Veeky Forums Challenge - Winner & Post Mortem

>the whole board has gotten meaner, I feel, in recent times

The entire site has gotten faster since gamergate and the fappening, and it seems like we've gotten more and more spillover from the faster boards of people who only come to post their "epic memes" and troll.

Valid point, theres a lot more ebin memers than before

Good point. Still, one can mourn for the friendly vibe that used to be here.

Congrats Nack! You had some awesome dishes!

Thanks all, it was a really fun challenge. Really hope to see you all again next year.

Some observations, not unique to this year's challenge.

>people seem to have a difficult time differentiating presentation from photography skills
>most people voting seemed to treat challenge goals as a black or white option, rather than judging based on how much they made the challenge goal the focus of the dish
>regional dishes seemed to get low scores just for being unfamiliar to the people voting, particularly with regional american
>appeal was frequently conflated with overall score, often times with a simple, familiar dish getting scored higher than something more creative and original
>it undeniably turned into a popularity contest, with certain contestants being voted higher, and others voted lower, simply based on who the voter wanted to win

Overall I thought the final scores, and the contestants who moved on each round, was legitimate. Congratulations to Nack; I thought your dish was the best of the final round.

Here are my two cents:

Scoring needs to be handled a lot better, triple checked before submitting to the thread. Too many times did contestants have to point out that their own scores were mixed up or misrepresented, not helped by the other spreadsheet guy confusing matters. Thankfully it didn't immediately affect any eliminations but the general sloppiness makes me wonder if a tiny unrealised mistake somewhere along the way would have turned things out differently.

I think there's something to be said for the verification of scores. In a perfect world, all scoring should come with written justification, particularly for really low scores. It's difficult to evaluate voters' extreme scoring with whether they're doing so purely to boost or tear down a contestant's standing. Take all the Yellowmug trolling. I genuinely believe he deserved his 3/20 scores for the dog cookies, but pretty much every other dish, he did well enough. But even late on, voters were giving him yoyo scores in comparison to other contestants entering dishes objectively more off the mark. This is where this competition becomes more about the contestant than the food being served. I think this applies to other contestants, particularly ones with a historical connection to the competition, as in my perception, their dishes were given extra credit and no real scrutiny.

It's difficult cause selecting scores and deciding what's a real/troll score or not opens up all sorts of problems with skewing the tallies, favouritism, denying voter privilege, etc etc.

On scoring as well, filling out the correct format, no half scores, no just giving the total with no breakdown.

Chicago deep dish was the winner at the end of the day.

Can we abandon the colours round too? It seemed like there was real confusion from the contestants about its interpretation, staying true and exclusively to one colour or else showing a myriad of colours and then claiming to be inspired by just one. Also, essentially contestants could pick their own colours this year which gives certain advantage.

The signature dish should be changed to a showstopper round. What is a signature dish anyway, a dish that conveys your identity that you cook often? How are we to really know that on an anonymous image board? Rei always telling us she makes cajun food makes sense for hers, but the others it's more difficult. Also it let Dice down a bit since a signature dish might be something low key and simple, losing points for originality. Showstopper is more of an appropriate send-off to the last round in my opinion, and conveys more meaning and excitement, as signature is too meh and problem-ridden. The childhood round had similar issues - look where needing the context of a user's dish led Thomas the Tank engine (he shouldn't have bottled out like a little bitch, it made the trolling all the worse)

It'd be interesting to consider knowing the rounds in advance? Take something like the no-heat challenge, where many contestants opted to use fermentation, or the fire challenge where many contestants were held back by lack of resources or living situations with no access to BBQ equipment. Knowing rounds in advance could inspire some mind-blowing dishes. I dunno, something to consider.

I liked rounds with more playfulness of interpretation of method and outcome, like the fire challenge, no-heat challenge and frozen food. They actually had some competitive and creative element to them. Many more desserts this competition which is diverse.

