Connected Seas Competition (2023)

Connected Seas Competition (2023)
Survival 5
The poster for the award ceremony, made by L1GHTN1NG_STR1KE.
Event
Type	Building Competition
Date	Building From 1st Feb 2023 - 28th Feb 2023 Awards Ceremony/ Tour Day: 25th March 2023
Organizers	L1GHTN1NG_STR1KE  Montenator
Attendance	15 Port Entries. Approx 40 Players Attended the Award Ceremony.
World	Survival 5

The Connected Seas Competition (2023) was an event on the Dogcraft Server that took place during the month of February 2023. It was the first ever major event hosted by the CSC with the goal of making port building more mainstream within the community, and increasing the amount of possible destinations in the network.

About The Event

The event, organised by the two CSC Project Leaders  L1GHTN1NG_STR1KE and  Montenator, had a simple premise of being a port building competition. Players were provided with guidelines as to what a CSC Port should feature, and from there they were able to get creative and build an interesting and unique port, while also ensuring it met all the other functional requirements of a port. Unlike the other building competitions hosted by the transport networks, there was no sign up period beforehand. Instead, players would enter their port upon its completion, ensuring all entries were complete and ready to be judged. The competition was see over 15 entries throughout all 4 worlds and really propelled the CSC into the community as a transport network that could stand alongside the already established SRN, NTN and RHN.

Announcement

The competition was first announced during a CSC port opening on Corgi, which saw players sail to Westfire Port. At the end of the opening L1GHTN1NG_STR1KE and Montenator set up a small stage outside the station where the details of the Connected Seas Competition were announced exclusively to the attendees of the opening. A full announcement followed up shortly afterwards in the CSC Discord and on the main Cyberdog Nation Server.

The competition was also advertised on the first episode of the newly rebooted CDNN, released on January 31st 2023. The episode featured a small trailer for the event created by the CSC Leaders followed by an interview with CDNN host  Txp_.

Entries

Despite the CSC at the time being much smaller scale compared to the other transport networks, and the event being held a quieter time of year it still enjoyed a lot of entrants. Below is a table that lists all the ports entered into the competition. It is worth noting that all ports had to be built within the allocated time frame, no ports built or started before the beginning on February were allowed to enter.

Name of Port	World Built On	Built By	Picture	Awards/Commendations
Site 0 Port	Corgi	Orphelia4		Best Port on CorgiCommendation for Accessibility Commendation for Beauty Commendation for Connectivity
Dry River Port	Labrador	XPModder		Commendation for Accessibility Commendation for Connectivity
Prism Castle Port	Shepherd	Elasmotherium1		Order of the Cornflower AwardCommendation for Accessibility Commendation for Beauty Commendation for Innovation
Coral Sand Heights Port	Labrador	dwinmouse		Commendation for Beauty
SRN Kirwick Port	Shepherd	Slomo_1994		Winner for ConnectivityCommendation for Accessibility Commendation for Beauty
Coruscant Space Port	Labrador	Dudelmaster		Commendation for Innovation
Port of Peninsula Bay	Akita	mrkalaspuff		Commendation for Accessibility
Qo'nos Port	Corgi	AllikatUK		Commendation for Accessibility Commendation for Connectivity
Port Expo-Arkparis	Shepherd	arkhangellsk		Best Port on ShepherdWinner for BeautyCommendation for Accessibility Commendation for Connectivity
Creeperville Port	Labrador	ItsDaCreeper		Best Port on LabradorCommendation for Accessibility Commendation for Connectivity Commendation for Beauty
Templar Port	Corgi	H_Di_Chemici		Commendation for Beauty Commendation for Connectivity
Marsh Mechanics Harbour	Corgi	CanadianSteampk,  minedog2003		Commendation for Connectivity
Port Pillager Puff	Akita	NeoFiore		Best Port on AkitaWinner for AccessibilityWinner for InnovationCommendation for Beauty Commendation for Connectivity
Eventide Port	Corgi	SummerFlower1234,  endorwitch		Commendation for Beauty
Bedford Port	Shepherd	PeakMars,  AdamB4255		Commendation for Beauty

Judging

After the building window had closed, five judges were approached who had not participated in the competition. These judges were picked due to having significant involvement in community projects past and present, they were  eybwam,  TigerNL,  _Shako,  AwesomeTom21 &  FangsofAmber. The judges were toured around all 15 entries by L1GHTN1NG_STR1KE and Montenator. They were judging based on 4 categories which in simplistic terms were:

• Accessibility: How easy is the port to navigate, can you easily get around and access all the functional features?
• Beauty: How aesthetically pleasing is the port to look at?
• Connectivity: Is the port well placed to serve future destinations nearby? Does it have any interchanges with other transport networks?
• Innovation: Have you done something new that hasn't featured in a CSC Port before?

The judges would each award 0-5 points based on how much they felt the port filled the brief of the category, at the end of judging, all 5 judges scores for each category were added together, giving each port a number out of 25 for each category. Simply put, the port with the most points for each category won that award. The best port on each world was given to the port which had the highest tally of all the categories put together. In addition commendations were put forward by the judges for ports who, while not quite winning a specific category, excelled to the point where in was noteworthy.

Finally, a special award was presented by eybwam on behalf of the City of Leon, named the Order of the Cornflower. It was given to the port which had the best balance of beauty and innovation, and was awarded to Prism Castle Port, built by Elasmotherium1.

Award Ceremony/ Tour Day

On the 25th of March 2023, the CSC held a massive tour day of all the ports entered into the competition, culminating in the award ceremony at the end of the day. Starting at 9am UTC in intervals of 3 hours, Shepherd, Labrador, Corgi and Akita had tours hosted by L1GHTN1NG_STR1KE and Montenator where players sailed between all of the competition ports. The different timeslots allowed a rare chance for people from all time zones, particularly Oceanian time zones, to participate in the opening day. A particularly fun moment would happen during one of the tours, where L1GHTN1NG_STR1KE, who had been awake all night prior preparing the event, fell asleep mid-tour during the Corgi opening.

Finally at 9pm UTC players would gather at Flowercliffe Port on Akita before embarking the purpose built awards venue by Montenator, named The Platform. Much to the organiser's shock, upwards of 40 people attended the event, one of the largest attendances of any event on Survival 5. All 5 judges were also present for the awards ceremony, and would take turns presenting prizes in different categories, Both Montenator and L1GHTN1NG_STR1KE would also take turns giving statements during the opening. In addition to this, the ceremony was broadcast live by the CDNN for the Dogcraft Youtube Channel, with Txp_ recording the event with the  CDNN_Helicopter. Footage of this livestream can be found below: