Countdown:
Witcher 2 GOG release date: Tuesday, May 17th, 07:00 PM GMT
Time to release: 1 Day
Gold Awards given: 11/11
White Wolves Identified: 3/3
All winners have been announced

Welcome to the winners thread of the Epic Witcher 2 Countdown Competition!

On the 3rd of May, I started a creativity competition for members from the GOG and The Witcher communities. The contest was made to celebrate the upcoming release of The Witcher 2 - one of the most anticipated PC games of 2011 - and also as an attempt to unlock some of the massive creative potential of the two communities. The contest has been a great success, netting 73 entries from Witcher and gaming fans from all over the world.

In the final week before the game releases on Monday 16th of May, we have announced the winners of this contest. New winners were announced each day to the weekend, as we count down the final day to the release of The Witcher 2!

Contest Awards (for reference):

The Gold Award:
The Gold Award is reserved for the most part to fans of The Witcher, whom was ready and willing to put down some work for the game and universe that they love. The Gold Award grants the winners the following:

1x Digital copy of either the GOG or Steam Edition of The Witcher 2
22$ worth of games on GOG - redeemable as either 2x 9.99$ games, or 1x 9.99$ game + 2x 5.99$ games, or 3x 5.99$ games

The Silver Award:
Silver Award winners are granted 22$ worth of games on GOG, again redeemable as either 2x 9.99$ games, 1x 9.99$ + 2x5.99$ games, or 3x 5.99

The Bronze Award:
Winners of Bronze will be given 10$ worth on GOG, enough for either a single 5.99$ or 9.99$ game.

The White Wolf Award:
Reserved for the entry that is either so offbeat, so fantastic, so professional, or just so plain different that the jury could do nothing but bow down in worship and admiration.

White Wolf Award details
70$ Worth of games on GOG (can also be redeemed in part, or in whole as gift certificate at Amazon)
1x Digital copy of The Witcher 2 (GOG or Steam edition by choice)

Silver and Bronze awards had ten winners each, Dr.zli changed the timeline and became the eleventh gold winner.
There were only three White Wolves.
---------------------

The Jury:

The entries were be judged by a fellowship of four; myself (Skystrider) and three of my friends. While I would like to introduce them properly, we have agreed that the following line sums the jury up just as well:
{this jury would like to be known not for who we are, but for what we do}.

We included some commentary on entries, either at the start or at the end, but never in the entry itself. Commentaries from the jury are indicated by inclusive brackets. Like so:

{ramblings from the jury}
-----------

Awards and Award schedule:

New winners in the competition were announced each day, leading up the weekend. The idea was that all Gold winners should have a chance to preload their game before The Witcher 2 is released on the 16th. The entries are posted in separate posts that are linked to below.

By the end of the week, fourteen copies of the Witcher 2 had been gifted as part of the competition.

Winners of Tuesday, May 10th, 2011:

#1. Batch of Winners 10/05 2011
Gold: Frontovika
Silver: Arkray
Bronze: Player_01

#2. Batch of Winners 10/05 2011
Gold: BlazeKING
Silver: Skoltnik
Bronze: Pedesh

Winners of Wednesday May 11, 2011:

#1. Batch of Winners 11/05 2011
Gold: DavidMcGrath13
Silver: SirCabbage
Bronze: Keeveek

#2. Batch of Winners 11/05 2011
Gold: asb
Silver: Talby
Bronze: CraigJKelly

#3. Batch of Winners 11/05 2011:
Gold: Allukka
Silver: GameRager
Bronze: Aningan

Winners of Thursday, 12/05 2011:

#1. Batch of Winners 12/05 2011
Gold: GrimTuesday
Silver: Titanium
Bronze: MoP

#2. Batch of Winners 12/05 2011
Gold: Chiperiu
Silver: KavazovAngel
Bronze: Eckoman

#3. Batch of Winners 12/05 2011
Gold Winner: rooshandark8
Silver Winner: Falci
Bronze Winner: tarangwydion

Winners of Friday, 13/05 2011:

#1. Batch of Winners 13/05 2011
White Wolf Winner #1: Nikou
Gold Winner: DavidGil
Silver Winner: KiPhish
Bronze Winner: Juice99

