hen
t h e e r
the blender yet again
n e w s
Ill try to whip through this infofile, perhaps the artscenes most demanding,
because we have tons of great art, no one has had a chance to appreciate it
yet, and infofiles are not widely enough appreciated to justify delaying
release! Saturday, April 18th, we launched 2020s edition of the Blender IRC
funpo, under the revised 2019 rules: running two parallel competitions, one
brief and one long. But doubling the work on our plate wasnt enough for some,
so we one-upped our audacious selves of one year ago with a new development:
Cthulu Warpus suggested we have active and interested blenderians milling
around in here, would you like warpus and I to kick things off early
with a warm up round?
warpus we could do some sort of a warmup
sIMONkING why not? :
CthMist we have a long way to go six hours?!@ before real blender,
were just tapping the energy in the room
So sure, if the bodies are there and the mood is right, why not, running three
Blenders is surely not much more work than just running two of them. We took
many, many years off, so why not start making up for lost time?
teakay did you advertize in ansi about this blender compo?
teakay i heared bots can draw too these days -
We also preserved our 2019 innovations of rewarding with bonus points artists
who participated in multiple compos simultaneously, iced with additional
bonuses for artists who grandstanded by incorporating multiple compos worth of
topics into a single monolithic creation!
CthMist remember, go for the bonus and use both sets of topics.
CthMist in fact, I recall there is a bonus bonus if you are able to
consolidate and use all six topics in a single artwork
lum hell yeah.
CthMist live the dream!
burps that does make it easier indeed..
warpus and if you mix in some of the pre-blender words into all that too,
then its an option as well
CthMist thats so much bonus it actually turns negative
I gotta say, the artists seem to be going for it! Its an exciting new dynamic
to this venerable battle of wits, if I say so myself!
just f o r p r a c t i c e
CthMist hang on, just hand curating the words
firecat great
firecat i forgot what i sent
firecat damn
CthMist OK, weve looked over our word suggestions, heres an easy topic
for the warm-up pre-Blender blending round
CthMist ROBOTS / TRAINING / IN VIRTUAL REALITY
CthMist get your entries in to me or more likely Warpus within the next
four hours and 19 minutes.
CthMist In the meantime Ill be buzzing off and helping to demolish an old
ladys basement
CthMist innuendo fiends, go wild
sIMONkING where to send ansi?
@warpus send entries to me
sIMONkING what channel e-mail? ftp? fb?
CthMist any way your little heart desires
sIMONkING :
CthMist warpus hears a knock on the door and all blood drains from his
face
CthMist should I announce the winner of the pre-compo?
CthMist I should.
Warpus yeah might as well
CthMist In third place, The Odd Fire Cat!
CthMist In second place, sIMONKING!
CthMist and in first place, Pinguino!
spiny applauds
CthMist hats off everyone! You dont win any points for your crews, but
you know in your hearts that you are true winners.
CthMist The rest of us, of course, are just wieners.
CthMist Weiners.
CthMist God damnit
CthMist how do you ruin an already unfunny punchline?
CthMist I will find a way!
CthMist Thats what makes me the spirit of April Fools.
t h i s t i m e , f o r r e a l !
CthMist good topics inspire superior art!
cranksy if two of those words are gabber and cat Im golden
cranksy UNF UNF UNF UNF MEOW
CthMist and lacklustre words are turds that even master craftsmen can only
polish so far
CthMist or if you cant think of a topic you would excel at, ask yourself
what are topics you could handle that would trip up the competition,
anti-inspirational
CthMist like monks / doing taxes / in a library
CthMist possibly the most boring topic possible?
CthMist growing grass / watching / drying paint
melfarr did some actually submit growing grass watching drying paint?
CthMist it was a hypothetical
melfarr i kind of like it fwiw
CthMist thanks for your patience, we almost have the words settled
CthMist for the SHORT FORM BLENDER 2020 compo, due more or less in 2.5
hours time:
CthMist the words are COWBOY / EATING SUSHI / KIDDIE POOL
CthMist and for the LONG FORM BLENDER 2020 compo, due more or less in 24
hours time:
CthMist plays a suspenseful drum roll
CthMist pokes Warpus with a drumstick
CthMist demonstrates amazing percussion technique
CthMist twirls one stick in the air while cleaning his ear with the other
warpus the words are MONKEYS / RESCUING / IN BETWEEN REALITIES
warpus excuse me, I was in between realities for a sec there myself
CthMist You have your assignments, artists. Now go forth and make us some
art!
CthMist OK, will go announce the topics on social media. See you in 2.5
hrs!
burps wtf!? where is the usual complaining about the keywords? this is not
a normal blender! :
melfarr i just got back
melfarr about to read the words and complain
kniffy dont worry im about to complain
kniffy how can i make anything on these?!
kniffy i gotta stew for a bit and annoy myself into an idea
time passes
CthMist intense judging going on behind the scenes
CthMist observes white smoke puffing out of the chimney
CthMist We have a new dope! Its... its me. I know, same dope as before.
CthMist All right, friends, for the short-form compo of Blender 2020,
engaging the words cowboy, sushi and kiddie pool...
CthMist IN THIRD PLACE...
CthMist the warm-up round winner, PINGUINO!
