Contests

I got up a little earlier than usual this past Saturday to catch the second WoW Factor show on my home server, Proudmoore.  I am so glad I was able to make it, not only was it a lot of fun, there were some amazing transmogs, and I walked away with 15k!  The WoW Factor shows were started by Keelhaul, who hails from Proudmoore, and they have grown into a fantastic community event, held on different servers every few weeks.  Info on the shows, and a complete write up of this one can be found at WoW Roleplay Gear.  They are an amazing resource for transmog outfits.  I really want to thank all the people who hosted the show, and the live-stream, along with the judges, especially Tmaralee who really rallied for me to win in Round 3.  I’ve never been involved with server-wide events, and for the people who worked so hard to put this together, I appreciate the opportunity.

I started the morning in my pally’s blue templar mash-up set.  I found a spot in the circle and waited patiently, hoping to be noticed.  Listening in to the live stream, I was amazed by the judges attention to detail, and knowledge of gear.  Some of the outfits they really liked were just off by one or two pieces, which ended up happening with mine.  They liked the look, but felt the shield was off.  The ensuing conversation about how maybe I should have used the Royal Crest of Lordaeron, but no, that’s too orange… was pretty entertaining given that’s how I started this post.  In the end, they passed on me for round 1.  I thought about bringing in Drainee in her Ice Ice Baby set, but as I was talking to a friend about it, the judges were looking at another person in frost resist gear.  One of the judges said she liked the use of fr gear, but because it stood out so much, it gave her a feeling of ‘I’ve seen it already’.  I decided since I had finally gotten Despair to drop from Kara a few weeks ago, I needed to just go with my very first transmog outfit.

The winning look.  Photo from The WoW Factor.

I ran off to Stormwind to finish mogging my dps gear, and to buy a sword to mog into Despair.  I made it back to Ironforge while round 1 was still going on.  I caught the judge’s eye again, but found out I could only be judged once per round, per outfit.  “Don’t worry though Draynee,” one of the judges said, “we’ll be back.”  And come back, they did.  I think I was like the second or third person they picked for Round 2.  It was really awesome to hear them say such nice things about my outfit.  One even said that I lived up to the guild name, Pretty Fly For a Draenei!  Of course, as they were giving me my winnings, it had to be pointed how ‘so wrong, so wrong’ my guild tabard really is.  It was a good laugh.  The guild tabard is meant to be ridiculous, I mean, why in the world would they make that a tabard graphic?!  Someone later commented on the live stream that “the boob tabard won,” lol.

The judges had a heck of a time picking the rest of the round 2 winners.  There was a lot of debate between them and a lot of great looks.  I was glad that Wondergirl won in round 2, because they really liked her take on the judgement recolor/revenant set before I showed up in mine.  In round 1 they didn’t like her shield either, but she took their suggestion and bought the Titansteel Shield Wall, so she got a win for the second round.  One of my favorites was Domungus, a dwarf hunter who I guess was mogged to look like a mine guard.  Throughout the show they were back on forth on that poor guy.  He also had a piece off in round 1, his boots, which he switched for round 2 and scored a win.

The ‘final four’ Draynee Electracute Maraki and Eldani

Round 3 was the final round, a total of 3 winners. They started off the round by immediately picking out Schwert as a 10k winner.  Her outfit is really an incredible mash of pieces from different sets pulled together beautifully.  I kept hearing my name but I wasn’t quite sure what was going on.  All the judges seemed zeroed in on Ryoukø, but Tmaralee said she’d only agree if the last spot went to Draynee. (!)  I honestly think some of the male judges worried about looking sexist if they picked me.  I don’t think my outfit was anymore sexist then Ry’s, but Mara’s wanting to pick me turned into a long diatribe about always picking ‘pretty races’ from one judge, and then a defense of picking them because they are the majority that show up from another.  In the end, each judge picked their favorite for the last spot and defended that pick.  Tmaralee was awesome and said she couldn’t pick out anything she would change about my look.  She later sent me a tell saying she doesn’t even tend to like pink!  After the plugs, each judge picked the two it was between, and it ended up being 3 for me, and 2 for Electracute.  I was so excited to win, but I was also pulling for Electracute.  Her outfit was really well put together, and the creativity to mog a dwarf isn’t seen too often.   All-in-all, it was incredibly fun, and I am thankful to be a winner.  I might have to roll a level 1 on the next server they visit to check everyone out!

A few of the winners who were left at the end.