Mog Madness: Time For A Winner!

Someone jokingly asked me today if I was waiting to post the results to torture the final five contestants, and I assure you that was not my intent.  It’s just been one of those busy days.  But let’s get right to those Anti-Paladins, shall we?

Kamalia

JD: Someone’s mind is tuned in to YOGG-FM.  Great job here of getting the color of the sword into the rest of the outfit, and everyone knows my fondness of the “Predator” helm.  The shoulders here were a bit of a bold step (despite the belt and boots), but they’re successful.  The only thing I might have done differently is the model.  For some reason I kept thinking her midriff was some sort of undershirt and the bit off-colour in the chestpiece was her actual skin.  Then again it’s one of those “it’s not you, it’s me” things.

TotA: Well, this is proving to be not only the hardest round to judge but the scariest too. Between the looming shoulders and helm and that menacing weapon, I don’t think I’ve seen a more intimidating Tauren and that’s saying a lot! Yogg would approve!

Effy: WoW tested, Yogg approved?  This is one evil Paladin… and the idea of corrupting a Tauren is also quite intriguing, considering the honorable race they are.  I am impressed by the use of the bandage-shirt in several of the entries, and here it really works as a match in coloring to the sword (which is actually a demon sword, but looks far more Old God to me!).  I adore the shoulders, and they were a piece I really sought to incorporate into this Round myself, but I find that though the orange fires work perfect, the green is just slightly throwing my eyes off.  Overall, I find this outfit well thought out and exactly the mood we were looking for this Round.

Tolbi

JD: Yogg’s definitely got a first in command going here.  He strikes me as Azeroth’s version of Lord Soth.  I love the teeth in the belt, and the helm of course.  The chestpiece has always been one of my favourites in the game for plate, but I could never come up with a clever concept for it.  Well done!

TotA: This outfit does read like a Paladin outfit for me, but a Paladin I would never, ever want to meet up with, sheesh, just looking at it I’m hearing voices. I’d better move on, I don’t want to stare into that face too long. Just wonderfully scary outfit!

Effy: I really like this outfit, but I keep finding the texture of the boots throwing me off.  If it matched any of the textures of the other pieces better (especially the chest piece which is perfect and simple in this outfit) my eyes would flow better across this as a whole.  Aside from that one piece, I find this to be a perfect representation of what we were looking for in this Round.  Overall, I am enamored with the combination of colors and textures.

Reluctant Raider

JD: I’d never even seen the sword until this round and it’s a perfect fit for an Old God.  I’m really torn on this one.  I like the outfit and the colors, and I’m definitely feeling the evil Paladin vibe.  I’m not sure that I’m feeling “Old God” vibe though.

TotA: I love the colors in this outfit. I see creepy eyes staring out of the helm and then repeated in the belt, who knew you could turn a Paladin to the dark side like this. The weapon works beautifully for me and the seething shoulders, lovely or should I say evil. Don’t think she’d appreciate me calling her lovely, sorry. No offense meant, really, I’ll just back away now.

Effy: This outfit says Death Knight more to me than Old God.  Evil?  In spades.  Scary?  Definitely.  Old God like sword?  Check.  Perhaps the Troll model?  I cannot quite put my finger on it.  But I think this outfit complements its model well.  At first, the belt was catching my eye, but then it drew me to the sword and I realized how great the colors were together.  Overall, I think this is a great outfit that works really well, but not quite Old God.

Missescake

JD: Wow.  I know what voices this guy hears the loudest without question.  Phenomenal looking, taking the colors of AQ very well here.  While more demon than Old God, the helm actually works really well here.  In fact, I applaud the entire outfit.  The only thing I might have changed was the pants.  Perhaps something like Legplates of Radiant Glory?

TotA: Oh no, I always think of Draenei males as being stand-up guys, never evil. Apparently I was wrong. This one has moved to the dark side. The outfit captures the menace of someone who will carry out the orders of the Old God without question.

Effy: This does indeed capture a color scheme that says Old Gods.  It always fascinates (and saddens) me to see the corruption of WoW’s most Light-driven race, the Draenei.  I think my favorite part of this outfit is the helm – it exaggerates this Draenei’s own features and makes them more evil.  Overall, nice composition, though, I do agree with JD that my eyes are asking for different pants – either perhaps the Saltstone to match the chest or the pants that match the shoulders.  The colors all swirl together in a murky yet fitting combination.