CthMist IN SECOND PLACE...
warpus fires off some confetti guns
CthMist with a topical treat for your ears...
warpus CRANKSY
CthMist and in FIRST PLACE...
warpus fires some more confetti, but this time into the crowd
CthMist the winner of the short form Blender 2020 compo
CthMist LUM!
warpus INATOR!!!
CthMist congratulations to all competitors
warpus fires some confetti into his own face
melfarr CONGRATS 2 EVRY1
CthMist now everyone get back to work for the LONG FORM compo
CthMist running for another, I dont know what, 19 hours?
lum Good morning!
CthMist nice work, you won the short form round!
lum o/
a l l c u l m i n a t i n g i n . . .
CthMist OK everyone, if you havent got your submission in yet, the time is
now.
CthMist our judges are retiring to the judging chamber to deliberate
cranksy theyre going to get distracted for an hour
CthMist half of the judging is complete
CthMist strange noises are being heard from the judging chamber
CthMist the sounds of breaking furniture
CthMist a keening ululation
CthMist what is the sound of a thousand eels shrieking? that.
CthMist someone is heard swearing in Polish
CthMist the calliope of a merry-go-round, slowing down and then playing ...
in reverse?
CthMist bursts out and demands the delivery of 20 live chickens to allow the
judging to continue
CthMist the judging chamber goes eerily silent, save for the sound of a
distant dripping and an old woman sobbing
mfs I AM THAT OLD WOMAN
mfs I FEEL SO SEEN
CthMist We have wound up with a ranking that satisfies both judges, and
makes an old woman cry
CthMist that is the most important thing, after all
CthMist fairness, lack of bias, and devastation of the elderly
CthMist without further ado
CthMist actually, a little more ado
CthMist an incredible thanks to all our participants!
CthMist this was not particularly well promoted, but you somehow found your
way in here anyway
CthMist we had enough participants over the whole weekend to run three
separate compos!
CthMist I dont know if its the lockdown talking
CthMist but this might be a sign its time for Blender to go more often
than once a year
mfs !!!
CthMist dont quote me on that though
CthMist Id love to see it
CthMist would you believe it once ran weekly?
CthMist OK, now without further further ado
CthMist so the math involved yielded three sets of ties
CthMist one at the bottom of the rankings, and two in the top three
CthMist IN THIRD PLACE!
CthMist we have arranged for an extra wide podium so that Lum and sIMONKING
can share the glory while social distancing
mfs CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
CthMist in SECOND PLACE
CthMist Spiny, you crazy bastard, you get the spot all to yourself
mfs CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
CthMist usually I reserve the 1st place for Warpus to announce, but despite
still being online, his focus has been hijacked by a cadre of his
friends requiring him to play Risk with them right this very second
CthMist priorities!
CthMist that cant be right. I think I made up the Risk part.
CthMist It would be a bold affront to be left in the lurch for Risk, because
it is such a terrible game.
cranksy must have had to milk the moose
CthMist wow
CthMist well I know what next years topic will be!
CthMist But enough stalling.
CthMist IN FIRST PLACE
CthMist we have ANOTHER TIE
CthMist two next-level pieces
CthMist by WHAZZIT
CthMist and MEL FARR SUPPASTAR
CthMist Congratulations to all the winners
mfs CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP but for Whazzit
CthMist The competition was tiiiight, even with half the competitors tieing
their way into the top 3
mfs after 2018 I had lost 19 blenders. I was really hoping to get to a
20th loss last year but it eluded me
mfs it seems to have eluded me again
mfs THANK YOU FOR RUNNING IT
CthMist mfs, maybe in 2021, gotta come back and try!
CthMist Come back and try Apr 17-18 2021!
mfs WELL MAYBE WE WILL DO AN OCTOBER ONE
mfs my recommendation would be a 6hr compo 2/yr
CthMist a fun idea
CthMist all right, Apr 17-18 2021 IF NOT SOONER
CthMist stay tuned
CthMist cheers and Blend on everyone!
CthMist check 16colo.rs tomorrowish for the contents of all three of this
years compos!
p o s t g a m e a n a l y s i s
OK, just a couple of very superficial observations, items that may have eluded
home viewers who didnt laboriously pore over the incredibly statistics-driven
Blender infofiles...
1 Triple the compos, triple the art! Lots of great material came in, none of
which would ever had reason to be brought into existence had this compo never
occurred.
2 The bonus gambit! Its a whole new pathway for Blender advancement.
3 The rankings: After running Blender revived for five years, its great to
finally have Blocktronics up on the board! But the most surprising activity
was the enormous quantity of points won by artists representing Fuel this time
around, considering that the group has been considered defunct for months now!
But Im not going to argue with artists SAUCE metadata, even if it is just
haunted by expired default settings. The Legacy krew is up on the board now
also, and I expect it will be pulling most of those phat Fuel winnings in
future compos.
4 Stepping up the pace? Yeah, I can see a case for doing more of these, more
often. Its as fun as it ever was, and now that one-world government may
impose you all to remaining indoors at all times in physical solitude, why not
Blend to maintain your sanity? Im sorry, I cant say that with a straight
face.
I gave myself until midnight to blitz through this, and Im 5 minutes late.
The end!
b y e
if there ever is another blender, it will most likely be held:
if not sooner!
saturday, april 17th - sunday, april 18th, 2021
7:30pm - 7:30pm est
blender on EFnet
please join us. - hennifer
warpus
cthulu
melfarr weird how this channel is still full