by Crazy Ivan
The numbers are going up about 24 hours late and for that I apologize. We ended up having way more people over for the big game than we intended and I got caught up. And, of course, the game was spectacularly good and we were all feeling pretty celebratory here in NYC afterwards. But the final votes have now been counted and the winners are in.
First, a quick congratulations to all the nominees. While I'm sure everyone scrolled down to the winners before actually reading this, it can't be overstated what an honor it is to be recognized by your peers in a contest like this. Nominations and votes are by Myachi Maniacs from all over the world (okay, the United States and Switzerland) and while Myachi Masters do sometimes vote in them, the only people controlling the outcome here are the Myachi Maniacs and the nominees themselves.
And of course, my favorite thing about doing the JOTYAs every year is hearing from some former forum regulars that seem to pop in once a year and cast their votes. So a quick thanks to everyone who voted and took the time to make this the biggest JOTYA to date (over twice as many votes as last year).
So let's start off with the most contentious battle in the whole program, the...
FORUM AWARD
This year we had a great slate of nominees and all of them garnered a few votes, but two of the four were neck and neck throughout the voting process. It was quite a horse race watching one of them pull ahead and then the other. In fact, I thought that we were going to have a tie in this category for the second time, but when the last vote came in, it swung the pendulum a hair's breadth toward the winner. Who won by exactly one vote.
And who is that narrow victor, you might ask?
Why, MMFL, of course who is taking home his second Forum Award.
And while I always feel a pang of sympathy for all the nominees that don't end up winning, I especially feel for Blue Samurai, who came one vote shy of the tie. So sympathetic, in fact, that he'll be earning a special 5th pick in the sack draft later in the week for an "Honorable Mention" prize.
Now, let's move on to the 2nd most heated battle of the year, the...
TRIXTER AWARD
This fight was close, but not quite as close as the Forum award. Where MMFL won by a single vote, the eventual champion in this contest would win by a whopping two.
There was an interesting mix of candidates this year. 3 of the 4 were veterans of the game, but an influential new-comer was also represented. He may have joined the game recently, but he has the skills of a vet and that's all that matters for this award. But would his skills be enough to catapult him past legends?
Well, as it turns out, not quite. There was a solid 4 way battle in this category and the 4th place finisher was only 5 votes behind 1st place, but ultimately it would be the most veteran player in the mix that would win it.
Congratulations to KickStand (aka Coreyster), this year's Trixter Award winner.
And a quick shout out to Helium, who came in a very close 2nd despite having joined the forum on Jan 1st of this year. What a way to make a quick impression.
Now, let's move on to my personal favorite award, the...
STWAKOJ AWARD
This is the most international of the JOTYAs, having twice gone to the UK and once to a US citizen living in China. In fact, last year would mark the first time it was ever won by somebody inside the USA. Any nominee familiar with that history was probably nervous when they saw that Switzerland's favorite Myachi Maniac was among their competition this year.
While this one wasn't quite as close fought as the first two I listed, there was a bit of a battle on this one as well. It wasn't until Thursday that the eventual winner really started to pull ahead and though he ended up winning by 6 total votes, it was a close race for the first full week of voting.
And once again, this year's STWAKOJ Award will find it's way overseas. Congratulations to Myachi Max, this year's champion spreader of the word of Myachi.
And a quick shout out as well to J-Slack, who came in 2nd place in this category and earned a pretty substantial number of votes. To give you an idea how many, while he came in 6 behind Max, he actually garnered more votes in this category than last years winner.
And finally, the most important of all the awards, and the least contended as well, the...
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
There were four very deserving nominees this year, but it was pretty clear early in the voting who was going to win. While all four nominees got several votes, in the end it was a landslide. The winner actually gathered up more votes than all three other nominees combined. Not only does this speak volumes in such an important and prestigious award, but it will also earn him the top spot in the upcoming Myachi draft.
So a huge congratulations to Downtown Myachi, the winner of the 2nd ever Lifetime Achievement JOTYA.
And thanks again for all the votes, nominations and fun. Looking forward to next year's already!
Showing posts with label jotya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jotya. Show all posts
Monday, February 6, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
2011 JOTYA Nominees
by Crazy Ivan
It's that time of year once again; the time we set aside to recognize the contributions of all the Myachi Maniacs the world over who dedicate their time to advancing the game and keeping the movement moving.
This will mark the 5th year of the Jammer of the Year Awards and early indications are that it's going to be a big one. We had a record number of forum members chime in on the nominations and luckily I put a stipulation in this year that someone had to get at least 2 nominations to be considered. Otherwise we'd have about 9 or 10 people in each category.
