Law of Talos - Lost entries in comic-creation tournament
Sept 24, 2022 4:27:08 GMT
rei, marius, and 2 more like this
Post by andyetnobananas on Sept 24, 2022 4:27:08 GMT
What it is and why I care
In the late 00s/early 10s there was a scene that was most prominent on deviantart, based on events known as Original Character Tournaments (OCTs.) These were comic creation contests where competitors created OCs and made comics, writings or even animations of them beating their opponent's OC, the better of the two moving on the next round in a bracket tournament. The largest event of it's kind occurred in 2008, called Law of Talos. It was an invite based tournament, so the most skilled independent artists at that point were invited. Even this, the most famous tournament, has only had 67k views on the starting page, but a lot of the creators went on to big things, like Zeurel, a now large youtube animator, and Shaun Healey (Endling), who is currently the lead character designer for Warforward games.
The main reason people remember the OCT nowadays was for the entries of the contest's 2nd place winner, someone who literally goes by Unknown-Person. Unlike everyone else who did their entries in comic form, UP did his in animated form. (Here's some reuploads of the animations if you're curious.) While most of the comic is obscured due to being on a dying corner of the internet, the youtube reuploads ensure that this is the most likely place to discover this OCT and the OCT scene as a whole. This is how I discovered the scene, which I joined in 2013, and while I never interacted with anyone involved with Law of Talos, I still met people who I call my best friends today.
While I moved on from the scene in 2019 (mostly to pursue a youtube career and because there's no money to be made in competitions like these, it's all for personal enjoyment,) youtube recommended me the UP animations and i've been in a nostalgia stupor for the past few days, so I revisited the LoT page, but when I got there, I noticed that a lot of the entries were lost, including ones from the grand champion of the tournament. I knew this was bound to happen for one reason or another (even in 2013 some of them were lost) but now that lost media hunting seems to be as popular as ever, I want to see if throwing it to this forums could make a difference.
What is missing
There are two main sets of entries that I'm concerned about finding. I'm not sure if finding everything is realistic, but I can see these two sets again, i'll be happy (after I personally save everything else that is remaining.
BlackLillian(Terriblenerd) - Annie and the Professor
This is the person who ended up winning the whole tournament. There is a UP animation involving his take of their character's fate, but because the tourney's judges liked BL's entry better, UP's round 5 animation is considered non-canon. BL's deviantart account is still up, and there's art dating as far back as 2007, but nothing involving LoT or any other OCT is there, suggesting it was deleted at some point. My memory is hazy about the exact contents of the entries. The general plotline is about a criminal couple named Annie and the Professor, who's going through a troubled relationship, then got married in round 4. In round 5, the canonical ending to LoT (which I remember more clearly,) Annie is killed by UP's character Karl, so the professor hunts him down to an abandoned steel production factory. After a cat and mouse chase in the shadows, something happens (don't remember what) and Karl forcibly gains empathy, and starts muttering "I killed your wife" over and over as he sinks into molten steel. As per the lore of the setting, the Professor is granted a wish, which he uses to bring everyone who died in the tourney to life, including Annie. This also unintentionally includes Karl, who comes back as a human instead of an animated concrete statue, much to his annoyance.
ConcentrationMoon - Chimbley Sweep
He got to the semifinal round, facing and losing to UP. Amusingly, not only is this not the first time they faced each other (both being part of the next biggest OCT ever, Endzone,) not only did they face each other in the semifinal, but CM used the exact same character, Chimbley Sweep, in both OCTs. Chimbley is a big fanfavorite of the time, 2nd to Karl. He was a 10y child chimney sweeper with no powers or combat training, arm only with the fact that he is the most sensible person in the room. CM's entries did something that hadn't been done before, then, or since. While it's standard practice that you try to depict your oppenent's characters accurately, CM decided to make each character a caricature of their normal depictions, exaggerating how weird they are to emphasize how normal and rational Chimbley is by comparison. ConcentrationMoon's entire page has been deleted, so all of his works are lost.
Some other accounts and entries that I can't find. (Here's a guide for what to look out for:)
Zen-Pyro-Dragon's account
ZombieBunnyPro's account
rockaar's account
Commandamed entries
HaveConquest's entries
Marck's entries
Lunacat's entries (except the character reference)
Gottschalk's entries
Devilchika's account
TheJohnsonDesign's entries (made is flash, so it's unusable)
Unfortunately I don't have time to do a search myself, I'm too busy trying to keep my life afloat, so fingers crossed that this gains attention. I'll try to monitor the thread if anyone has any questions.
