halo.bungie.org

They're Random, Baby!

Seven on the Seventh Contest

28 April 2006: Winners Posted!

The Setup

Our 'once a week' contest is now clearly off a bit; the last one was on February 7. We missed March altogether. Here it is, April 7... and we're gonna call this our bi-monthly 7 on the 7th contest. (The next one we'll rename again - to semi-yearly or something. No, just kidding.)

If you're interested in the first 7 on the 7th contest, visit this page.

The Contest

In order to win this one, you'll need to send along a photo of Halo action figures posed in an entertaining way. The photo needs a caption (that's where the funny part comes from), and there's one more requirement: the subject of your photo needs to be described by a track name from one of the 3 volumes of the Halo Official Soundtrack (The Halo Official Soundtrack, the Halo 2 Official Soundtrack Volume 1, or the Halo 2 Official Soundtrack Volume 2). There are plenty of great options there - if you need track listings, you can find them here.

The Rules

Rules are simple, and pretty common-sense:

  • You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win once.
  • All entries must be uploaded to contestuploads.bungie.org. (If you email them, we will toss them. If you upload them somewhere else, we will toss them. If you stick them in an envelope and send them in via US mail, we will toss them - but we will first ridicule you on our front page.)
  • All entries must be in by 9PM, PST, on Sunday, April 16, 2006. (That's a bit over a week.)
  • Judging will be done by HBO/Bungie, and winners will be announced on or soon after April 21st.
  • Judging will be based on the humor of the picture, the humor of the caption, and the relevance to a soundtrack track. Make it funny, and make it relevant, or we will make it lose.
  • Keep it relatively clean. R- or X-rated entries stand no chance of winning. Sorry.
  • The top 7 entries will win copies of the Halo 2 Original Soundtrack, Volume 2, autographed by Marty O'Donnell. (w00t!)
  • Contestants can live anywhere in the world.

  • Clarifying rule: A number of people have asked, "Can extra effects (added with an image processing program, like Photoshop) be included in the entry?" The answer is yes - but it probably won't help you much. That is - we won't reject your entry outright, but if a heavily-photoshopped image is put up against one with no photoshop effects, we'll probably weight the non-altered picture much more. Judicious use of effects might be great - but don't overdo, or you'll shoot yourself in the foot.
  • Clarifying rule 2: A simpler question that's come up more than once: "Can I use OTHER types of action figures, or am I limited to Halo figures?" By all means, use whatever you want. You MUST use Halo figures - but there is no restriction on what ELSE you use. (Again - if you have a whole bunch of GI Joes, and you can SORT of see a MC's head peeking out in the background, we're probably going to pass on your pic; use your judgement and don't overdo the non-Halo stuff.)
  • Clarifying rule 3: Someone wondered where to include the caption and theme info in the submission: on the Contest Uploads page (where you MUST submit your entry to be eligible), there's a 'Comments' box. Use this to tell us your caption and the track name you're using as your theme. If you forget to include this info - we likely won't be rating your picture.

Prizes are courtesy of Bungie Studios. Because they rock. Hassles involved with the contest are the responsibility of bungie.org. Because we love to deal with your problems.

Important disclaimer: While Bungie is totally good for the prizes - sometimes it takes them a little while to mail stuff out. Please be patient. I could put a silly standard "Please Allow 6-8 Weeks For Delivery" note here - but it shouldn't take THAT long. The point is, though, that it might take more than a week; don't worry, we didn't forget you (and neither did Bungie).

The Finer Print

This next block was written for the last contest - and amazingly, there were STILL people who did what it says not to do. So I'm leaving the relevant paragraph.

This is the part I hate to write, because it makes me feel bad to think folks are too lazy to actually READ the rules to a contest they're entering... but I'm writing it because folks ARE too lazy, for the most part.

If you send your entry to a different email address (like lwu@bungie.org, or halo@bungie.org, or any OTHER address at bungie.org, or any address at Bungie), or you post your entry on our forum and expect that to suffice as an entry... you ain't gonna win.

The Finest Print

This contest (and all subsequent similar contests) is run by bungie.org. Prizes are supplied by Bungie Studios - we are NOT Bungie Studios, we just have a key to their schwag closet. Don't bug them if you've got a problem - bug US.



bungie.org