The Contests Were a Success!

We had some of our most exciting contests yet including a new movie and art contest!

Our past events have included a costume contest, a tarutaru marathon and raffles but this is our first FINAL FANTASY XI event where we had attendees submit their original movies and original art. We received some really fantastic art pieces from fans and we premiered them all on the main stage at Fan Festival to thunderous applause. We also received some amazing works for our movie contest. We chose three finalists and showed their videos at Fan Festival. Once again we had our costume contest. The costumes this time around were some of the more professional works that we've seen and we choose 10 finalists who all received prizes for their hard work. We also had two tarutaru marathons running simultaneously on stage. Near the end of Saturday we were able to have some raffle prizes for our attendees and a lucky few were given some amazing prizes! Finally our Live Quest was a big success and we're glad everyone had fun. It looks like nearly all of our attendees participated and three parties were chosen as the winners. Below is a description of each of our contests for Fan Festival as well as the winners and their prizes.

Art Contest!

The Art Contest had many submissions, but we chose ten exceptional finalists.

We had more than fifty entries to our Art Contest which made our decision for the top ten finalists extra hard. We chose ten especially good submissions that were chosen based on style, originality and skill. The finalists were then voted on by the audience via the "applause-o-meter" and we had our three winners! Pictured below are our three winners:

3rd Place	2nd Place	1st Place

The winners entries were very impressive and because of their hard work we wanted to make sure that they were well rewarded. The 3rd place winner received a Logitech® QuickCam Orbit MP for their efforts. The 2nd place winner received a set of Logitech® Z-5500 Digital Speakers, one of the more impressive prizes during Fan Festival 2006. Finally our first prize winner was awarded a Kenwood HTB-S320DV system, one of our highest valued items. We're proud of all our winners and can't wait til the next time we can have a contest like this.

Movie Contest!

We received a lot of amazing movie entries and we wished we had time to show them all.

This was our first movie contest but we don't want it to be our last. It was an even more amazing night because out of the three final entries two were done by the same person! Here are our top three winners:

3rd Place	2nd Place	1st Place
Chains of Promathia Trailer	Dragostea Din Tea	Recollection

The audience loved all three movies and they received standing ovations after each one was played. It was clear however that the attendees were big fans of Recollection and Dragostea done by the same individual. And they weren't the only ones, the development team was also quite fond of the first place winner and asked to meet him in person to give him their thoughts. Both winners received some amazing prizes. The 3rd place winner received a set ofLogitech® Z-5500 Digital Speakers, one of the more impressive prizes during Fan Festival 2006. Our 2nd place winner was awarded a Kenwood HTB-S320DV system from Dolby. Our second prize winner also won our grand prize with his second entry. He was awarded a highly valued Alienware Area-51 5500 PC!

Costume Contest!

FINAL FANTASY XI fans are some of the best at making costumes so we made sure to showcase their abilities at Fan Festival 2006!

With as many attendees as we had at our largest event ever there were sure to be some people dressed as characters in the world of Vana'diel. So many people dressed up in costumes they had made that we had a parade to show them all.

Based on a criteria of skill, originality and how elaborate each character is we chose ten finalists that remained on stage and were introduced one by one. These ten individuals had some really amazing costumes that included not just players of races other than hume but of monsters as well! Each contestant introduced themself and their costume, some commented that it took two months or more to create their costume! Of the ten finalists three winners (pictured below) were chosen by audience applause:

3rd Place	2nd Place	1st Place

The costumes were really fantastic this year and we hope to see some new and creative entries at our next event. The 3rd place winner was a character we'd seen at other events before. For his hard work he received a Logitech® QuickCam Orbit MP. The 2nd place winner received a set ofLogitech® Z-5500 Digital Speakers, for his work as a Yagudo Beastmen. Finally our first prize winner was awarded a Kenwood HTB-S320DV system, from Dolby. Thank you everyone for participating in our costume contest, we hope to see you at our next event back in full form!

Tarutaru Marathon!

Our level one Tarutaru marathons never fail to disappoint crowds with their copious amounts of adorable knock out after knock out.