In the late 00s/early 10s there was a scene that was most prominent on deviantart, based on events known as Original Character Tournaments (OCTs.) These were comic creation contests where competitors created OCs and made comics, writings or even animations of them beating their opponent's OC, the better of the two moving on the next round in a bracket tournament. The largest event of it's kind occurred in 2008, called Law of Talos. It was an invite based tournament, so the most skilled independent artists at that point were invited. Even this, the most famous tournament, has only had 67k views on the starting page, but a lot of the creators went on to big things, like Zeurel, a now large youtube animator, and Shaun Healey (Endling), who is currently the lead character designer for Warforward games.
The main reason people remember the OCT nowadays was for the entries of the contest's 2nd place winner, someone who literally goes by Unknown-Person. Unlike everyone else who did their entries in comic form, UP did his in animated form. (Here's some reuploads of the animations if you're curious.) While most of the comic is obscured due to being on a dying corner of the internet, the youtube reuploads ensure that this is the most likely place to discover this OCT and the OCT scene as a whole. This is how I discovered the scene, which I joined in 2013, and while I never interacted with anyone involved with Law of Talos, I still met people who I call my best friends today.
While I moved on from the scene in 2019 (mostly to pursue a youtube career and because there's no money to be made in competitions like these, it's all for personal enjoyment,) youtube recommended me the UP animations and i've been in a nostalgia stupor for the past few days, so I revisited the LoT page, but when I got there, I noticed that a lot of the entries were lost, including ones from the grand champion of the tournament. I knew this was bound to happen for one reason or another (even in 2013 some of them were lost) but now that lost media hunting seems to be as popular as ever, I want to see if throwing it to this forums could make a difference.
What is missing
There are two main sets of entries that I'm concerned about finding. I'm not sure if finding everything is realistic, but I can see these two sets again, i'll be happy (after I personally save everything else that is remaining.
BlackLillian(Terriblenerd) - Annie and the Professor
This is the person who ended up winning the whole tournament. There is a UP animation involving his take of their character's fate, but because the tourney's judges liked BL's entry better, UP's round 5 animation is considered non-canon. BL's deviantart account is still up, and there's art dating as far back as 2007, but nothing involving LoT or any other OCT is there, suggesting it was deleted at some point. My memory is hazy about the exact contents of the entries. The general plotline is about a criminal couple named Annie and the Professor, who's going through a troubled relationship, then got married in round 4. In round 5, the canonical ending to LoT (which I remember more clearly,) Annie is killed by UP's character Karl, so the professor hunts him down to an abandoned steel production factory. After a cat and mouse chase in the shadows, something happens (don't remember what) and Karl forcibly gains empathy, and starts muttering "I killed your wife" over and over as he sinks into molten steel. As per the lore of the setting, the Professor is granted a wish, which he uses to bring everyone who died in the tourney to life, including Annie. This also unintentionally includes Karl, who comes back as a human instead of an animated concrete statue, much to his annoyance.
ConcentrationMoon - Chimbley Sweep
He got to the semifinal round, facing and losing to UP. Amusingly, not only is this not the first time they faced each other (both being part of the next biggest OCT ever, Endzone,) not only did they face each other in the semifinal, but CM used the exact same character, Chimbley Sweep, in both OCTs. Chimbley is a big fanfavorite of the time, 2nd to Karl. He was a 10y child chimney sweeper with no powers or combat training, arm only with the fact that he is the most sensible person in the room. CM's entries did something that hadn't been done before, then, or since. While it's standard practice that you try to depict your oppenent's characters accurately, CM decided to make each character a caricature of their normal depictions, exaggerating how weird they are to emphasize how normal and rational Chimbley is by comparison. ConcentrationMoon's entire page has been deleted, so all of his works are lost.
Some other accounts and entries that I can't find. (Here's a guide for what to look out for:)
Zen-Pyro-Dragon's account
ZombieBunnyPro's account
rockaar's account
Commandamed entries
HaveConquest's entries
Marck's entries
Lunacat's entries (except the character reference)
Gottschalk's entries
Devilchika's account
TheJohnsonDesign's entries (made is flash, so it's unusable)
Unfortunately I don't have time to do a search myself, I'm too busy trying to keep my life afloat, so fingers crossed that this gains attention. I'll try to monitor the thread if anyone has any questions.
