Classic Cycle 14 Round Six

It’s the final week of voting! I’m posting this from the Otakon XIV track (“we have Fanfest at home”) so hopefully the voting forms come through correctly.

The final week’s challenge was one of our favorite scenic style themes, Starry Sky. Our models were asked to include a starscape in any zone, any location, and thanks to Endwalker, we’ve got our first 24/7 options.

Please look at each of the images below. You can view them in closer detail by clicking on the center of the image. Use your browser’s back button to return to this blog post. Then vote for the strongest image using the Google poll embedded below. Remember that ENTM uses golf scores, so the strongest shot should be #1.

Sign in is required to prevent ballot stuffing, but no email addresses are collected. If you are having issues voting using the embedded poll, please click on this link to open it in a new tab: https://forms.gle/9uHEG1xMw2gHuwwT9

Classic Cycle 14 Round 5 Winner

This was our closest week of voting yet, with community votes stepping up to break what would otherwise be a multi-way tie from the judges. But after everything was added up, the lowest score and our winner for this week belonged to Damien Montclair. Congratulations!

An FFXIV screenshot. An Au Rais dressed in a red hood and a cloak, and is walking down an empty road.
Damien Montclair

We have ONE MORE WEEK of ENTM Classic Cycle 14 to go. I hope everyone has had fun and been inspired by the creativity of our models for our short summer cycle.

Starting with our next cycle (likely sometime this fall) we will attempt to do better about cross posting to social media automatically using tools from WordPress.

Classic Cycle 14 Round 5 – Fairy Tales

We’re on to the home stretch of Classic Cycle 14. With six models remaining and scoring so tight I had to break out a magnifying glass last week, it’s still a wide open competition these last two weeks!

Our models were asked to present a “fairy tale” style shot – that is, to take a free style shot (battle, scenic, or fashion) and slap it in one of the Gpose frames with some filters to make it look like it came out of a picture book. They could choose an existing story for inspiration, or write their own fairy tale with a picture worth a thousand words.

Please look at each image below. To view the image in full size, click on the middle. Use your browser’s back button to return to this post. After looking at each image, vote using the embedded Google poll, with 1 as the strongest shot of the week on down. Voting will be open until Tuesday, July 25th.

Sign in is required, but no email addresses are collected. If you are having trouble voting using the embedded poll, please click on this link instead to open the poll in a new tab: https://forms.gle/LGahtKzZNyFisnuH7

Classic Cycle 14 Round 4 Winner

Battle shots are always one of the tougher rounds in ENTM – it’s so hard to balance out the character, the opponent, and the action and make it look stylish. Judges and community were all over the place with their votes (so much so that fractions of a point determined the community winner again this round) but once everything was added up, the final winner for this round was once again Val Viscera.

Congratulations!

We’ve still got two more weeks to go, and based on the math behind each week’s scores, it’s still any model’s contest to win.

On the administrative side of things, Judge Blix is having to step down due to IRL / personal reasons and will regrettably miss the rest of the competition. Judge Escher has agreed to fill in for the remaining two weeks. Thank you Blix for your first time judging for ENTM! Hope IRL gets sorted out for you soon, for the better.

An FFXIV screenshot. An Au Ra warrior is attacking a dragon.
Val Viscera

Classic Cycle 14 Round 4 – Class Commenced

Welcome back everyone! We’ve started the second half of Classic Cycle 14 now. We have six models remaining in this competition and they’re bringing in our toughest shot of the cycle, a battle shot! The models were asked to take a shot wearing class AF armor, while visibly engaged in a fight with something.

Please take a look at each of these images below. Click on the center of the image to view it in a larger size. Use your browser’s back button to return to this post.

Then use the Google poll below to rank them from 1-6, where 1 is the strongest shot of them all this week.

Sign in is required to prevent ballot stuffing, but email addresses are not stored. If you are having trouble voting using the embedded poll, click here to open it in a new tab: https://forms.gle/VTeA4v3hC1uT8u769

Classic Cycle 14 Round 3 Winner

Last’s week photo challenge was to take a free style shot on the theme of “Tavern.” Our models braved these dark and dusty bars across the world, getting into bar fights and getting behind the bar themselves to serve up beverages, but the winner by a hair this week was Damian Montclair whose friends all cancelled on them at the last minute to play FFXVI, giving us this amusing shot in response.

Congratulations! Classic Cycle 14 continues this weekend!

An FFXIV screenshot. An Au Ra is sitting alone at a table in a bar.
Damien Montclair

July Challenge 2023

Better late than never! The challenge for the month of July is very simple – Chocobos! Take a screenshot inspired by this one word and share it with the world. You have until Monday, July 24th to send me a shot on this theme.

All shots must be in vanilla Gpose using the in game camera. The winner gets the right to choose the theme for the next month’s challenge!

To enter, submit your screenshot and your character name to Admin Katarh Mest on Discord.

Please >>>click right here<<<< to join the ENTM Discord community if you have not done so already!

ENTM contests are open to the general screenshot community. You do not have to have participated in any ENTM contest before. You must, however, be a member of our Discord community to see the winner’s announcement. ENTM monthly contest screenshots must be “vanilla” – no mods, no Reshade, and no post processing allowed. You must include the FFXIV copyright notice on the shot to allow us to post on our website for voting. Please submit one (1) original screenshot for this contest, not used in any other contest before or posted on social media. Also please include the character name for voting. No other restrictions apply beyond these and the challenge theme as described above. Do not taunt happy fun ball.

Classic Cycle 14 Round Three – Tavern

Hello everyone and welcome back to our third week of Classic Cycle 14! We had an old theme last week to go back to our forum roots, but this week we’re introducing a brand new theme for this cycle: “Tavern.”

Our models were challenged to do a free style shot in any of the many taverns scattered around Eorzea and beyond. With no restrictions, they could choose scenic, fashion, or even an action oriented shot in this open ended theme.

Please look at each of the images below. Click on the middle of the image to view it in full size, then use your browser’s back button to return to this blog post.

After looking at every image, please rank them in order from 1-7 with your #1 being the strongest out of the bunch. (Remember, ENTM uses golf scores so the lower, the better!)

If you are having trouble using the embedded poll above, please click on this link to open it in a new tab instead. Note that sign in is required to prevent ballot stuffing, but email addresses are not collected: https://forms.gle/yufD1VS7uoEpYBmUA

June Challenge 2023 Winner

The winner for our June Challenge was Timtam James! Congratulations!

Please help us with community voting in Classic Cycle 14, and look forward to our July challenge coming shortly!

Timtam James

Classic Cycle 14 Week 2 Winner

This week was our throwback fashion style swimsuit competition, a round first done on the OG Cycle 1 on the official FF forums. (Long before Gpose so they couldn’t be vertical, though.)

The judges and community had a much harder time this week since everyone was so gorgeous, but Val Viscera squeaked out a win by a single point against everyone else in the end. Congrats for a second week in a row!

An image of an Au Ra from FFXIV. She is wearing a striped bathing suit and standing in front of the ocean.
Val Viscera