BaHaRa wrote:we have sent emails and withdrawn from the competing section of fanime and some others just now. we all very much wish to compete at otakon, since we have attended the last 2 years and have had a video in it before. We never planned on submitting to PCM, but after reading one of the replies scott made on the PCM thread that said something about it being a small con and just needed some submissions, and that they did not care if videos had been submitted elsewhere at the same time. We didnt really see any fault in it and didnt think it would anger so many people.
our intentions weren't to troll, and we apologize for what has happened. We are removing ourselves from several competitions, but we are just not willing to give up on otakon, and i really hope we make it
OK, no offense, but- if Otakon was that important to you (you're making it sound like it is
the con you wanted to compete in and everything else is just secondary...) why did you submit it to so many cons beforehand- especially knowing (as anyone submitting should- it's in the rules we're supposed to read) that Otakon has anti-trolling rules? It would have made
far more sense if Otakon were truly that important to have either kept it under wraps or simply just not entered it anywhere else. PCM isn't as much the problem here- it's a fairly small con, and they needed more entries. If it had just been entered there and won, most of us would probably not be having this discussion. But before that the video was entered into (and won) AniMazement and A-Kon, and at least A-Kon is a rather good-sized and well-known con- it's been around for 14 years, after all (sorry, I don't have attendance numbers handy).
Most of the editors here, when it comes to large, high-profile cons like Otakon, will make entries
just for it, and then enter other contests with the video afterwards if it doesn't win and they still want to compete with it. I would hazard a guess that most of the videos from editors who have won in previous contests (period) that are entered at Otakon have never been seen by a large audience before. I
know that's the case for several of the higher-profile editors, and it's at least in part to avoid the appearance of impropriety when it comes to trolling.
Was there any way to really know that video would do so well? In truth, no- it's impossible to predict what will happen in most contests. But after the reactions your previous video got, you had to realize that you have at
least some semblance of skill and a decent shot at winning with the new one. I just really have a hard time buying the "But Otakon is
soooo important to us" argument in this case. Otakon is really important to a
lot of other editors who have not already won at 3 previous contests with their entry and have held their entries until now, and at least to me it doesn't seem fair-
especially in a contest like Otakon where the chances of even making the contests as so low- for one of them to to potentially lose even the chance to compete before the audience because of it.
My opinions aside- I don't control what happens with the Otakon contest, only Matt to an extent does, along with the pre-screeners for the contest. If this video makes it through all the hoops to get into the contest, then that's the way things are, and if I lose to it (since depending on how my entry and this one are categorized, we could be in the same category), I'll not bitch about it too much, if at all. Things at contests don't always go along with what each of us individually consider right- but it's a part of life in general, and something we just have to accept and move on.
