The Battle for Hogwarts

This community is a battle-style LIMS icontest focusing on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

The original idea for icon LIMS was created by disney_hush, while the first Battle Style was conceived at ff_kh_battle. Our inspiration to make this community came from a love of icons, icontests, the Harry Potter series.

Your moderators are xenylamine and xeroxkitty.






RULES AND INFORMATION

01. Each Round will begin with Sign-ups and Registration. During Registration, you will request a character to represent you for the entire Round. Character requests are accepted on a 'First Come, First Served' basis, therefore you will need to provide up to three characters who you would wish to represent you in case your first choice has already been taken. Do NOT complain if your favorite character has already been claimed, as we will not re-allocate characters from other players. J.K. Rowling has created hundreds (if not thousands) of characters for you to choose from, and you will have another chance at getting another character in the next Round.

02. Each week you will be given a new theme as a prompt to create your new icon. There will be a different theme each week, and this can vary from a word prompt, song lyrics, or supplied images. If we provide images, then these images are the only images you are allowed to use in your icon. However, you may use stock photos, textures, brushes, patterns or any other icon elements. There may also be other restrictions for your icon in any challenge, but we we will inform you of them in the submission post. If you feel that your icon requires an explanation, you may submit it with the icon. Do not, however, ask us to post the comment in the voting post; you will be denied. No exceptions.

03. During the Voting stage of the week you will be voting for the icon(s) you find to be of lesser quality as well as your favorite icon(s). The number of icons will vary each week, but we will provide you with that information. You must provide a moderately detailed explanation for all of your votes. Please judge based on technique and aesthetic quality, not personal preferences (such as favorite color or the icon maker you think made the icon). We reserve the right to void any vote we feel is unfair or petty. Votes like, "It doesn't appeal to me," are not valid unless you give an explanation of why the icon does not appeal to you. (In fact, don't reference yourself in your negative critiques at all, because that demonstrates subjectivity on your part). Remember that critiques are a way for icon makers to improve; the more detailed you are in your critiques, the more helpful you are. Please read through this COMPREHENSIVE VOTING TUTORIAL as it will show you EXACTLY how to leave good comments!

04. Submitted icons must be compatible with LiveJournal; 100x100 px and 40 kb, and only .jpg, .gif, and .png file formats.

05. Do not promote your icon, and do not post, display, or otherwise use your icon anywhere on the Internet until after the entire Round is over and the final results have been posted. You are given characters to represent you to heighten anonymity, as well as for fun. Sharing your icon with your friends is equivalent to promotion, especially if they are also participants here, but even if they are not.

06. Do not submit an icon that has been or will be submitted in another icontest (cross-submission). Icons that are merely variations of one another count. Submitted icons must be no more than 7 days old, or as old as the submission post (if the deadline has been extended). Please make your icon *fresh* and specifically for the contest. Reusing old icons with new text for this icontest is not allowed. Requiring that you make your icons specifically for the current challenge has been a long-standing rule in most icontests.

07. Please adhere to the deadlines. If your icon is not submitted on time, you will be disqualified from the round unless you have an available Skip. Each participant gets one Skip as standard; more may be earned (click here for more information on earning additional Skips). If you forget to submit an icon, we will count it as a Skip unless you say otherwise (e.g. you drop out of the round). Check your Skips here. Also please note that you may not use a Skip for the first Challenge or the last few Challenges of a round. Please note that if you are going on vacation or you have an extenuating circumstance, we are able to give you up to TWO themes in advance. However, you have to request this specifically; we will not offer it as we are not psychic. You must complete all themes by their respective deadlines, even if they are given in advance.

08. Do not complain if you are eliminated. The majority of the people who participate will be eliminated at some point in the round! If you cannot handle losing and/or criticism, this competition is not for you; please do not participate. Flaming, wanking, bitching, and whining will not be tolerated. If you have a legitimate problem then please speak to one of the mods.