Cymre

JD: I love Dark Edge of Insanity for creepy characters.  It suits this outfit well.  I might have liked to see more of the vein/flesh tone pop up, but it would have taken away from the excellent off-color of the gloves/belt/shoulders.  I love the helm, but I’m not sure about the Purple “Judgement” skirt, though it may just be the way it contorts for the Blood Elf.  On a Human I found it looked much better (though could be lower graphics of my WoW settings as well).

TotA: Oh this is worse, lovely AND creepy. Just looking at her I imagine the sounds of skittering feet behind me. This is one cruel yet beautiful evil Paladin. I love the colors and the weapon seems to reinforce the slithering, silithid feel of the outfit. Oh the voices, make them stop!

Effy: The more I review this outfit, the more I like it.  I am quite fond of the look of the purple Judgment set, and to have it twisted most evilly here, mostly by the weapon.  I picture her as a Paladin adventurer who stumbles across this axe in her travels and begins to hear the voices of C’Thun.  Overall, I think the colors complement one another very well throughout the outfit – right down to the gloves and belt, of which I like the slight change up.

Those are five absolutely great outfits.  Now, if you noticed at this stage I’ve actually refrained from including the usual judge scores as we went along.  The reason being, I didn’t want any possible spoilers as you read along the way.  Time to tally up the results.

Our third and fourth runners up respectively are Cymre (41.9) and Reluctant Raider (40.8).  Before I continue any further I want to thank both for their efforts through the whole contest and even in the finals.  Those are still solid scores and both had great outfits.  It speaks to the caliber of the final round.  A further testament to that is the remaining three were less than half a point apart!

Our second runner up, with a 42.5 is Missescake!  Again, a phenomenal outfit and just as with Cymre and Reluctant Raider I want to take the time to applaud her for an amazing outfit and solid outfits throughout the competition.  Very well done.

So that brings us to the final two.

• Both were listening to Yogg-Saron.
• Both were solid entries.
• One scored a 42.6 and the other a 42.9

And the winner is…

Congratulations to the first ever Mog Madness Champion!  I think everyone involved will agree that it was incredibly well-earned and there’s absolutely nothing negative to say regarding the runner up.  Just phenomenal outfits all around.  For those wondering, here was the complete voting breakdown:

1. Tolbi (Effy – 14.1)(Tome – 14.4)(JD – 14.4)
2. Kamalia (Effy  – 14.1)(Tome – 14.3)(JD – 14.2)
3. Missescake (Effy – 14.1)(Tome – 14.2)(JD – 14.2)
4. Cymre (Effy – 14.4)(Tome – 13.9)(JD – 13.6)
5. Reluctant Raider (Effy – 13.3)(Tome – 13.8)(JD – 13.7)

There you have it.  Even in the grand scheme of things the finals were 2.1 points apart from top to bottom.  It caps off over a month of just wonderful transmogrifications.  From the first round entries, to Tolbi’s winning design, I hope everyone is proud of their work.  To have come up with this and have it turn out the way it did is amazing.  But I will share my full thoughts in tomorrow’s post.  For now, we have another matter to attend to.

Tolbi is our (pageant?) winner and it came out last week that there is, in fact, a prize for first place.  I want to say without sounding corny that getting to be a part of this was an awesome prize for me, no matter how hard it was.  But, the judges all agreed that the contestants all worked hard to look good in-game with what we gave them.  As such, we figured it’s only right the prize involve looking good out of game.  So, congratulations to Tolbi on winning a 25 dollar gift certificate for J!nx.  It’s like they new, too, as they just released their new spring line. You’ll have to let the community know what you ended up picking up!

So, I guess that brings us to a close.  It feels really strange to say that, to be honest with you.  Over a month of transmogging and judging and a couple late nights for judging and entries I have no doubt.  It just seems strange that I’m not posting a guideline after this.  The good news is that something else is already in the works.  I’ll touch on it a bit more in my post tomorrow, but keep your eyes out because you’ll get plenty of notice.

I’d like to close by thanking Tome and Effy for joining me on the judges panel and all 26 contestants for taking part.  Putting your work out there for scrutiny can be hard, especially with the hard work and pride you put into it.  Thanks so much for taking that risk with Mog Madness.

…if this were a show, the closing credits would start rolling…