mockup forum?

[Sidepot]

Originally Posted by Poboy

No discussion in this forum, or at all? What if I post my design in the chip mockup forum?

Poboy - I'd prefer no public discussion at all prior to the initial submissions. I've set up the process so we'll have over a week of discussion/feedback. Just trying to avoid any "I had this idea first; You stole my idea; etc..) Your initial submission can be as little as a simple concept. Obviously, if you want to post outside of this Protege area, there is no way to police it and if you feel very strongly about the need for it, ultimately it's your idea/concept so I can't tell you what to do at all really.

[DoubleDeuce]

Side--I just sent you a PM.

Also will it help any if I use Illustrator for the final format?

And will you be able to provide the Pantone swatches for the chip colors and edge spots?

[Poboy]

Originally Posted by Sidepot

Poboy - I'd prefer no public discussion at all prior to the initial submissions. I've set up the process so we'll have over a week of discussion/feedback. Just trying to avoid any "I had this idea first; You stole my idea; etc..) Your initial submission can be as little as a simple concept. Obviously, if you want to post outside of this Protege area, there is no way to police it and if you feel very strongly about the need for it, ultimately it's your idea/concept so I can't tell you what to do at all really.

My reason for asking is that I have a few not fully thought out designs. Since we can't submit more than one, I was going to get feedback on which was worth taking further. I wouldn't want to be disqualified for putting up my designs though.