09. If we find you breaking or abusing the rules, your icon and/or votes may be disqualified and you may even be banned from the community WITHOUT NOTICE. If this occurs, then you will not receive points and knuts for prior participation.

10. To verify that you have read the rules, please use the phrase I solemnly swear I am up to no good as the subject in your sign-up/registration comment.


By participating in this icontest, you thereby implicitly state that you have read all of these rules and that you agree with and will abide by them. If you need any clarification, please contact us and ask. You can find our comprehensive F.A.Q. HERE.






AFFILIATES

airgear_awards ~ airgear icontest
akatsuki_awards ~ akatsuki (naruto) icontest
avatarlims ~ avatar:tla last icon maker standing
banner_rewards ~ the banner maker rewards program
bishoujo_awards ~ bishoujo icontest
bleachorus ~ lyrical bleach icontest
brkbck_chllnge ~ brokeback mountain icontest
d_levelten ~ disney triple challenge icontest
dattebayo_still ~ static naruto icontest
doctor_who_lims ~ doctor who last icon maker standing
grande_disney ~ ultimate disney icontest
hogwartsishome ~ harry potter sorting community
icontested ~ random fandom icontest
inuawards ~ inuyasha icontest
inuyasha_lims ~ inuyasha last icon maker standing
je_battle ~ johnny's entertainment battle-style lims
ohgreat_battle ~ oh great manga battyle-style lims
rockmusiclims ~ rock music last icon maker standing
sortedchallenge ~ hogwartsishome's exclusive harry potter icontest


If you wish to be affiliated with hogwarts_battle then please leave a comment here.






VOTING POINTS SYSTEM

Beginning in Round #005, in order to make the results more fair, we are implementing a more standard version of the battle-style elimination system.

When the icon-points tallies are announced in each results post, each iconmaker also accrues a number of potter-points, which are the overall points gained or lost over the course of the round. Each iconmaker begins the round with 1 potter-point. The following values are discrete and additive:

• The icons with the top 25% (rounded up) icon-points will receive +1 potter-points.

• The icons with the bottom 25% (rounded up) icon points will receive -1 potter-points.

• The icon with the most positive votes (people's choice) will receive +2 potter-points.

• The icon that the mods liked the best (mods' choice) will receive +1 potter-points.

• The icon that has the most negative votes will receive -1 potter-points.

No iconmakers will be eliminated until the end of Challenge #03. At this point, the bottom-ranked 15% or so (to a certain point) iconmakers, based on potter-points, will be eliminated. This will then occur each week until the final challenge.

Each iconmaker's rankings and current potter-points will be announced with results, so you will know where you stand.






HOGWARTS IS HOME

You DO NOT have to be a sorted member of hogwartsishome in order to participate in hogwarts_battle!!

However, if you have been sorted at platform_934, then you can earn extra points for your House by participating in this community. Just remember to sign your entries with your name and House, and we'll tally up the points at the end of the Round. If you have questions about this, see our comprehensive F.A.Q..

Points and Knuts:

You will receive:

• 10 points and 5 knuts for submitting an icon to a challenge;

• 20 points and 5 knuts for winning People's Choice in a challenge;

• 10 points for winning Moderators' Choice in a challenge;

• 100 points and 40 knuts for winning First Place overall in a round;

• 80 points and 30 knuts for winning Second Place overall in a round;

• 60 points and 20 knuts for winning Third Place overall in a round;

• 5 points for voting properly in a challenge.


If you have never heard of hogwartsishome then you first need to check out platform_934. The information there tells you all about how you can get 'Sorted' in order to join.

CONTACT

Questions, comments, or suggestions? Please e-mail a mod!

xenylamine ~ xenylamine [at] gmail [dot] com

xeroxkitty ~ xeroxkitty [at] gmail [dot] com






CREDIT

Layout code by hikaru__sama @ hikkie_heaven, with graphics and adjustments by xenylamine @ subliminalicon.

Profile layout and graphic by xenylamine.

Promotion graphics by xenylamine and omfgerbear.