IFC Finals - First Round results and tie breakers.

Hello there! Welcome to our digital castle.

Artwork credit - @yeszuzia on steemit and instagram

Hey again.. Hope you all are doing well.
Before we get to official details of the tie breaker and such, I want to first say I made a major mistake in our first round of the finals.
It was incredibly stressful for me. But thankfully we have an awesome group of players who are very understanding.

When trying to figure out what to do in a tie breaker event someone brought up an idea about whoever did it the fastest could win, and at the time it sounded like a good solution.

Though a while after the launch of the quest I kept questioning it more and more.. It didn't seem right, and when put in context of people from different timezones and work schedules and not being properly warned about the rule ahead of time, it all just made it overwhelmingly clear to me that it was wrong and I don't know why I didn't see it sooner.

Was a major learning experience and the biggest mistake made so far at the IFC, however we worked it out so that at worst case scenario it would end in a tie for all the players involved, and we'll do another round.

Sorry for the stress and confusion to all involved. Thank you again for being so understanding. <3

I also made a mistake in regards to @mr-bike after the season ended, he was suppose to have had one more win than he got. Which would have changed the rankings around a lil bit in the top 16.. But overall not a big deal as I think anyone in the top 16 should be pretty stoked to get a chance at the grand prize and the title.. And I remember there was one other mistake that happened earlier in the season as well..

So.. It hasn't been perfect, we've made a few mistakes. But we are human and this isn't a bot operation. Fortunately everything is on the blockchain so if the players are paying attention and we make a mistake, they could and hopefully should be able to catch it.

For those who tied.. Please try to consider it a warm up round and now we're on!

@Warpedpoetic and @sandrina.life both dropped out
Warpedpoetic tried to play but got started a bit later and didn't quite have enough time.
sandrina.life disappeared without explanation.
And kenneth1 appears to have had a medical emergency and our hearts go out to him.
(Kenneth1 submitted his entry a couple hours late but was voted on by 5 people including his competitor that he should be allowed to continue so he will be allowed to continue)

That means.. @magicalmoonlight @mr-bike advance to the next round.

To those of you who were not playing against one of them... A tie breaker awaits.

@kryptocek vs @wholeself-in
@bashadow vs @swolesome
@plushzilla vs @bengy
@iexplore vs @artgirl
@eaglespirit vs @jbreheny
@kenneth1 vs @youhavewings

We like to keep the tie breaker rounds in the same general sort of theme if possible, and while pretty much all of the players said they had fun like the last scavenger hunt challenge.. Numerous reported that it took them a long time, and one player is having difficulties uploading images.

So... With that in mind we are going to do another scavenger hunt challenge, but with less images and additional rules to try to make sure it hopefully doesn't end in a tie and isn't as time consuming.

Flowers 1 point
Swimming pool 1 point
Cave 1 point
Twin pillars 2 points
Spider 2 points
Shield 3 points
Dream catcher 3 points
Graffiti 3 points
Mayan or Aztec calendar 4 points
Lightning 5 points

Power spot bonus 5 points

To be clear, you must find pictures of these items somewhere in the physical world. (Also please don't risk your own safety to get the lightning image or any other image, if you wanna try to get real lightning I suggest being VERY FAR away.)

In order to further reduce the chance of a tie, in this round.. Pictures of the real thing will be worth double, and representations of the real thing IE pictures on DVD covers or books or whatever will be worth the amount listed.

For example.. If you found a picture of a swimming pool on a DVD cover or in a book it would be 1 point, but if you find a real swimming pool in person in the physical world it will be 2 points.

And you can find virtually any representation of the item as long as it's not like a pic off your TV/phone or computer/the internet or an encyclopedia something like that.

We do want to encourage people to be creative with their images, though a few have been a lil questionable, so.. Please try to be more clear when possible and try to not leave it up to judges interpretation if you can help it and if you really want to win.

You can still get 2 for 1 or more as well, what I mean is.. You could get multiple items on the list in one picture, for example a Graffiti of flowers would be two items checked off the list. No extra points for that, but it will be one less picture for you to take and upload.

And for anyone curious.. A power spot is a special place where you feel extra "powerful" so to speak and in order to HOPEFULLY prevent another tie.. The judges will vote on the power spot they like most as well, and 5 points will be awarded to the player who gets the better power spot!

