Welcome to March 2009, also known as the Third Anniversary of UFS.

We've already highlighted two of the amazing promotions that Fantasy Flight Games is putting on to celebrate the anniversary.
Meanwhile I've been lamenting the lack of articles being written about UFS. Considering they did not know what the prize was, I was really happy with the two articles I received from Wakeen & Scott for our 2008 Wrap-Up Contest. So happy that I declared them both winners and sent them both a set of AoP's to be happy. Now to be honest, I have not sent Wakeen's out yet, because he has not sent me his address yet.

So with the experience of the first writing contest out of the way, we move forward to the UFS 3rd Anniversary writing contest. Without further adieu, here's the details:

• This writing contest is open to all TCO members. Becoming a member is easy. If you do not already have an account on TCO, simply click HERE
  
  
• To submit an article, either click HERE, or scroll down on the left hand to the Options section and choose the "Submit an Article." link. You must be logged in to be able to use this feature.
  
  
• Enter your article in the main body, feel free to use the various formatting options available, including adding images if you so desire. To help spice up your article, I may choose to add some images, so don't sweat it if you don't add anything. If you do add images from another site, please be sure they are comfortable with images being linked from their site. While funny, squirrels often do not add the intended flavour.
  
  
• After submitting your article, send me a PM. In your PM I need the following information:
  
  

1. Your Full Name & How you want to be credited in the introduction.
   
   
2. Is this the first time the article has been submitted to a site? A number of folks submitted articles to Vik for his site a few months back. Vik and I are comfortable sharing writers, and sharing articles. However I want to ensure that proper writing and publishing credit is given for each article.
   
   
3. Your full address. (Where I am going to be sending the cards. This way I won't be waiting a month after the contest closes for the person to send me their address so I can send them stuff.)
   
   
4. What your first and second choice would be as your reward for the article.
   
   
5. If you have purposely chosen to ignore various conventions of spelling or grammar for the purposes of artistic expression, please let me know.
   

FAQ:

Q: What happens after submitting an article?

A: I will review and possibly edit the article. Editing will involve adding graphics to the article so it's something other then a wall of text. (Frequently I will just add card images of the various cards being discussed in the article. Additionally if I notice some obvious spelling or grammar edits, I will typically make corrections. As long as the article meets site guidelines I will accept it for publication.

Q: What are the site's guidelines?

A: TCO has been "impacting employee productivity since 2001." That means that whatever we publish on our front page should be able to be read in the work place, or in front of parents. Additionally an article is just that - an article, something that can stand alone, apart from a broader discussion and still make sense. So far I think I've rejected maybe 5 articles since we've moved to .net. All of those articles fit as forum posts. Articles that are declined to be published will receive feedback explaining why they are not being published. Writers are encouraged to take the feedback and make alterations to their article and re-submit.

Q: How quickly will articles be published?

A: In a perfect world I would like to average an article a day. So by the end of March, if I have 25 articles, we'll have met the target that I've set. If we exceed that, I will continue to publish articles until all accepted articles have been published.
Q: What if I want to submit an article, but for whatever reason would need to have it published before date X or after date Y?

A: Please include that in your PM to me with the other information.


Q: Yeah okay... that's all well and good, but you were talking about paying me. So, how much?

A: 4 copies of one of the following cards :

• :Abyss:
• .Adon.
• One-armed Maneuvers
• Ryu's Ashura Senku
• .Talim.
• Yi Shan

The first five cards are the reprinted version of cards that received errata. These are the correct version of the cards, and in the case of :Abyss:  is foiled unlike the starter deck version.

The sixth card available is the legendary Yi Shan. Previously only available as part of a redemption program.


Q: So what's the minimum size for my article?

A: Roughly 1,000 words. Will I accept something less then 1,000 words? Possibly. It really depends on how good the article is. If your article rocks, and it comes in at 700 words, I'll be happy to publish it.


Q: Can I submit more then one article?

A: Absolutely. Part of the way this is designed is to encourage people to write multiple times.

Q: What if I write a single 5,000 word article, can I get all 24 cards that way?

A: Maybe. Please note above that I request first and second selection. Some longer articles that are well done I am going to choose to give them more then just 1 set of cards. I am seeking quality, and will try to reward that where possible. What I may work with you to do is break the article into parts if it truly is epic, to spread it out.


Q: How soon will you send me my reward?

A: If you are going to the PotM Wrap up event in April, I may ask you to wait until then so I can save on postage. Otherwise, I'll be sending as soon as I can, and as finances permit. I'll be aiming to go to the post office once a week to do mailings. If I suddenly get 100 submissions all at once, please understand that it may take a while to get the cards out.


Q: What do you want the articles to be about?

A: What ever you want. Some suggestions:
If you are going to post a deck, rather then just listing all the cards in the deck, possibly talk about what led you to the current version of the deck, discuss some of the key card interactions, what makes the deck tick, or what special tech you are using.

Tell the story of how you got into UFS, or how you've helped others get into the game. Talk about your favourite symbol, perhaps a road trip to a tournament. Something that *I* would love to see is a critical breakdown of set 11. That's something that we have not seen, and there is a tremendous amount of tech floating out there from set 11 still waiting to be discovered.

As cards from set 12 start to appear, what ideas and strategies present themselves. How do you think the game is going to shift?

If you have some ideas, but you're not sure, feel free to PM me, or post on the forums and flesh out your ideas. There's been a number of times where something that started out as a thread discussion turned into a several thousand word article for me.


Q: How long does the contest run?

A: I'm targeting to run this until March 31st / while supplies last.

At the end of the day, this contest is being run solely at my discretion, and I reserve the right to amend or update the contest as need be.


Thanks for your interest - now start typing!