[Hack of the Year] 2009 - Judging [Results]

[Manipulation]

Introduction

ROM Hacking had undergone some drastic an stupendous changes in the past year or so, some people have different opinions on what’s happened. 2009’s been a good year because of the changes and advances we’ve made throughout the hacking world. Yet, people think that the standard of hacking is going down. Yet, with all the advances, surely it’s only getting better? Anyway, you’re all tired of me blurbing here, you’re here for the results; right? Judging, here are the results. Nothing else to say, except, CONGRATS TO THE WINNER! Who is..

1st Place Awards

Judges

• Manipulation
• Anthony La
• Christos
• Thrace
• Okutank

Results

2nd and 3rd Place Awards

End notes

Well, a year of progress and promise in ROM Hacking. After a year like such, surely only bright condolences are around the corner?

Credit goes to Christos, Vrai, Thrace, and Anthony La. Compiled and written by Manipulation.

[Tropical Sunlight]

The best one won. And it should. Congrats Frostbite and also Wesley FG and DJG.

[Spherical Ice]

GO AZURE HORIZONS!

Really well done Frostbite. You really deserved it, and stood out from the crowd like a sore thumb! AH is a great hack, and the greatest of hacks need the greatest of rewards. Really, well done.

Also, congratulations to DJG and Wesley, you two are great and deserved to be in the finals.

Kudos to all of you. I like the judging system, as well. Harry seems generous

[pizzakoe]

Awh, I missed all of this! Why..
Aw well!
I hoped Pokemon Brown 2009 was going to win, IF it was even nominated..
I should have checked more often, well Congratulations azure horizon!

[miksy91]

yeah brown sure had deserved to be included in the competition and probably even win it

[Pokepal17]

Brown had the chance, but it didn't get the votes.

YAY! AZURE WON!

Congratulations to Frostbite, WesleyFG and DJG.:3

[onyx79]

wtf is azure horizons?
probably the maker had freinds that will vote for him too bad that an hack that no one knows gets the 1st place

[Manipulation]

Originally Posted by onyx79

wtf is azure horizons?
probably the maker had freinds that will vote for him too bad that an hack that no one knows gets the 1st place

LMAO. You just won biggest lol of the year.

[onyx79]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

LMAO. You just won biggest lol of the year.

thanks (= that's why I've posted this.
also noob of the year (=

[colcolstyles]

Predictable, yet disappointing. Personally, I would have preferred to see Ruby Destiny win but given the judging lineup, I can't think of another hack that could've beaten Azure Horizons. Every single member of the judging panel has a hack that strives for that same style and Harry in particular is obsessed with Azure Horizons almost to the point of creepiness so I'm really not surprised. Still, congratulations to Frostbite for becoming quite possibly the most unrecognized HotY winner to date.

[.com]

Yes! Azure Horizons ftw. It's really the hack I mainly saw that excelled in every area. I'd rather see AH win than something, that's, say, overrated because of the graphics and kinda lacks gameplay wise(try to take a guess at which hack I mean). :3 Anyways, great.

[Ash493]

Should I say it's unexpected? I guess not since we all knew from the beginning who will win if AH would make it to the judging round as now.
But at least next year will hopefully have less predictable and more objective results.

Congrats to LoG, LP which were the hack they should win, and the unexpected winner AH.

[.com]

Originally Posted by Ash493

Should I say it's unexpected? I guess not since we all knew from the beginning who will win if AH would make it to the judging round as now.
But at least next year will hopefully have less predictable and more objective results.

Congrats to LoG, LP which were the hack they should win, and the unexpected winner AH.

OBVIOUSLY LOG AND LP WEREN'T THE HACKS THAT SHOULD HAVE WON, BECAUSE AH WON.

Sorry, but seriously, that's BS. No hate to you, but AH is all around good in every element of the hack, and isn't just popular based on graphics alone or who's making it. It deserves it. Leave it.

[Pokepal17]

Originally Posted by Ash493

Should I say it's unexpected? I guess not since we all knew from the beginning who will win if AH would make it to the judging round as now.
But at least next year will hopefully have less predictable and more objective results.

Congrats to LoG, LP which were the hack they should win, and the unexpected winner AH.

Yes we knew well that Azure Horizons would win because the others weren't that good in comparison. They were somewhat overrated and just, like John said, because Azure Horizons doesn't have many tile changes doesn't mean it's bad. It's a reall good hack. So I bet if every hack was Firre Red style in graphics, we wouldn't have had the nominations we had. Azure deserved to win, and win it did. :3

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Originally Posted by Pokepal17

So I bet if every hack was Firre Red style in graphics, we wouldn't have had the nominations we had. Azure deserved to win, and win it did. :3

Oh trust me; I've been through such a time already. Left and right, mediocre mapping, or other terrible FireRed graphics-based hacks. Or a clash and mix of styles. What I'd look for though is a hack that uses a style nobody has used before - preferably one that the graphics designer opted NOT to share with every darned ROM hacker - and then see it executed in the hack in a way that made it really awesome. Until then, any attempts have been mediocre. (This is my own opinion and not of the judges, of note.)

Originally Posted by onyx79

wtf is azure horizons?
probably the maker had freinds that will vote for him too bad that an hack that no one knows gets the 1st place

The only hack I was remotely aware of before the Hack of the Year was RD:LoG.

