Video Contest Voting Amendments...

U SPOKE, WE LISTENED! Some of you pointed out (correctly) that a straight-up Facebook vote wouldn't be entirely fair to finalists who don't use it often, or might be too young to have many friends on the network who can vote. So after a long discussion with all 3 of our current video contest finalists, we all agreed to put the final determination of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Places to a vote by a special committee comprised of former video contest finalists along with several long-time Blitzball supporters who have genuine interest in making sure that the best contest video wins and also have no relation to any of the current finalists. The best contest video should always win PERIOD, and we felt that an independent committee vote by long-time Blitzball supporters would be the best and fairest way to do so. Each 1st Place vote will count for 4 points, 2nd Place = 2 points, and 3rd Place = 1 point. Once all of the votes are tallied (minimum of 12 vote responses), the committee decision becomes final and prizes will be given out according the following schedule: $900 for 1st Place, $700 for 2nd Place, $500 for 3rd Place. I like this more balanced prize structure because it should engender more support between competitors as well as members of our community (makes things less cut-throat) and more fairly reward all three competitors for a job well done. I think that these are important changes in our contest system (better late than never) and I expect them to become permanent for future competitions as well. I don't expect everyone to be 100% satisfied with these amendments, but I think that most would agree that this is an important step in the right direction. As always, feel free to chime in -- everyone's opinion is valued!