Hear ye, hear ye! Lord British hath named the finalists for the Shroud of the Avatar Fan Video Contest! Based on YOUR votes, the 5 finalists are:
We were all absolutely taken back by how many clever, well made-videos were submitted! Bravo to each and every one who submitted their video! They are all worthy of a Royal Award!
We will be announcing the winner, and a very special surprise for everyone that entered our very first Community Contest during Friday’s Live Dev Hangout, so stay tuned! Now go watch these amazing videos again! Seriously… they are all AMAZING! And feel free to comment on which one of the five YOU think should be proclaimed victorious!
Joshua and Ember are my top choices
Nice videos there. My vote would go to captainXJ.
I think they’re all good but its between the first two… Joshua Parker and Ember Isolte. I know I’m going to regret saying this (as haven’t got one yet myself) but why not reward them all with a house for their efforts. Well deserved.
the last one, with the drawing, seems most original and probably took the most effort to make
I would say #1 Dom John. because the mix of video to audio is very well done. There was a good amount of graphics that were mixed nicely too with the real people on the video game background.
The other ones were very good too, the drawn one is fun and the person can draw very well, and the acted out video had great props. Well done with all of them! *salutes*
While I absolutely love @Darkblade ‘s amazing cosplay portrayal of the Avatar in his extremely high quality cinematic produced in such a short amount of time (totally worthy of the “big screen”!), I must say that @domjohn and his friend have my #1 vote for winner! To write, record, and produce a great song with such humorous, entertaining, and nostalgic lyrics; and THEN to record lots of video footage (not to mention green screen’d Gypsy hilarity) AND edit it all together into the music video masterpiece it became just blows my mind!
Cheers to everyone who entered! And if you are not a finalist, please do not be discouraged! I’m sure I can speak for all of us when I say that the community would LOVE to see more SotA Fan Videos popping up. Not only is it great for the community, but new videos will help to keep the ball rolling on spreading the word about SotA to the far reaches of the internet!!! So, keep making SotA videos, people! I sure will be!
*whispers to @FireLotus and the SotA team* And may I suggest that the next video contest not be based on “Likes” for determining finalists but rather some sort of Poll hosted here on the website? I only suggest this because I am aware and admit that I had an unfair advantage because of the subscriber base I already had. Not sure how this would technically be possible and fair, but if it somehow could be, I believe the competition would have had a more level playing field.
Again, CHEERS! And keep making #LBSotA videos!!!
I liked the one by Dominick John and gang because it made me laugh every time I watched it. It held my attention the longest. It was also the most nostalgic.
I’m honored that one of my video’s made it into the top five. Congratulations to everyone!
I’m honored that one of my videos made it into the top five. Congratulations to everyone!
They’re all really great, but the ‘Return of Lord British’ just cracks me up every time. That gypsy character is hilarious
They are all amazing in their own right. I can’t wait to see the winner!
Deciding for one, is really not an easy task. My choice fell on Ember’s SotA song, it really touched me. Ember’s voice is beautiful, the melody is festive and sounds medieval with a cheerful text. Also I like roleplay and bards and this song matches to my idea of the game.
I loved all of them, including those who did not win. Missed my own video deadline. Pfft. The first was good because it shows RG’s intent of ‘you’ in the adventure, and in great costume. The second was her beautiful voice and clever words. The third was upbeat and made me smile. The third, …well, popular theme, isn’t it? Ha. The fifth was professional talent. Nice job to these and all entries!
Some good choices, but I’d definitely have to go with Joshua’s video. Fantastically done, and as Fireangel mentioned really bridges the gap between the real world and the new world that we’ll soon be questing in. The whole thing just exudes a medieval fantasy adventure vibe and feels very true to what I envision for Shroud of the Avatar. Great work!
well said, Fireangel.
Embers video I enjoyed due to the voice and vocal control.
I enjoyed the comedy in Dom Johns video.
Lord Tyraels submission was a very good overview of players who went outside of the box to accomplish a feat that was not supposed to be possible.
CaptainXJs entry featured some very nice artistic talent.
I will not comment on my own video at this point, as I am obviously biased towards it
“The Return of Lord British” by the Space Bards is simply the best!
They were all great even the non-winners but the Return of Lord British should be a commercial for Shroud of the Avartar on TV!
Darkblade, Embers and CaptainXJ all deserve to win. Great job to all the submissions!
