Cycles
The cycles that we have throughout the year consist of the following:
- Classic: Open to all community members, including previous contestants and winners. Single model, with a blend of battle shots, fashion shots, and scenic shots. Uses a blend of community scoring and judged scoring with critiques. Classic style scoring is non-elimination, so all models are allowed to stick around for the full contest.
- Scenic: Scenic shots with no player characters! This cycle is unique in that it does not have community scoring, only judging, and it anonymously submitted so the judging is done by a blind jury. It is non-elimination.
- Fresh Faces: Focuses on players who have never been in a cycle before and would like to compete with other new models! Models who have been in other cycles are not eligible for this cycle. Classic style scoring.
- Doubles: This is a cycle where two models pair up and do all their shots together. Your partner must be in the same data center as you. Challenge is for both models to work together without outshining one another. Classic style scoring.
- Fashion: This cycle is all about the outfits – and unlike other cycles, where the orientation of each shot is determined by the round rules or model discretion, every shot in this cycle is done as a vertical shot to maximum the outfit. Classic style scoring.
- Instagram Cycle (Retired): This cycle allowed mods and edits, and also allowed the community scoring to determine which model was safe from elimination after each round.. Due to restrictions in place by Square Enix on the usage of mods, we have decided to retire this cycle for the time being.
- YouTube Cycle (Retired): A true reality style competition with episodes, voice acting, and weekly model elimination. Due to production issues and lost host continuity, we have decided to retire this cycle.
General Rules
- No Photoshopping
- No Cropping
- No Fantasia
- No Mods (of any kind! No reshades, no body mods, clothing mods etc…)
- Must use the in-game engine for screen shots to include the Square Enix copyright notice.
Basically, if it’s not already in the game the way the mighty Yoshi-P made this game to be, then models can’t do it! Of course, if you have any questions just ask an Administrator, or the Host of the cycle.
That said: Yes, models can use the Aesthetician. Actually, it is encouraged that models use it and show how diverse they can be from one shot to the next! Some rounds will require a complete makeover, such as candy colored hair or a “stripe” across the face.
Hosts
Every cycle is coordinated by a single ENTM member, known as “the cycle host.” The current active cycle hosts are Katarh, Kai, and Ni’ko, but previous contestants or community members who have their own idea for a cycle are welcome to step in as a host! All current ENTM hosts were promoted from within.
If models have any questions about the cycle just ask the Host. Some basic things may change from Host to Host, like how much help they will give the models, how many times they might look at your shots to give advice etc. The Host will let you know what they will do to help you out before the cycle starts!
Judges
Your judges will always be announced ahead of time and we will make sure that you know who they are. Judges are previous ENTM winners or community members from our partners at Hydalaen International.
If there are more auditions for a given cycle than there are slots available, the judges will work with the host to make a decision about who will be part of the formal competition. If there are less auditions than there are slots available, all auditions will be accepted.
Critiques
When taking a picture, the most important thing is to communicate a story to the viewer. The image should be able to do this though your composition, lighting and the subject matter within the picture. We also have a page about ENTM’s Guide to Screenshots, explaining different styles of shots and giving information on them.
Judges will usually look at:
- The theme for the week, and if the model followed it.
- Composition of the image is visually compelling, interesting.
- Lighting and if it looks natural with the overall scene and fits the mood of the image
- Balance between the model and landscape. Does your character stand out or blend in?
- And they will not play favorites! Judges have admitted in the past that they tend to view their friends and previous winners with an even more critical eye, and do their best to remain unbiased when making comments about shots.
Overall Schedule
- Models images are usually due every Friday by Midnight (EST)
- The images will be posted every Saturday (EST)
- Judges will post critiques by Tuesday by Midnight (EST)
- The Weekly Winner will be announced Wednesday!
- If there is any change to this schedule, the host will let you know before the cycle starts.
- Models who are in communities impacted by a natural disaster should let their host know as soon as possible if they will not be able to submit a shot for the week. It will be at the host’s discretion to delay the upcoming rounds.
How Scoring Works
- Much like golf, the lowest overall score per week wins for that week.
- Voting is conducted via Google polls, both for the community and with a separate poll for judges.
- Voters are asked to rank each choice with 1 for the strongest shot, on to 10 (or higher) for the weakest shot. There are no “bad” shots in ENTM. As Katarh likes to joke – we’re all Final Fantasy characters therefore we are all already supermodels!
- Once the polls are closed, the data is collected from Google Spreadsheets and imported into a custom built “score sheet” that automatically tabulates the judge’s scores, community scores, and spits out a combined number. Judge’s scores are weighted at 75% in classic cycle, with community scores weighted 25%. We have found this ratio allows the community to break ties, but not break the score sheet!
- Weekly scores are added up over the course of the contest.
- Lowest overall score with all 6-8 weeks combined wins the title of S-Rank model!
Monthly Challenges
ENTM also runs a monthly challenge that is open to all FFXIV players, not just members of the ENTM community. This is also our only contest that offers a cash shop prize, since we do not require auditions or previous participation in ENTM. Some of our community members stick to the monthly challenges, because they cannot commit to the 6-8 weeks of steady screenshots we have in our long form contests, but once a month is a perfect fit! Monthly challenges are not judged or critiqued but rely entirely on community voting.