>Scoring needs to be handled a lot better, triple checked before submitting to the thread. Too many times did contestants have to point out that their own scores were mixed up or misrepresented
That was my mistake, trying to post the threads too fast when coming home from work. My apologies.

>Can we abandon the colours round too?
It as one of the most requested theme in the planning thread, but we can avoid it next year.

You made stir fry with premade noodles. And you sound as salty as your dish looked. Fuck off.
Work on saucing your dishes.

Not just saucing, there was a lot this challenge I screwed up on due to lack of technical know-how or unrefined technique. Some of the dishes were first timers for me too. The whole thing was like one big research project on creating new dishes which made it a really fun time. Overall it's changed how I cook in general and I want to keep advancing that progress.

I am happy to see that you had fun and that it had a positive impact on you :)

You made a plate of noodles you fucking amateur, shut the fuck up.

I'm not saying I think anything needs to change, but if it did, I think the contestants should be anonymous. They could submit one photo with just a time stamp, and then send a second photo with a name and identifier to Bubbleburst, or whoever is running to.

That way people would be forced to vote on the dish, not the person who submitted it.

And that would prevent yellowmug from samefag voting for himself again how exactly?

Eyepatch here. Thank you bubble burst for putting this thing on, and congratulations Nack. I had a lot of fun doing this thing and making things I probably wouldn't have made otherwise. It also made me more comfortable with altering recipes and coming up with my own. I was never in it to win it, and I'm glad I made it as far as I did. Maybe if I participate again next year, I'll put in a better effort and remake things when they turn out shitty instead of just plating them like a dick and entering them anyways.

oh yeah, and if i do it again next year I'll learn to make verticals because they definitely improve the competition and bring more OC which seems to be the point of this whole thing.

The OC is the point yes :-)
There's a vertical tutorial on the blog, if you want to look at it.

How does that change anything you fucking mongoloid? "Signature" didnt imply showstopper. If his dish is simple than so be it.

Not the person you replied to, but I thought "showstopper" was kind of implied by the fact that it was the final round. However you interpret the challenge goal, it doesn't change the fact that it lacked originality and presentation.

I personally would have preferred to see another yellowmug monstrosity over a plate of noodles.

Booru is back up, so upload of the verticals on the way. Just finished Dice's starting on Fantastic (because alphabetical order)

i really miss the "roll" challenges, too bad the mods look down on that kinda stuff....i also thought a fun idea for a challenge would be to get inspired from a board other than Veeky Forums, but i dunno how much sense that makes....

going to try to fight the urge to compete next year. 3 times is enough....i always am excited in the beginning and am just looking forward to the end by the halfway mark. this year was rough... since i moved to the middle of nowhere i cant find decent varieties of meat... i couldnt even find quail... when i looked for duck, my only option would have been a frozen whole duck for $30-40, but i am excited to judge next year!

And... uploaded and tagged. I'm going to go do something else now.

I do think in the late game more interesting/complex rounds would be fun. The "history" round a few years back for example. Equally, I really want to see interpretation of a board themed round- where a contestant would attempt to represent an aspect of a board/board culture.

>going to try to fight the urge
That's kinda gay. Work with what you got.
You were completely able to use the tools in your disposal this year. I get the annoyance of being unable to get the meats you're used to though.

you winners gonna post pics of your prizes when you get them? i wanna see how the aprons look

Who's all getting one?? I thought just the top dude won crap. Fuck I should have participated I could use an apron.

Top 3

Seconding this. I think it's neat to see that people donated prizes to other people and actually followed through on Veeky Forums.

Didn't one person win basically half the prizes?

Think there were 2 rounds where people got "round" prizes for winning it. If I'm not mistaken it was Rei and LiarMug.

Next year someone should do mugs again. This years logo would have been pretty cool.

CookingRei, Yellowmug and fantastic git round prizes.

