And the winners are....

Alright, winners are finally posted!  We managed to follow the contest's name and get it done while still in YC 115.  How's that for speedy?  (No need to reply on that....)  Results are posted in the EVE Fiction forum thread, and right here again.

Grand Prize – 15 PLEX
Rhavas, 'Intercession'

Eight Thousand Suns in New Eden (lore-based category)
1st Prize – 10 PLEX
Da'iel Zehn, 'Gauss'

2nd Prize – 7 PLEX
Jakob Anedalle, 'Taking His Medicine'
Sugar Kyle, 'Blood Money'
Vaku Rakumakan, 'Turncoat'

3rd Prize – 5 PLEX
Vehestian, 'Slavery of My Soul'
Thes Redav, 'Blind Spot'
Kytayn, 'Free to Choose'
Callista Dalmore, 'Mexallon falling'

A Day in the Life (freeform category)
1st Prize – 8 PLEX
Jalep Malukker, 'A Toy Amongst Giants: A Newbie's Tale'

2nd Prize – 4 PLEX
Rhavas, 'Homecoming'
Sugar Kyle, 'Economics'

3rd Prize – 2 PLEX
Soren Audeles, 'The Hush of God'
Caelestina, 'Elusive Desire'
Kyle Yanowski, 'Station Games'

Other Things Just Make You Swear and Curse (humor category)
1st Prize – 5 PLEX
Drackarn, 'The Briefing'

2nd Prize – 3 PLEX
Sugar Kyle, 'ECM Nightmare'

3rd Prize – 1 PLEX
Voluspa Dreamweaver, 'Lesson Learned'

Honorable Mention (from all categories)
Random McNally, 'For Love and Money'
Sugar Kyle, 'Boots on the Ground; Fire in the Sky'
Vaku Rakumakan, 'Dolan Denis'
Voodoo Williams, 'An Immortal Scorned'
Archie Andrews, 'Monopoly'
Makoto Priano, 'Diamond'
Psy Fi, 'A Dusty Future'
Penny Ibramovic, 'What we have here is a failure to think straight'
Penny Ibramovic, 'Just another day in w-space'
Leta Lilitu, 'An Awkward Moment on a Gate'
John Piggot (char name Nin Elanihan), 'Miner's Blues' 

A couple of quick comments:
-Eterne recused himself from judging stories by a writer who is a personal friend of his.  I recused myself from judging stories by Random McNally or his alt.  Because he's a friend of mine, and because I was afraid I'd actually do counter-biased-ism and be too hard when evaluating his stories.  My recused stories and Eterne's all got very unbiased and critical workings over from three other judges.  The only difference was three judges scored, instead of four.   

-This year's Grand Prize winner came from the A Day in the Life category, rather than the lore-based 8,000 Suns category.  That's because Rhavas's 'Intercession' drew near-perfect scores (three 10s and a 9) from four different individualistic and highly-opinionated judges.  That's a rare occurrence in this contest, both this year and last year.  I don't have the judges' comments on 'Intercession,' but I do know that it's intricately plotted, with hints and threads along the way that all weave together in the end.  Just a very well-conceived and crafted story.  Check it out, if you haven't already.  

-Compared to last year, this year's stories seemed more relaxed, and actually more fun.  Maybe because this time around there wasn't the CCP and Eon Magazine publicity behind it (even though the prize amounts this time were significantly bigger, in terms of RL currency).  Last year's entries were a little more tense, and a little more on the grim side.  This year, people seemed relaxed, and perhaps a little more confident.  Which were better?  It's kind of comparing fedos and janitors, but overall I think the looseness and greater confidence helped this year's stories.

-We had entries by two native German speakers and one native Spanish speaker this year.  Some of those entries won prizes.  I'm very proud of our judges for judging stories based on the tale, as told.  And as a student of second languages myself, I salute the writers who had the guts to write in a foreign language.  If only we all could read and understand what you'd write in the language of your home.

-You guys who gave PLEX prizes-- how great is that?  'Nuff said. 

-I'll be mailing feedback to writers who requested it.  Ye writers, send each other some feedback too.  Help a bro out with some comments on his work.  If nothing else, just let him know that somebody read his beloved and carefully crafted story.

-This blog page isn't much good for leaving comments and replies.  Let's take the discussion to the EVE Fiction thread.  Speak your words, comrades.  o7