Friday, April 3, 2020

Home Questing First Task - Results

by Christopher "Janus" Donnelly 

Hello, and welcome to the judging of the first task, which as a reminder was to make a stack of objects, and the most impressive stack would win.  We got a total of nine entries (plus my own entry which was to be used in case we had less than 5 to help keep someone from getting a ton of easy points with no competition.)  In addition to the entries, I have Faelinn here as this week’s secret guest judge. So, let’s take a look at these in the order that they came in.

First on the list is Vanduke's entry:


This was actually cut down from a large series of videos that he sent in, which was a scathing commentary on hoarding goods in this day and age.  Unfortunately, I had to cut the footage down to only one of the many stacks of hoarded goods being ferreted out, which resulted in that video.  All in all, a nice stack.


The next entry is Kwido’s Entry:


According to his notes, each of these cards measure an impressive 92cm x 68cm x 5mm, and they would be hard to gather together.  In addition, there is a fantastic pun of Magic Cards and “The Stack” that could potentially be used here.  Unfortunately, while the materials of the stack are quite impressive, the stack itself isn’t as impressive.


Following this is Tarun Ul-Sikar’s entry:


Oh my Goya’d, that is one large stack.  It seems to be up to my nose.  For height itself, it is rather impressive, as is how straight the stack is.


Next up is King Alexander Cecil’s entry:


It does seem to have a lot of time and care put into it, and appears really large and impressive at first, but if you take a closer look at it, you will discover that it’s actually just really really close.  While it is a well executed stack, I am not sure “Impressive” is the right word for it.


Now, for Thoril’s entry, I will let him speak for himself:


“This stack, purely constructed of acorns,  shall be known as the great acorn reserve of the realms. No longer will Spellcasters need fear the Tyranny of the dreaded spell quest of Sir Sean of Creathorne of searching for 100 acorns EVEN though it is never acorn season when tasks it!
Stand with me my fellow spellcasters let us stand together and vote for the acorn reserve stack and never fear the acorns again!”

That sure is functional Thoril.


After Thoril’s entry comes DelHemar.


His entry I find quite impressive myself.  While I am not sure where it is in terms of height compared to the stack of Goya, the lack of a uniform item really boosts it’s impressiveness to me.


Now comes Cressida, our second video entry:


Both Faelinn and I have said we have all been there.


Coming from Aeston, Areni, and Gwen is our last video entry of the week which they call the “Tower of Babble”


I feel this is the only stack that literally speaks on it’s own.


Now for the final entry, we have Saka:


After seeing this, I contacted Saka to see if there was a trick involved, and this was done as-is.  No trick to it.


And of course, my submission, which will subsequently be ignored because we had 5 or more entries:


So, let’s look at the judge’s Top 5 most impressive stacks:

Janus’s Top 5
5. Aeston, Areni, and Gwen (1 point) It’s so blinky...I can’t leave it off my top 5
4.  Tarun Ul-Sikar (2 points).  This was a really straight, decently tall stack.  I was kinda impressed.
3. Vanduke (3 points). I didn’t notice it at first, but that stack was higher than I expected.
2. DelHemar (4 points).  This is both really high, and more impressive because the smallest spice container was in the middle.
1. Saka (5 points)  I am very impressed.  I’m not sure if I could do this one myself.

Faelinn’s Top 5:
5. King Alexander Cecil (1 point)- It’s the most literal “stack” and a hipster photo.
4. Tarun (2 points) - This was impressive, but was narrowly beaten out by...
3. DelHamar (3 points) ...because the bases of this one are smaller.  Also, it is a spicy stack.
2. Saka (4 points) - This one was the most physics defying stack.
1. Cressida (5 points) -  This was the most “stacktastic” with stacks of boxes everywhere.


Now on to some bonus points we decided to hand out:

Cecil gets an extra half of a point for the most likely picture to be on Instagram.
Aeston, Areni, and Gwen get an extra half of a point for being the most likely to give Faelinn PTSD
Kwido earns the ”Most likely to clean out the basement because of comparable stuff” award for a half of a point.
And finally Thoril earns the award for making a stack out of the least stackable objects for a half of a point.

So with those points, and the 1 automatic point everyone earned for a submission, here are the scores after the first task:

1) Saka - 10 points
2) DelHamar - 8 points
3) Cressida - 6 points
4) Tarun Ul-Sikar - 5 points
5) Vanduke - 4 points
6) King Alexander Cecil - 2.5 points
6) Aeston, Areni, and Gwen - 2.5 points
8) Thoril - 1.5 points
8) Kwido - 1.5 points

Stay tuned later today when we find out the second task!