Top 3 will be getting aprons (with delays and my apologies)

Winner get a trophy.

can you link to the blog or whatever

This contest devolved into what you'd expect from a group of bored millennials.

Contestants who have never heard a word of criticism their entire life would submit dishes thinking that voters would go apeshit about how great they were. Instead, voters pointed out obvious flaws, which shocked and appalled contestants.

>"How could they not think I'm special and amazing??"

The contestants would then get angry, yell at Bubble to discount any negative votes as being "trolling".

Of course, with accusations of trolling come actual trolls. Once people realized how angry non 15+/20 scores made contestants, the trolls came in an attempt to hijack the competition,

Everyone yelled at Bubble for making mistakes, but the competition got fucked way before hand.

In the end, I think it turned out better than I expected it to at the halfway mark. Contestants next year should not be surprised that this competition isn't a personal hugbox, and that if a dish is submitted to be critiqued, it will be critiqued.

hate to break it to you guys, but I watched the last few rounds of the challenge and y'all are WHACK. I'm coming in next year, bringing the flavor, bringing this BBC, and I'm bringing breakfast to EVERY. DISH. And I'm collecting that W. Screencap it, save it, remember the name.

Let's see some of your dishes hombre. I want a sneak preview.

>t. Walt jr

Saved.

I'll repost this next year when you make your mediocre food and drop out after 2 rounds, or get voted out for making nothing but breakfast dishes.

>I eat the same 3 or 4 breakfasts every day therefore you do too

trust it brother, I don't take breakfast lightly.

Still waiting on pictures

Blog : ckchallenge.blogspot.ca

The verticals are on the booru : ck.booru.org

I wanted to recreate yellowmug's cookies but the vertical doesn't seem to be on the booru.

Might have skipped it in the uploading. Let me check.

Fuck off Yellowmug

>believing someone else wants to recreate his dogfood with peanut butter smeared over the bowl

It had gotten misfiled. Found it. I like being thorough. You can always down vote it on to booru.

The contest may be over, but don't worry, you can still down vote the most hated dish in Veeky Forums challenge history!

He seemed to take it as a personal insult. Maybe a click of a mouse will give him the sense of power and control the rest of his life lacks? *shrugs* Don't care either way.

Why are you double spacing every sentence?

When do we get to see the episode of "Where are they now" on VH1 on what happened to the contestants this season?

So that you would respond

Everything about Yellowmug's entire existence is a personal insult.

I want a replica or the yellow mug so that I can use it in OC threads. IS it a Chucky Cheese mug?

This is why:
The butthurt is palpable. I would like to harness it and make it more... MORE ... More angry noobs. It's hilarious to me.

Dice, sorry you were upset about the reviews of your last dish. It wasn't a personal attack (my review). Don't take it to heart. Yakisoba is fast food/junk food. Period.

Nack, grats. You seem to try harder than you're able to, which is a good thing. I just got annoyed by some of your wording, and you came off a bit know-it-all. FWIW. Appreciate the effort.

Rei: makes dank food. There wasn't a miss. Plating and other shit ... meh... but there wasn't anything you made that didn't make me want to stuff my face in.

Fantastic: you slipped by. I don't recall any of your dishes. I mean nothing stood out that I am remembering right now... It might be just me. /shrug

Burbles: sorry for all the shit. I want to say that I've seen worse, but really, nope. There's still lifers here. I've been here since PHS and um... whatdoyacall.. soup with bread on top. Sog...

Anyways, props to contestants, and more props to the person who has to gather all the numbers and get shit on while compiling.
You're a beacon of hope in a fucking turd of a board. Thank you for your work.

>Yakisoba is fast food/junk food. Period.
It is quick to make, it is not "fast food" and certainly not junk food.

It looked like Panda Express dumped on a plate.

Sorry pal but it kind of is junk food. Not hating, but it really isn't the kind of thing you see as a main course.

bump

It kind of seemed like everyone was done and had said everything they wanted to say.