It is possible that there could still be a tie with this new bonus and the other new rule, BUT.. I have a feeling that between the two this will make the difference so we can keep this moving and get on to the next rounds before too much longer.

I think a really important aspect of the power spot is how you feel about it, so if you write something really compelling about your power spot it may be more valuable to the judges than the picture itself of the power spot, so I think you should consider writing up something moving or extra meaningful as well in addition to the picture to try to gain the judges votes.

If you're unfamiliar with the power spot round and would still like more information about how we did it last time, you can go to this link to learn more.
https://steemit.com/contest/@apolymask/information-finding-championship-season-1-round-20

ALSO.. Please don't hesitate to ask myself or one of the other judges if you have a question, I'm sure someone will be happy to try to help.

Good luck to all of the competitors!!!!

And now a moment for our sponsors!

First up is @ats-david who has helped greatly! If you appreciate this contest or just his efforts in general you may want to look into voting for him as a witness at @ats-witness, he does a lot of other cool things for the community as well!

Next is @timcliff who has similarly helped out the contest significantly and who is also a witness who does a lot for the community, so likewise if you appreciate the efforts you may want to vote for him as witness also!

@krnel has also offered some support and does other good things to help out on the platform in general, I suggest you vote for krnel as a witness as well if you want to support all of this.

@steemcommunity has also helped us and expressed interest in helping more in the future and they likewise also help the community in various additional ways, I suggest voting for them as witness as well!

I'd also like to thank @theguruasia who has pledged at least 20 steem to the second and third place prizes and he said he may even donate more.

And @nxtblg who has been regularly resteeming and upvoting our challenges which has been a big help!

Plus one other person who has been helping a lot who deserves some credit is @soundlegion who has also been upvoting the contests regularly.

And while not technically sponsors, we are working with @davemccoy and those at #newbiegames and #newbieresteemday and they do a great service to the community so definitely check them out if you appreciate that, or if you're new.

Also not a sponsor, though @iexplore has taken a huge workload directly off of my shoulders and is now doing the "catch up" rounds, those should be posted on the @ifc page.. And I suggest giving him a follow and some support as well if you appreciate the work as he is doing an amazingly helpful and important job!

And another thank you to our recent sponsor @underground for donating 10 Steem.

In addition to connecting us with underground, @eaglespirit has also connected us with @derangedvisions who has donated 10 steem as well. Thank you derangedvisions!

Eagle Spirit gains another 10 XP for this which puts her at 35 XP, and we are probably going to use the steem from her sponsors to help fund a special IFC All Star round. :) Stay tuned for that!

Furthmore we recieved a 5 SBD donation from @youhavewings with a nice message attached thanking us for what we do at the IFC, thank you youhavewings! And you're welcome as well for what we do. :) Glad to share this experience with all of you! <3

And finally, a thank you to @tonyr who has donated a Trophy Token to the winner of the championship.

The challenge will finish after 7 days when the post ends and provides its payout cycle or when all entries have been submitted.

There will be no ties, each winner will move on to the next round.

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Rules

1. IFC finals first round tie breaker starts now and is another photo scavenger hunt challenge. 2. Create a blog post for the contest. 3. Title must contain, "IFC Finals - First Round tie breaker" 4. Leave a link to your post in the comments below. (This part is important and a lot of people forget this, please put the blog link in the right place so our judges can find it) 5. And you also have to use the #ifc tag with the date in your blog post as well.
6. If you somehow get hurt doing any of our quests you can not reasonably hold us accountable. Take responsibility for your own choices and actions in life. This is a voluntary game where you choose to play. Only you can make that decision for yourself. 7. You are responsible for paying the appropriate government taxes, fees, and service charges resulting from any transactions with the IFC or Marketplace. We are not responsible for collecting, reporting, paying, or remitting to you any such taxes, fees, or service charges, except as may otherwise be required by law.

Acceptable content

1. Photographic images on the list with a physical IFC tag and the date in the picture
   
2. Language is primarily in English and if you would like to participate from elsewhere in the world it is up to you to translate your message into English so we can understand you.
3. We also encourage role playing for those who enjoy doing that. :)

Good luck in the contest!

Artwork credit - @yeszuzia on steemit and instagram

Original by @yeszuzia and modified by @charisma777