--2017 Year in Review--
January 2017
Imagineering Competitions
Timeline
January 1st - January 25th
The Creator Games: Project Revival was hosted by
@IDInstitute and kicked off the imagineering competition season of 2017. A sequel to 2015's
The Creator Games competition, this installment blasted off with a fun retro Guardians of the Galaxy theme to it, and a goal to 'revive' isolated/abandoned areas of Disney Parks.
Since the announcement, Project Revival had a ton of hype going into it from the success of the previous installment. So much that this was one of the first competitions to actually utilize a 'FastPass' sign-up system.
With the competition announced in early December for a January 1st 2017 start time -- potential players could reserve their spot in the game by requesting a 'FastPass' in case they were gone for the holiday season and couldn't sign-up due to being away or busy.
Ultimately - 22 incredible contestants signed up to compete - in what would ultimately be a 3 challenge duel between Team Baby Groot and Team Drax. Each team member was given a custom avatar with the competition logo on it for the duration of the game, as well as an inclusion in the introductory video to the competition (thanks to MonorailRed)
Team Baby Groot
Coaches: MonorailRed and spacemt354
FigmentPigments
OvertheHorizon
Jsly
MCParradox
Disney Dad 3000
Brer Oswald
Poe Dameron
Expedition626
C. E. Myatt
Michel Lichand
Stark
Team Drax
Coaches: TheOriginalTiki, MANEATINGWREATH, and Sam4D23
Magic Feather
Pionmycake
kmbmw777
David2319
RMichael21
AdventurerEllie
orlando678-
IAmNotAHufflepuff
DSquared
Angels and Disney's
DlpPhantom
Both of these teams looking back were incredibly stacked -- it's pretty neat to look back and see how much talent was a part of this competition.
Furthermore, both teams had multiple players who had won competitions in the past, many who went very deep into past competition, and players/coaches previously voted into the Imagineering Hall of Fame.
And it showed in the results! - as Team Baby Groot and Team Drax presented fantastic projects throughout the competition's 3 Session run -- with Team Baby Groot's emphasis being more visual and practically realistic, and Team Drax's emphasis being more innovative and thinking outside the box. Each team used custom websites, logos, artwork, even Adobe In-Design in one instance, as presentation tools.
Some example projects:
Team Baby Groot's Glacier Bay
http://creatorgames1.weebly.com/
Team Drax's Dog With a Blog Fort Wilderness/River Country Refurbishment
https://dogwithatravelblog.weebly.com/
To enhance the competition experience even further -- for each challenge
@TheOriginalTiki and the So, You Want To Be An Imagineer YouTube Channel would host a podcast discussing the topic of the week (Ex: Re-doing River Country the podcast focused on Abandoned Disney Locations)
They would also provide in-depth podcast reviews for each Session after the team projects were submitted
------------
The Creator Games started 2017 off with a bang with wonderful projects and productivity -- yet nevertheless, it was shorter than expected and ended after Session 3 due to personal schedule conflicts among other reasons that really don't matter now.
With time -- and reflection looking back, despite the short-life of the competition, I can safely say this was one of the most bold and all-encompassing competitions we've ever had on the forums, and catapulted us into the next wave of competitions, imagineers, and activity in the months to come!
)
Let's just say there was so much else going on, the more niche international location, among other things - unfortunately it never got past the blue sky phase unlike its predecessor Walt Disney World 1966.
