For those who wanted to know my reasons for challenging each of the judges, I actually had this all prepared for a speech, but due to time constraints, I couldn't do it.
Wired Knight (Sean): Sean and I worked together for 6 years (2003-2009) on the VG Projects and challenging him would be a good opportunity for him to get me back every time I nagged him saying "Is your video done yet? Is your video done yet?".
Challenging Sean would have been a good battle between former coordinator and subordinate. Plus being last year's AMV Chef winner, it would have been exciting to have him defend his title.
NightHawk (Kerry): Ever since Kerry started entering AX, I haven't had the opportunity to face off against him in my 5 year absence from the AMV contest and would have like to see how I would have fared against him. However, Kerry came up to me during the AMV 101 panel and said he wasn't really prepared. Kerry was actually going to be my 2nd choice, but I honored his request to decline.
Kisanzi (Matt): Matt's a hardened Iron Chef veteran and literally had a battle plan all laid out to defeat me.
Since Matt's been absent from editing for a while, it would have been a good opportunity to get him back into it and he would have given me the best challenge.
Rider4Z (Victoria): Ever since AX2006, I've owed Victoria a rematch, but I haven't been able to get into the contest since then (I didn't enter in 2007, and I've entered every year since 2008, but wasn't able to get in until now). Because of the ever changing nature of contests, especially AX's, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us to settle the score just in case neither of us made the contest in the future. Victoria was always my first choice, but I also contemplated challenging everyone else for the reasons I stated above.
As for her video, I just rewatched it and it's far better than she actually gives it credit for. It flows quite well, the scenes actually fit the mood, and was quite experimental with the multiple audio sources. I personally thought I was resorting to fan-pandering with mine, but I thought more of a con audience first over artistic merit and I thought Victoria's video had a bit more of artistic merit.
For next year, I'd like to return just as a regular judge and give someone else a shot so I can at least help with the "trainwreck" video and check out the audience participation stuff I missed.
Overall, the entire event looked like it was a blast for the audience and I'm glad it went over well.
