Classic-Castle.com

Wow Bruce, thanks for this detailed answer!

I'm glad that you guys care about feedback and take the time to answer in a kind way.

And even if I do not agree in some points, that's good to know. We'll see each other in November;-)

I must add, I didn't put much work into this year's CCC because I found judging terrible last year: mind, I'm not saying 'my MOC was the best, it should have beat the one the won'. No, what made me find judging poor was that I built two MOCS for the same category: one I thought was mediocre and the other I thought (and still think) was a masterpiece and the best entry not only of the two, but, I must admit, of all the ones I saw. And guess what happens? My masterpiece, for no given reason, is not even in the top six and my mediocre one is, if I recall correctly, in third place. In my mind that's not good judging, and it tipped me off that a TBBed MOC where they said I stood a chance at MB wasn't even a runner up (and by the bye, several other MOCs of mine were really slighted too last year, IMHO). In addition, I believe I asked what was wrong with it in the winners thread and got no answer: I thought it fit the category very perfectly. So, just felt like mentioning that... if you don't mind .

Well I'm going to jump in and say it is a great pleasure to win a category. I've built at least one entry every year since the 4th CCC, so it's great to finally get an honorable mention, let alone winning a category!

Thanks to the admins for all their hard work!

EKnight

Congratulations to all of the winners! Thank you to all of the participants in the Colossal Castle Contest. Taking the time to build so many fantastic creations is great for the Lego castle community. I also want to thank all the generous donors who help each year. Your help makes this contest possible.

We appreciate all feedback and will look into making improvements to the contest.

Each online fan contest has it's own quirks. One thing which has tripped up many an entrant in the CCC is creating an extremely well built moc that hardly relates to the category requirements. These mocs often do not place as highly.

Each of the judges has different grades for a category. Sometimes one entry is outstanding and receives the highest scores from all judges. At other times a creation that all judges scored highly, but not the highest, will win a category. My favorite entry in the entire contest did not win it's category but I am glad it won an honorable mention.

Ben

P.S. If you are a winner, please send me a PM so we can ship out your prize. Thanks!

Thank a lot for yet another edition of the contest! And congrats to all the participants, for keeping the castle-building spirits alive.

Congrats to all the winners and participants! It was great seeing everyone's take on the different categories. I'm also super pumped for the upcoming MasterBuilder announcement. (Personally, I'm rooting for a certain "little" builder. )

josdu wrote:I must add, I didn't put much work into this year's CCC because I found judging terrible last year: mind, I'm not saying 'my MOC was the best, it should have beat the one the won'. No, what made me find judging poor was that I built two MOCS for the same category: one I thought was mediocer and the other I thought (and still think) was a masterpeice and the best entry not only of the two, but, I must admit, of al the ones I saw. And guess what happens? My masterpeice, for no given reason, is not even in the top six and my mediocre one is, if I recall correctly, in third place.

Yeah, you had some great builds last year (2015). I was surprised as well. I didn't participate in 2016 because of 2015's results. I won't say that I had that great of builds in 2015 but many great builds were overlooked.

Again, we are listening to your feedback, as we always do. And having discussions. Thank you for sharing.

I forgot to congratulate the winners and honorable mentions. You blow my mind with your creativity, and time given to build for contests. But that goes for every single entry built for this contest, even the ones that did not get approved. I appreciate your time, effort, and understanding as I worked as quickly as I could through the approval process.

Judging is hard. And while you would think it gets easier the more you do it, it actually gets more difficult. It is never clear cut. It is never easy. Just having the time alone to sit and look at each entry and give it the proper amount of time it deserves to examine and look at, is difficult. And it is subjective. What one person sees in a build, another might not. I promise you that not one judge for this contest has ever taken judging lightly. And while I do understand your frustration, I have in the past been upset when my build didn't place, I know every single one of these admins personally. They are truly wonderful and generous people with no hidden agendas. They strive to be as fair as possible and to keep everyone happy. But the nature of the beast to a contest is, people won't be happy with the results.

But again, we are listening. We will discuss it and try to find solutions. We have in the past...the photo number and size were increased when that was an issue.

grats everyone! admins & participants alike.
it was a huge scale of inspirational buildings. glad to know this contest is here!

Congratulations to all the winners and honorable mentions, and even those who didn't make it on the list, there were so many fabulous entries this year! A huge thank-you to all the admins for making this contest happen every year as well!

Very excited to have gotten my first win

Congratulations, everybody! As usual the high quality of winners and entries alike was quite inspiring.

Congrats to the winners, the honorable mentions, and the other participants!

I'm still ticked off that I wasn't able to build anything for this CCC, especially given that the categories this time were REALLY great. I'll probably get over it eventually...

Judges, you guys still rock. That's fully evident by the thoughtful, respectful, well-constructed responses in this thread. The LEGO castle community really can't ever thank you enough for what you've done here for more than a decade and for whatever you'll be doing in the future. I can't wait until November 1st, 2017 to see what y'all have in store for us!

Congrats to all the winners! I haven't been very active lately now that my kids are older and have taken over my LEGO room, but I was still able to submit one Misc entry (that took me 6 months to build, lol).

Anyway, thanks again to the Admins for hosting and running this contest again and congrats again to the winners.

(still lurking around here from time to time )

Matt

Congratualtions guys! Every entry was a blast!

You shouldn't take the criticism about judging too seriously. I am also feeling weird about some decisions, but I am getting used to it. As a constant participator I always analyzed how my entries were judged and what was better at the builds who won. Now I understood the criteria after years, what resulted in having all my entries being a honorable mention.

Because of that I have to admit, that your judging is always fair and reasonable. It just differs from other contests, because the judges here like a more classic way of builds. What's not really a surprise when looking at the sites name.

This years Master Builder (t.b.a. but already known) captured that style in a perfect manner, so I knew in a really early stage of the contest, that he would beat me. I absolutely understand why and the judges get my full respect for that decision.

As a critic you should just delete the size limitation. It's just making things complicated for builders and approvers, while I can't see any reason in a time of high speed internet flatrates everywhere.