As it turns out, we have exactly 4 in each category. As unlikely as this was, it actually worked out normally in 3 of the 4 categories. In the 4th, I received a lot of duplicate nominations for 2 members, and only 2 people received a single nomination so I was able to include everyone that got nominated.
So without further ado, let me present this years nominees:
The Trixter Award:
Past winners include: A-Train, Mantis and Dragon
This award recognizes the Myachi player who has done the most to advance the freestyle element of the game. Winning this award is a testament to both your skills and originality, but it is more than that. Creating new tricks is part of the award, but to compete here, one must also share that new knowledge with the world. As you can see from the past winners, winning this award cements your legendary status within the Myachi movement.
This year's nominees are (in alphabetical order):
It's that time of year once again; the time we set aside to recognize the contributions of all the Myachi Maniacs the world over who dedicate their time to advancing the game and keeping the movement moving.
This will mark the 5th year of the Jammer of the Year Awards and early indications are that it's going to be a big one. We had a record number of forum members chime in on the nominations and luckily I put a stipulation in this year that someone had to get at least 2 nominations to be considered. Otherwise we'd have about 9 or 10 people in each category.
As it turns out, we have exactly 4 in each category. As unlikely as this was, it actually worked out normally in 3 of the 4 categories. In the 4th, I received a lot of duplicate nominations for 2 members, and only 2 people received a single nomination so I was able to include everyone that got nominated.
So without further ado, let me present this years nominees:
The Trixter Award:
Past winners include: A-Train, Mantis and Dragon
This award recognizes the Myachi player who has done the most to advance the freestyle element of the game. Winning this award is a testament to both your skills and originality, but it is more than that. Creating new tricks is part of the award, but to compete here, one must also share that new knowledge with the world. As you can see from the past winners, winning this award cements your legendary status within the Myachi movement.
This year's nominees are (in alphabetical order):
- Coreyster
- Helium
- Katana
- Max
The STWAKOJ Award:
Past winners include: Halestorm, A guy called Will, Mach 3 and DGH
This award is, in many ways, the most coveted in the ceremony. Myachi continues to thrive and grow every year because of the efforts of Myachi Maniacs all over the world who spread the word, teach the game, encourage new members and jam everywhere they go. This has been the lifeblood of the movement since its inception and the STWAKOJ award recognizes the person who contributed the most to this ongoing effort over the past year.
This year's nominees are (in alphabetical order):
- Gecko
- J-Slack
- Katana
- Max
The Forum Award:
Past winners include: Jedi, Downtown, MMFL and Champ.
Serving as the long-term lynchpin of Myachi's online community, the Myachi Forum is a place where Myachi Maniacs from the world over get together, share advice on new tricks, talk about their collections, ask questions of veteran players and make new friends. It seems only fair to recognize the efforts of all the members who work so hard to make it a fun place to be, so the Forum award is exactly that. It is awarded to the person determined to have made the biggest positive impact on the forum over the past year.
This year's nominees are (in alphabetical order):
- Blue Samurai
- J-Slack
- MMFL
- Omega
The Lifetime Achievement Award:
Past winner is: MMFL
Given only once in the five year history of the award, this is the "Grand Prize" of Myachi Mania, an award meant to encompass the lifetime contribution that a person has made in all aspects of the game. It has been four years since the last one was given out and it will be five years before another one is given out, so in many ways, a win in this category could be considered among the highest achievements in Myachi Mania.
This year's nominees are (in alphabetical order):
- Avion
- Downtown
- Mantis
- Monki
Voting
Voting opens up today and there are two ways to get your voice heard. Members of the forum can send me their votes in all 4 categories (or just those categories they care to vote in) through the Private Messaging system on the forum. But if you'd like to participate and aren't a forum member, you can email your votes to me at crazyivanmyachi@yahoo.com
If you email your vote it might not count. To keep things honest, I've got to make sure that all the votes that are emailed represent real people, so please include your name and how you got into the game when you send the vote along. I reserve the right to dismiss emailed votes at my discretion.
Also note that to be eligible to vote on the forum, you have to have created an account before the nominating process began, so if you aren't already a member, you can't join and then vote internally on the forum (but you should still join).
Voting will close on Friday, February 3rd at midnight. Winners will be announced on Sunday the 5th (that's Superbowl Sunday in case you weren't paying attention) and like last year, I'll be dropping the winners during halftime.
Good luck to all the nominees and thanks to everyone who participated in the nomination process. Thanks for making this such a fun part of my job!
