Years have passed since the Navy has run a proper competition.  That hiatus ends today.

I am pleased to announce the official opening of the first annual Post-Holidays Activity-Boosting Competition, a.k.a. PHAB Comp.



Rules:

Every member of the Navy on active duty will be graded on his/her contributions over the next calendar month, irl (competition ends at midnight on February 7th, 2013, PST).  Contributions may be in any/all of the following five categories: writing, graphic design, gaming, sportsmanship, and miscellaneous (details below).

This is a competition designed not only to boost activity (as the title suggests), but also to build teamwork within the Division.  As such, the competition is structured so that the Navy's various "units" are competing, rather than every individual member in a free-for-all.  A unit is defined as a Starfighter Squadron (Chlovi Cat, Vornskyr, Strill, etc.) or as a crew section aboard a capital ship (the Command crew of any capital ship, made up of the independent SCAPs, or the more specialized sections like Medical, Command, Engineering, etc. aboard Adjudicator).  Each individual member's score will be averaged with those of his/her "teammates" - that is to say, the other members in his/her unit - and bonuses will be given for working with your teammates (a single independent SCAP can more easily rack up points for his/her "unit," since it's a one-person unit, but that doesn't really show off teamwork; by contrast, a squadron that works with each other will get multipliers to their points to offset the difficulty of coordinating lots of people).

Contribution categories:

Writing: All posts will be graded on a ten point scale, and will be judged on five criteria.  1: Plausibility: each post must make sense and maintain versimilitude; justify the choices you make as a writer, or make different ones.  2: Relevance: each post must advance the plot of the story in some way, or clarify a still-developing situation; no fluff posts, and no long passages of filler.  3: Mechanics: each post must be reasonable free of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes (failure to proofread could very well net you negative points).  4: Length: each post must meet the Navy's minimum word count (500), and in order to score maximum points must be longer than 700 words; remember criterion number 2, though (this is not an invitation to pad your word count with filler).  5: Coordination: each post should work with the others that have come before, building on what others have come up with, and setting up fun situations for others to develop still further; the more obvious it is that members are coordinating their posts OOC, the better for their scores.

There's also plenty of room to inject humor and personality into your posts; those are just difficult to quantify.  Rest assured that posts which make the grader(s) laugh will get high marks, as will posts with a particularly striking narrative voice.

Graphic Design: Individual works of graphic design/visual art can earn a maximum of 5 points (submit them in this thread).  All works of art must be originals, made by the member during the competition; plagiarism will be punished with a severe points deduction.  Unit badges for the wiki or as signature banners, PHAB Comp-specific avatars, digital paintings of the Battle of Bloodmoon are all ideas that would be eligible for entry.

Gaming: VEN members may earn a maximum of 3 points for playing Star Wars games with other members of the VEN (submit 600x400-pixel screenshots of the game in this thread for credit).  If you play TOR, a screen shot, a list of who was playing, and the name of your strike team are all necessary.

Sportsmanship: Teamwork is the goal of this competition.  But while you may be competing against other Navy units for this month, we are all part of the same big team, day in and day out: the VEN.  Members of the Navy who help each other and coordinate with each other - especially members from different units - will get big bonus points.  Take the hint: be friendly toward all and compete with pride, respect, and fairness, and you'll get more points than you know what to do with.  Conversely, any OOC drama will result in severe point deductions.

Miscellaneous: Wiki work and recruitment can also earn members points.  They will be awarded less formally.



Okay, folks: get going! 

Remember, the Navy-wide story Counterpunch: War is just at the climactic Battle of Bloodmoon: jump back in!

Actually, no.  As far as I remember, all those were created well before the PHAB Comp began, and the rules state graphic bits must be "made by the member during the competition."    Nice try, though!

What you could do is use them as a base for a new series of images, that somehow reflect the current campaign...  Strill, Dominion War edition.  Chlovi, Counterpunch-style.  That sort of thing. 

About 36 hours left, everyone.  VENI is pulling ahead: Strill, Chlovi, post!  Teamwork and coordination at this stage, along with a few posts, could clinch victory for you!

Oooo, sounds promising.  Just remember, Cobalt Leader: there are 26 hours left in the competition, and the story will end ASAP after that.

Hey! So, I've gotten one out of the four main Saint characters done and I'm  currently working on the second one. Would you like the actual image posted here or the link to it?

Either is fine, but I prefer images themselves.  Make sure to shrink it to fit the ComNet though. 

Nice!

Wow, this last-minute surge of activity has upset all my carefully pre-calculated scores.  This is officially anybody's game, everyone!  Seriously, the point totals are preposterously close!  A post or graphic either way, Chlovi or VENI, and victory could be decided.  And just 5 hours remain!

And here's a Bloodmoon-themed avi:



Yes, it's Hades escaping from the Scythe in an escape pod.

And I'm not scared to use my banner, either

The first annual PHAB COMP (2013) is hereby ended... scores will be tallied and posted asap.

/me dons his victory hat and rehearses the victory dance.

But in all seriousness, I think everyone did excellently; Chlovi, VENI, the Command Crews, even Strill - you guys did great, and it was wonderful to write alongside you. I can honestly believe Trykon when he says  it was won by an excessively slim margin!

Well done everyone!

Competition did indeed start fairly slow but constantly picked up speed as it went and new members were added to the active roster - talking here about both SFC squadrons. As WC I share the above beliefs according to which Chlovi outperformed Strill as far as the competition's goals were concerned. I would very much like to point out however that in these past few weeks, and even more so these past few days, Strill members were starting to work together and toward a common goal. It is my honest belief that should this competition have lasted for say one more month then odds were the scores would've been even closer together.

I'd like to congratulate everyone that participated and helped make this one of the best stories on the Naval board, as well as also congratulate the winners too.

That all being dealt with I do have one question however... Where's the celebratory party being held and who's bringing the booze?

Captain Grey just won the internet.

Well obviously not... They're either brought there in a tiny escape pod ( ) or they just fly back ( ) and then wait for the perfect time to strike ( )