Board Thread:Campaigns and Tournaments/@comment-5294711-20150604084054/@comment-5294711-20150609151844

Doue wrote: Not to complain about anything, but hasn't E.N.T.I.T.Y. already won an award? Isn't it a bit unfair to have it nominated again, well knowing it's already been declared the best in its field?

I understand your logic, and there are indeed some contests in the world where the winner is never permitted to compete again. However, I think there's one serious flaw with this strategy:

By doing this, you're assuming that nothing changes between the tournaments.

I mean, let's pretend conceptions are people for a moment. Winning a tournament is not your goal of life. Earning a trophy only means that you are regarded as the best at that certain moment in time. For every next tournament, new, better conceptions rise, while older favorites receive less attention. Not only that, but the way we judge things may also change, affecting older conceptions' favorability. Thus, there's nothing unfair with having a former champion compete in a current tournament, because it won't face the same opponents, and we can check whether it's still good enough to win again, against the new generation, or if its time has already passed. If it still manages to win again, then it deserves a second trophy, because it was too good that only was it considered the best conception, its name could also resonate with time, instead of it being a one-time wonder, so more than one trophy for such a feat is all fair and square.

Plus, in my opinion, when a tournament starts, I think every participating conception should have a "clean slate". That's it, every contestant should be treated as equals, regardless of its past. Assuming that a conception will have an "unfair advantage" and banning it just because it has won before is just wrong. If you do that, then  YOU  are the one who are not giving newer conceptions a chance, not the voters. Think about it. If the newer conceptions don't have a chance to duke it out against the old favorites, then will the new champion be happy because it won? Or will it feel kinda cheated because it didn't get to fight the "worthy opponents", and it may not actually be considered the "best conception" at all, but just the "best of the recent conceptions"?