Friday, February 11, 2011
JOTYA Prizes Awarded
by Crazy Ivan
On Wednesday we had our 4th annual JOTYA sack draft, but this year we did it in a whole new way. First, let me fill in the details for those who are a bit newer to the Myachi movement. If you're a veteran maniac and Myachi Forum member, you can feel free to skip the next three paragraphs. I won't be offended.
JOTYA: An Acronym for the Jammer Of The Year Awards. This is an award ceremony that we started in 2008 on the Myachi forum meant to recognize and reward those who go above and beyond the call of duty. For those who show exemplary dedication to spreading the word of Myachi and expanding the community, we award rare Myachis.
Three winners are nominated and voted on by their peers on the Myachi Forum. The STWAKOJ Award to the person who stands out the most in terms of teaching the game and spreading the word of Myachi to the masses. The Trickster Award goes to the person who adds the most to the game in terms of creating new tricks and combos. The Forum Award goes to the person who does the best job making the Myachi Forum a welcome and fun place to be.
The Sack Draft: At the end of the voting, the JOTYA winners are announced and a bunch of Myachis are selected to serve as trophies; rewards for a job well done. I'll put together several rare Myachis and then we'll hold a "Sack Draft" where each winner gets to select their prize. Draft order is determined by margin of victory so which ever winner received the highest percentage of votes in their category gets first choice and the person who won the narrowest victory selects last.
Now, let's welcome back all the people who are rejoining us from the 1st paragraph. How you guys been? Anyway, on to the new twist to the Sack Draft that I was so stoked about at the beginning of this entry.
Thanks to the Wednesday Night Brawl, we were able to do the sack draft live this year. In the past I would put the list of sacks on the forum and the winners would stop in and post their selections. It was fun and all the runners-up had a good time tossing out advice on which sack to take, but it took forever sometimes if one winner didn't get on the forum for a week or something.
Since our winners this year were all regulars on the Wednesday Night Brawl, we saved a bunch of time and added some real excitement to the whole ordeal by doing it on TinyChat. It was actually pretty funny. DGH was on at 6 O'clock on the dot and so was Downtown, but Mantis (the 3rd winner) didn't get on for about an hour.
The whole time there's a palpable anticipation coming from DGH, too. Every time somebody would sign on to the chat he would say "I bet that's Mantis!" and then it would be Buffalo or MMFL or Monki or any of a number of other people who aren't Mantis. Finally somebody signs on and he goes "That's Mantis, I bet!" and, of course, it was. He doesn't skip a beat, either. As soon as "guest-4102" changes his name to Mantis, DGH goes "I called it."
So finally we got all 3 winners on together and I presented the potential prizes. I only had 6 sacks but I was giving everyone 2 prizes so DGH picked 1st and 4th (owned his category), Mantis picked 2nd and 5th (won his category by a few votes) and Downtown picked 3rd and got what was left at 6 (squeaked by two people by a single vote!).
I'd love to put some pics up along with the list, but Pinky's got the camera at the office and I'm at the House of Skills, so I'll have to settle for naming them:
On Wednesday we had our 4th annual JOTYA sack draft, but this year we did it in a whole new way. First, let me fill in the details for those who are a bit newer to the Myachi movement. If you're a veteran maniac and Myachi Forum member, you can feel free to skip the next three paragraphs. I won't be offended.
JOTYA: An Acronym for the Jammer Of The Year Awards. This is an award ceremony that we started in 2008 on the Myachi forum meant to recognize and reward those who go above and beyond the call of duty. For those who show exemplary dedication to spreading the word of Myachi and expanding the community, we award rare Myachis.
Three winners are nominated and voted on by their peers on the Myachi Forum. The STWAKOJ Award to the person who stands out the most in terms of teaching the game and spreading the word of Myachi to the masses. The Trickster Award goes to the person who adds the most to the game in terms of creating new tricks and combos. The Forum Award goes to the person who does the best job making the Myachi Forum a welcome and fun place to be.
The Sack Draft: At the end of the voting, the JOTYA winners are announced and a bunch of Myachis are selected to serve as trophies; rewards for a job well done. I'll put together several rare Myachis and then we'll hold a "Sack Draft" where each winner gets to select their prize. Draft order is determined by margin of victory so which ever winner received the highest percentage of votes in their category gets first choice and the person who won the narrowest victory selects last.
Now, let's welcome back all the people who are rejoining us from the 1st paragraph. How you guys been? Anyway, on to the new twist to the Sack Draft that I was so stoked about at the beginning of this entry.
Thanks to the Wednesday Night Brawl, we were able to do the sack draft live this year. In the past I would put the list of sacks on the forum and the winners would stop in and post their selections. It was fun and all the runners-up had a good time tossing out advice on which sack to take, but it took forever sometimes if one winner didn't get on the forum for a week or something.