[Thrace]

Originally Posted by colcolstyles

Predictable, yet disappointing. Personally, I would have preferred to see Ruby Destiny win but given the judging lineup, I can't think of another hack that could've beaten Azure Horizons. Every single member of the judging panel has a hack that strives for that same style and Harry in particular is obsessed with Azure Horizons almost to the point of creepiness so I'm really not surprised. Still, congratulations to Frostbite for becoming quite possibly the most unrecognized HotY winner to date.

You might find Life of Guardians more fun to play than Azure Horizons but surely you can recognize that Azure Horizons is the more polished hack? Yes, Life of Guardians is better than Azure Horizons in a few areas but Azure Horizons excels across the board. I feel that the judging very accurately reflects that.

If anyone is interested I've uploaded my judging document.

[colcolstyles]

Originally Posted by Thrace

You might find Life of Guardians more fun to play than Azure Horizons but surely you can recognize that Azure Horizons is the more polished hack? Yes, Life of Guardians is better than Azure Horizons in a few areas but Azure Horizons excels across the board. I feel that the judging very accurately reflects that.

If anyone is interested I've uploaded my judging document.

I've tried to word this a couple times but every time I can't seem to get my point across. I agree that Azure Horizons is a very well presented hack, almost anyone will tell you that. I'm more irritated at the judging panel itself. It doesn't take a genius to see that every single member is/was on the staff here at PC. Seeing how in order to become a member of the staff here at PC you need to fit into the "moderator mold", it seems that the judges weren't as... diverse as I would have hoped. This is evident in, as I mentioned earlier, the types of hacks that all the judges are developing. Let me stress that I'm not saying the judging wasn't impartial. Looking over your judging document I can see that you all (well, at least you) have put a lot of effort into rating the nominees. I just think it would be nice to have a few of the judges be from other backgrounds, like a common member, somebody who prefers natural maps to playable maps, etc.

[chrunch]

NOOO!!
Ruby Destiny lost, like last year!...
Still, congratulations to frostbite for winning.

[Master Terrador]

Originally Posted by colcolstyles

I've tried to word this a couple times but every time I can't seem to get my point across. I agree that Azure Horizons is a very well presented hack, almost anyone will tell you that. I'm more irritated at the judging panel itself. It doesn't take a genius to see that every single member is/was on the staff here at PC. Seeing how in order to become a member of the staff here at PC you need to fit into the "moderator mold", it seems that the judges weren't as... diverse as I would have hoped. This is evident in, as I mentioned earlier, the types of hacks that all the judges are developing. Let me stress that I'm not saying the judging wasn't impartial. Looking over your judging document I can see that you all (well, at least you) have put a lot of effort into rating the nominees. I just think it would be nice to have a few of the judges be from other backgrounds, like a common member, somebody who prefers natural maps to playable maps, etc.

I Can't help but to agree that I find the judging panel a bit Biased at the fact that most (or not all?) loved azure horizons more than the other two and the same style. Looking over the other HotY AJudging panels they had more diverse likes than this one...

...but it matters not, the better hack won, I feel arguing over an award as this pointless, plus...I pretty much knew if Azure made it to Judging it would be favored more than LP and LoG. Rather than arguing over a Biased judging panel, Congratulations to Frostbite and his Azure Horizons!!!

[Thrace]

Originally Posted by colcolstyles

I've tried to word this a couple times but every time I can't seem to get my point across. I agree that Azure Horizons is a very well presented hack, almost anyone will tell you that. I'm more irritated at the judging panel itself. It doesn't take a genius to see that every single member is/was on the staff here at PC. Seeing how in order to become a member of the staff here at PC you need to fit into the "moderator mold", it seems that the judges weren't as... diverse as I would have hoped. This is evident in, as I mentioned earlier, the types of hacks that all the judges are developing. Let me stress that I'm not saying the judging wasn't impartial. Looking over your judging document I can see that you all (well, at least you) have put a lot of effort into rating the nominees. I just think it would be nice to have a few of the judges be from other backgrounds, like a common member, somebody who prefers natural maps to playable maps, etc.

I can't really comment on what you've said since I'm wasn't involved in who was chosen for judging this year (or which moderators are chosen). I don't think that the results would have been much different if the judges had been more diverse (your words not mine) and seeing as how you don't think the judging wasn't impartial you clearly think the same.

I don't understand what the problem is then, unless you think that RD: LoG deserved to win over Azure Horizons.

[Manipulation]

The judges all have a reasoning for why they were chosen. We wanted five judges, and the original four judges were the current 'ROM Hacking' staff. Being myself, Christos, Vrai and Anthony. Then we chose Malin, based on the fact he's a top class hacker and the way he ran Hack of the Year last year. So, there was our five judges. Then Vrai pulled out not long ago, so Luke filled in for him. So, that's the way we ran it. Hack of the Year has and always will be a staff ran competition, so I'm overly surprised that you're surprised that the judges have been and are currently staff.

[Vrai]

Yay controversy! :D

Congrats to Azure Horizons; also to Ruby Destiny and Light Platinum. Being one of the top three hacks here is something of a feat.

[Went]

Well, I think that the prize was well-deserved. Congrats Frostbite, your hack is definitely one of the best I have played after Christos insisted me to.

[.Tactic.]

Aww... I wish LP would've won... oh well, well done and good luck to Frosbite, Wesley and DJG... And congrats on winning frostbite!

[Swimmer Ryan]

Originally Posted by onyx79

thanks (= that's why I've posted this.
also noob of the year (=

Personally I had no idea what this hack was either, but I'd heard about all the other nominees.