#2. Batch of Winners 13/05 2011
Gold Winner: 7thGuardian
Silver Winner: Aymerict
Bronze Winner: DodoGeo
White Wolf Winner #2: Kieran88

Final Batch of Winners
Gold Winner: Dr.Zli
White Wolf Winner #3: Wang12345

Honourable mentions - those who didn't win, but were great all the same:

Honourable mentions, Volume #1
Honourable Mentions, Volume #2
Honourable Mentions, Volume #3
Honourable Mentions, Volume #4
--------------------------

Thanks and Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank GOG members Barefoot_Monkey and Xyem for their work and generosity in creating and hosting GOG PM respectively. They are both the first to receive a copy of The Witcher 2, along with 30$ worth of games from GOG as a show of appreciation from me.

I would also like to take this opportunity to give my sincerest thanks to the great folks of CD Projekt and GOG, without which this competition would likely have been not only pointless, but also non-existent. Special thanks also to Andrzej Sapkowski for his work in creating the unique universe of The Witcher.

My final - but by no means lesser - thanks goes to one and all of you people here at GOG and The Witcher community! You are amazing, all of you!

Xzyem? Imposter!

:D

Thank you for your generosity SkyStrider, it is very much appreciated by all :)

It is my honour! You will receive the Witcher 2 as soon as it comes up for preload here on GOG! Meanwhile...


Winners of Tuesday, 10/05 2011

Gold Winner:
Frontovika

{The Jury was rather surprised when I told them I wanted the first Gold winner to be one whose contribution was to be kept private. However, I argued, Frontovika is certainly a great fan of The Witcher, and he had the credentials to show for it. They eventually bent to my will.}

<Entry is kept private by participant's request>

-----

Silver Winner:
Arkray

{Arkray's poem was a great entry, and one which the jury agreed should win the first silver award of the countdown competition. Congratulations!}

Entry: http://pics.livejournal.com/arkray/pic/0059s0sx.jpg

------

Bronze Award Winner:
Player_01

Entry: "I deserve to win a copy of Witcher 2 because I have 3 daughters who have just discovered Justin Bieber and are now completely obsessed with him and it is driving me completely insane. I need a nice new copy of the Witcher 2 to save my sanity and stop me from flying to America and beating Justin Bieber mercilessly with a large wooden mallet!"

{Us here in the jury might not be great fans of Justin Bieber either, but we would still like not to see a young lad get one hell of a headache, and have therefore agreed that Player_01 should be the first to receive the bronze award of The Witcher 2 Countdown Competition. Hopefully, the 10$ should be enough for a good old classic game that can give some reprieve from the horror}

*Twiddles mustachio*
I haz come to claim ze prize.
*Twiddles mustachio some more*
You are very welcome.
*Twiddle twiddle*

*facepalm*

Oh, my error only just occurred to me.... Sorry, I did of course mean Xyem! The message has been corrected. Gawd! Forgive me! ._.

Meanwhile, the silver has been announced in my post above, go look!

Congratulations to the first winners! Good luck to everyone else. :)

That's it, the first three awards of the countdown competition has been announced. Go here to see them all.

The next three awards, one for each category, will be announced either later today or tomorrow. I will have either the awards or schedule up at about 14:00 GMT. Until then, congratulations to the first winners! :D

So Bieber escapes merciless justice once again... Damn it!

:D

These first few days, probably one or maybe two for each category, but we are going to pick up the pace as of Friday though. These first days, I will announce a schedule at about 08:00 PM GMT each day (before I go to work), and proceed with the awards proper in the afternoon. :)

It is really not intentional. I'm sorry things are a bit patchy right now, I never know when I have to run off to one thing or the other. I promise that the later days of the week and the weekend will be much smoother, though. Think three or four winners for each category in a day. For example.

This is like playing a Facebook game. I have to check in every 5 minutes or so O_O

Prett-ty much, yeah :D

congrats to the winners!

Yes, because of this competition, I'm soon going to find out what it is like to sit in front of a computer and press F5 for hours and hours. :)

i'm trying to be a gentlemen here...although i'm crying a little inside right now :( haha