Since our winners this year were all regulars on the Wednesday Night Brawl, we saved a bunch of time and added some real excitement to the whole ordeal by doing it on TinyChat. It was actually pretty funny. DGH was on at 6 O'clock on the dot and so was Downtown, but Mantis (the 3rd winner) didn't get on for about an hour.
The whole time there's a palpable anticipation coming from DGH, too. Every time somebody would sign on to the chat he would say "I bet that's Mantis!" and then it would be Buffalo or MMFL or Monki or any of a number of other people who aren't Mantis. Finally somebody signs on and he goes "That's Mantis, I bet!" and, of course, it was. He doesn't skip a beat, either. As soon as "guest-4102" changes his name to Mantis, DGH goes "I called it."
So finally we got all 3 winners on together and I presented the potential prizes. I only had 6 sacks but I was giving everyone 2 prizes so DGH picked 1st and 4th (owned his category), Mantis picked 2nd and 5th (won his category by a few votes) and Downtown picked 3rd and got what was left at 6 (squeaked by two people by a single vote!).
I'd love to put some pics up along with the list, but Pinky's got the camera at the office and I'm at the House of Skills, so I'll have to settle for naming them:
- Martha
- Member's Solutions
- Reuben's Rockin' Bar Mitzvah
- St. Bernard's
- Sam Gallen's
- Wolfman
I should point out that the list above is alphabetical, not in the order they were selected or in order of rarity or anything. As most any Myachi collector can tell you, though, the top 2 sacks alphabetically are also the top 2 in terms of value. Not surprisingly, DGH picked the Martha first and Mantis scooped up the Member's Solutions 2nd. Worked out well for Downtown who had confessed that he wanted the Wolfman most long before we actually started picking.
So for those keeping score at home, the winners of this year's JOTYA took:
- DGH = Martha (Yellow) and St. Bernard's
- Mantis = Member's Solutions and Reuben's
- Downtown = Wolfman and a Red Shredder
If you were paying attention, you might have noticed that one of those was not among the prizes listed above. After all the pics were made I told the winners that if they'd like to swap out either sack for a new 5.0 they could. Since the Sam Gallen is a kind of tough jammer and since it was made for a birthday party Downtown wasn't at for a kid he doesn't know, he opted to take the Red Shredder instead.
It was a lot of fun doing the draft live and in the future whenever that's possible I think we'll do it that way. This'll be the last we hear about JOTYA for a little while, so I also wanted to take a second to thank everyone that participated by nominating or voting. I was surprised by how big a response we got since the forum's been a bit slow of late. It's been a great year and I have a lot of reason to believe that 2011 is going to be our biggest year yet.
Pinky to mail out yet. I'm really sorry. They'll go out Monday for sure, though. I'm in the office Saturday and Sunday so they'll be all enveloped and waiting for her when she gets to the office on Monday.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
JOTYA Winners
by Crazy Ivan
2011 will mark the 4th annual Jammer of the Year awards and this year we see some familiar names on the nomination list along with some new ones. Before we go on to the winners, let me take a second to congratulate all the nominees. The Myachi Forum is a tight knit community and has been for the better part of a decade and few things are as fulfilling as earning recognition from your peers. To all the nominees and everyone who participated this year, thanks for all you've done and all you have yet to do. The Myachi Movement wouldn't be where it is today without you.
And now, on with the announcements.
STWAKOJ AWARD:
This was the only real runaway category this year. Both of the other 2 categories were decided by 2 votes but I think I could have announced the winner of this award just based on the overwhelming nominations that I received.
Congrats to the runners up, but the winner of the 2010 STWAKOJ award (and the first person to ever earn this award while living in the US) is...
... DGH!
DGH is a relative new comer to the Myachi Movement but he has quickly made invaluable contributions to the online Myachi community as well as the bricks and mortar universe of physical STWAKOJ. He's done an awesome job teaching and promoting the game despite being a bit removed from the heart of the Myachi universe.
Congratulations, DGH! Because of the overwhelming scale of your victory, you will get 1st pick when the Sack Draft begins on Wednesday.
The Trickster Award:
There were 4 nominees for this award this year and while everyone received a few votes, the real competition came between two veterans of the game. Both Champ and Mantis received a number of votes and it's been really fun tallying the scores over the last few days and watching as they traded the lead. On Friday it looked as though things were going to go one way, but a late flurry of weekend votes swapped out the lead once again.
The winner of this year's Trickster award is...
...Mantis!