These are all great submissions and like most it took me some time to single out one due to the different concepts. Darkblade had some promising cinematography and a great concept, and pulled off wonders in the small amount of time he was supplied. My personal favorite is Captain XJ’s but ultimately I’d put the nod towards the Space Bards as they went out on a limb and really pulled it off. I really liked Ember’s harmonies (the chorus is stuck in my head) and was interesting to see all the assassination methods that Lord British has supposedly now fortified himself against.
Other nods to the visual/audio combo that Holt provided and Grim Gary’s artwork submission. Enjoyed the others as well. Someone should give Razimus a position at Lord British’s keep.
Good luck to all five finalists.
-Haz
So i came into this fairly biased at first, since i only have seen one of these videos before. Then i saw there were 2 music videos and though oh no, not more music videos (seen too many in my days thorughout my life for games, and are usually shotty), however i took the chance to watch them and they both totally changed my mind. Then the last 2 were very artsy and creative. Between all 5 though, cause i thought it would been clear and decise in my desicion, i was stumped. I think i watched these a few times each, loved them all, give all of yourselves a pat on the back. I wish i had the talent to do something like those. But my choice would have to be CaptainXJ, i loved the comic art style with the nice ambient sound. Very nice!
Thanks for sharing these with all of us! See you all IN GAME 2014!
There is strong talent here. Congratulations to all the finalists. My personal favorite is CaptainXJ’s. Watched like 5 times. It took me there!
Return of Lord British music video is by far my favorite! Excellent job.
All were Excellent!,
But here is my vote. CaptainXJ captures a lot. Renderings and words are few. Although Innocence, Valor & Exploration are all noticed at first view. Complete with subtle sound track & we all knew the great Score!
CaptainXJ
Embers lovely voice enchanted me. I would like to hear more of her in-game.
I also want to congratulate everyone of the finalists. All of these videos are awesome!! I’m very glad to hear they’ll each be getting some sort of reward (as well as all the entrants) – that’s great. Now, how do you decide which is the best? It is super tough, like others have said, there is some amazing talent demonstrated here. In fact, I loved each of them and watched them repeatedly, but I think Dom John’s “The Return Of Lord British” hit a nerve with me. Loved the styling and humor. So can I vote +2 to the Space Bards and +1.99 to everyone else.
“Lord British Comes… Lord British Comes.. grab your cloth maps and brace your brain.. shroud of the avatar is gonna be insane!” 
Thank you so much for taking the time out to participate in the competition. Loved it. Thanks again and best wishes to all. 
PS: I honestly can’t believe how good these videos are. I’d never have guessed they were created under such time limited circumstances. You all did an incredible job!! +1 to the suggestion that all the finalists get something (extra) special for their hard work.
These are all good but I think they can be ranked. My ranking in order of preference is as follows. I wrote the best feature in brackets:
1: CaptainXJ (quality, level of difficulty and cliffhanger ending);
2: Dom John (unique approach with modern flare);
3: Lord Tyrael (nostalgic value is way up there);
4: Ember Isolte (nice use of that tune);
5: Joshua Parker (pretty good costume).
Wow! I was really moved by CaptainXJ’s illustrated video. It was a bit long/slow paced for me, but the message was spot on and hit me right in the feels.
Gratz, to the finalist. I like all of your videos!
I get that those were all winners, but I made a video (link at end of comment) paying tribute to the game by sharing the word about the upcoming game to my Youtube audience (and it even got more likes than the last one, 107 vs 61!) and wasn’t even mentioned. The rules of the contest were to have the most likes. I’m a sad llama.
Traveler,
I am so sorry about that! You did not have the tag #LBSotA in your title so It must have been missed when I did the screen grab, and now I have no way of knowing how many votes you had on Wednesday.
It was already added to be entered into the contest here https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?topic=a-quest-from-lord-british&paged=1
I really don’t see how my video could have been “skipped over” for not having the tag #LBSotA when it was not only tagged in the description (which is where tags go), but was and submitted in the official thread a few days early well before the thread was locked. When you do a Youtube search for the tag “#LBSotA” my video comes up on the first page of results.
http://i.imgur.com/lDu84M4.jpg
Here is a screen grab of my Youtube account’s analytics report for the 2nd to the 9th (well before the 11am cutoff the next day). You’ll see I still had enough votes/likes to qualify me into the top 5.
Link to my video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MaYK9VwVGw
traveler, your criteria was wrong.
Information isn’t Art.