OngoingWorlds blog

News & articles about play-by-post games, for roleplayers & writers

Apr
6

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2018 ToS Winners

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: , 1 Comment

We asked for Tournament of Simulations (ToS) submissions back in February and March.  You responded by nominating 28 fantastic games, truly the best of the best from throughout the simming and online role playing community!  It’s now April and we have 10 winners.  If you’re curious how we choose the top games, here’s how.

As I say every year, evaluating sims is a subjective art, and this is certainly true with ToS.  We’re not here to identify the best games as this is impossible.  Instead, we’re here to identify what we think are outstanding role plays that exude excellence.  A different set of judges may very well chose a completely different set of winners.  And that’s okay!  With that our of the record, here are your 2018 tournament winners:

All entries were play-by-post this year.

Congratulations to all 10 winners!  They were selected from 28 absolutely wonderful and engaging sims.  Believe me when I say that there were some really good ones that didn’t make the above list!  For that reason, I’d like to personally thank everyone who took the time to enter your games in the competition.  Thank you for providing a fantastic role play experience for your players–that was more than evident in all of the entries. The individual grade sheets and judges’ comments have already been emailed to each sim’s respective representative.

I’d also like to acknowledge our amazing panel of judges: John Nugra, Kenny Gillis, Largehobbit, Mike Bremer, Myrkul Sharr, Nim, October Veritas, Yewande Banda & Zachary O’Connell.  I’ll call them the Nimble Nine! They volunteered hours of their time to serve the simming and online role playing community. I can’t thank them enough for the wonderful job they did!

OWCH

While we’re on the subject of judging, Kenny Gillis of Ongoing Worlds and Myrkul Sharr of Obsidian Fleet are hereby awarded the Ongoing Worlds Community Honor (OWCH) for serving as judges in three Tournament of Simulations in a row (2016-18).  They volunteered hours of their time to serve in this capacity.  Their selflessness and volunteer attitude are an example for us all to follow.  Without them, we simply wouldn’t be able to hold major events like the Tournament of Simulations. Well done!

October Veritas completed her fourth year as judge… but she got her OWCH last year.

A few notes about this year’s tournament

  • This is the 8th year in a row that a tournament was held (2011-2018). Six total tournaments were held 1999-2007. No tournaments were held 2008-2010.  Fourteen total tournaments have been held to date.
  • Ten awards were bestowed this year. The 2007 tournament saw the most awards presented (26). 167 total awards have been conferred dating back to 1999.
  • Two clubs brought home multiple awards this year: Theta Fleet (3) and Bravo Fleet (2).  The last time there was not at least one club with more than one award was 2015.
  • Star Army and Bravo Fleet tie Federation Sim Fleet for second in all-time awards (12).  All three now trail Starfleet Legacy Alliance (31).
  • Star Army also extends its record of consecutive tournaments with at least one win to seven (2012-18).  Bravo Fleet and UCIP are tied for second with awards in five different tournaments (both non-consecutively).
  • Theta Fleet and Free Sim Alliance both picked up their first tournament wins this year.  Eleven of the fourteen tournaments have now seen at least one club pick up their first award.  The three exceptions are 2001, 2013, and 2017.
  • USS Vindicator won an award for the fourth year in a row (2015-18), tying a record held by Blue Dwarf (2011-14).  X-Men Awakening scored an award for its third consecutive year (2016-18).  Four other games have also won three awards in different competitions, though not always consecutively.  There were no other repeat winners this year.  USS Vindicator and X-Men Awakening were also the only repeat winners last year.
  • Two independent sims won awards this year. At least one independent sim has been represented in every tournament since 2006.

All results are final and are not subject to appeal.  Look for next year’s tournament to begin in late 2019 or early 2020.  Have a great year of simming!

How Does the Tournament of Simulations (ToS) Work?

Past winners: 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017