This marks Mantis' second Trickster award and his fourth nomination. That means that Mantis is the only person in JOTYA's short history that has been nominated for one award every year that we've held the competition. He also joins MMFL as only the second repeat winner JOTYA winner. Congratulations! You had the 2nd highest margin of victory (since the forum award was decided by a single vote) and thus you will be selecting 2nd when the Sack Draft begins on Wednesday.
(and a heartfelt shout out to Champ who came so close to claiming that same honor)
And finally, the one you've all been waiting for,
The Forum Award:
This particular award always seems to present the stiffest competition. It has been the award that has had the narrowest margin of victory in 2 of the last 3 years and it is the only award that has ever ended in a tie. Again this year we had stiff competition and a great slate of nominees so it should come as no surprise that there was a heated competition again this year.
This year saw a tie for second place and a winner who achieved victory from a single vote which means that the top 3 finishers were all with one vote of the win/tie. In fact, as recently as Saturday night I was afraid I would have to give out 3 prizes on this one, but the final vote of the weekend pushed one competitor over and made his this years winner of the prestigious Forum Award.
And the name of that lucky winner is...
...Downtown!
Like Mantis, Downtown is taking home his 2nd JOTYA, having been the co-victor in this same category two years ago. His tireless dedication to the forum and his history of wholeheartedly embracing every member of Myachi's online community has made him an invaluable member of the movement for nearly 6 years.
Congratulations again to all our winners and for those nominees that came up short (and those deserving members who did not receive a nomination), thanks for your contribution and your votes. Remember that there's always a chance to take the bacon next year!
2011 will mark the 4th annual Jammer of the Year awards and this year we see some familiar names on the nomination list along with some new ones. Before we go on to the winners, let me take a second to congratulate all the nominees. The Myachi Forum is a tight knit community and has been for the better part of a decade and few things are as fulfilling as earning recognition from your peers. To all the nominees and everyone who participated this year, thanks for all you've done and all you have yet to do. The Myachi Movement wouldn't be where it is today without you.
And now, on with the announcements.
STWAKOJ AWARD:
This was the only real runaway category this year. Both of the other 2 categories were decided by 2 votes but I think I could have announced the winner of this award just based on the overwhelming nominations that I received.
Congrats to the runners up, but the winner of the 2010 STWAKOJ award (and the first person to ever earn this award while living in the US) is...
... DGH!
DGH is a relative new comer to the Myachi Movement but he has quickly made invaluable contributions to the online Myachi community as well as the bricks and mortar universe of physical STWAKOJ. He's done an awesome job teaching and promoting the game despite being a bit removed from the heart of the Myachi universe.
Congratulations, DGH! Because of the overwhelming scale of your victory, you will get 1st pick when the Sack Draft begins on Wednesday.
The Trickster Award:
There were 4 nominees for this award this year and while everyone received a few votes, the real competition came between two veterans of the game. Both Champ and Mantis received a number of votes and it's been really fun tallying the scores over the last few days and watching as they traded the lead. On Friday it looked as though things were going to go one way, but a late flurry of weekend votes swapped out the lead once again.
The winner of this year's Trickster award is...
...Mantis!
This marks Mantis' second Trickster award and his fourth nomination. That means that Mantis is the only person in JOTYA's short history that has been nominated for one award every year that we've held the competition. He also joins MMFL as only the second repeat winner JOTYA winner. Congratulations! You had the 2nd highest margin of victory (since the forum award was decided by a single vote) and thus you will be selecting 2nd when the Sack Draft begins on Wednesday.
(and a heartfelt shout out to Champ who came so close to claiming that same honor)
And finally, the one you've all been waiting for,
The Forum Award:
This particular award always seems to present the stiffest competition. It has been the award that has had the narrowest margin of victory in 2 of the last 3 years and it is the only award that has ever ended in a tie. Again this year we had stiff competition and a great slate of nominees so it should come as no surprise that there was a heated competition again this year.
This year saw a tie for second place and a winner who achieved victory from a single vote which means that the top 3 finishers were all with one vote of the win/tie. In fact, as recently as Saturday night I was afraid I would have to give out 3 prizes on this one, but the final vote of the weekend pushed one competitor over and made his this years winner of the prestigious Forum Award.
And the name of that lucky winner is...
...Downtown!
Like Mantis, Downtown is taking home his 2nd JOTYA, having been the co-victor in this same category two years ago. His tireless dedication to the forum and his history of wholeheartedly embracing every member of Myachi's online community has made him an invaluable member of the movement for nearly 6 years.
Congratulations again to all our winners and for those nominees that came up short (and those deserving members who did not receive a nomination), thanks for your contribution and your votes. Remember that there's always a chance to take the bacon next year!
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