On Saturday night we had not one, but two Tarutaru marathons running simultaneously in the main tent. Attendees were able to purchase marathon tickets from our merchandise booth using gil that they earned participating in our Live Quest. Attendees had to control their helpless, defenseless, level one characters through dangerous zones with only their senses to guide them. The first set of Tarutaru began just outside of Kahzam (where we know many mid-level 25's often meet their cruel fate) and had to make it all the way through Yhutunga, continuing on through Yhoator and finally into the Den of Rancor entrance where their goal was. Maneuvering right under the Goblin Smithy's noses was no easy task as many Tarutaru were quickly taken down and had to start over time and time again.

The second marathon had Tarutaru starting in beautiful Misereaux Coast and finishing at Blueblade Fell in Lufaise Meadows. Some of the players were able to easily bypass the slow moving Gigas but the high level monsters in Lufaise proved too much for them. Abraxas and Tavnazian Rams were taking the Tarutaru down in one hit. One lone brave player actually made it to the goal while the rest were awarded second and third place based on their proximity.

Raffles and Prizes!

Everyone who attended Fan Festival had a chance to win some really fantastic prizes and some people won for doing a little something unexpected.

We wanted to make sure that everyone who attended Fan Festival, no matter what their circumstance had an opportunity at really nice prizes, just for coming as loyal FINAL FANTASY XI fans. We passed a raffle ticket to each attendee through their gobbiebags giving them an equal opportunity at various prizes we gave out at Fan Festival. We also had some door prizes for individuals with not so usual talents. We gave away three Mandragora plush dolls to the attendee who was the first to arrive at the registration desk on Thursday evening, the last person to arrive to the registration desk on Saturday afternoon and also the person who traveled farther than any other attendee to arrive at Fan Festival! We gave away an exclusive FINAL FANTASY XI themed comic book designed and signed by Scott Ramsoomair of VG Cats, as well as stylish Penny Arcade prize t-shirts to a lucky representative of the largest attending world to Fan Festival 2006: Carbuncle! We also gave the VG Cats book and Penny Arcade t-shirt to the lucky representative of the lowest attending world to Fan Festival 2006: Caitsith! We hope to see more members of FINAL FANTASY XI world Caitsith at our next event. Also for being the attendee who traveled the shortest distance to arrive at our Fan Festival we gave away a VG Cats book and Penny Arcade t-shirt.

Finally we gave away prizes strictly through drawing raffle tickets including a Logitech® QuickCam Orbit MP, a Logitech® G15 Gaming Keyboard, and a set of Logitech® Z-5500 Digital Speakers! Last of all, our grand prize drawing gave one lucky attendee a powerful gaming PC with the Treasures of Aht Urhgan logo designed by Yoshitaka Amano emblazoned on the side panels! This PC is equipped with a 7800 GT video card provided by Nvidia, a Cooler Master painted case, and an Intel Pentium D 820 processor!

Live Quest!

Our first attempt at Live Quest was so much fun! We hope that everyone enjoyed participating and made some great friends!

For our first Fan Festival, we decided to try a Live Quest in which attendees would talk to live non-player characters (NPCs) and carry out tasks in order to receive live quest gil they can use to trade for chances at playing Heroes Combat in the Xbox room or take a picture with our lovely Mithra models or even buy FINAL FANTASY XI t-shirts and mousepads. First our attendees had to approach the looking for party (lfp) area where they met an NPC who gave them an introduction sheet. Attendees who form parties of 6 to 10 people can then fill out the member introduction sheet, which helps them learn more about their fellow party members. After they do that the NPC will give them a party roster sheet and send them on their way. Parties then travel from NPC to NPC engaging in quests, drawing pictures, gathering items from the local area, answering trivia questions and trading Tarut Cards with other parties. If a party completed a quest they got a stamp on their Adventurer Coupons and received some gil to further their questing or just have fun!

The top three teams with the highest scores at the end of Saturday night were awarded some rare and amazing prizes. The third place team received Vana'diel clocks from Hori, a great way to keep track of the in-game time. The second place team each received a copy of the Star Onions album signed by the FINAL FANTASY XI music director Naoshi Mizuta! Finally our grand prize winners received custom framed art designed and signed by FINAL FANTASY XI art director Ryosuke Aiba!

It was a wonderful Fan Festival and we hope everyone enjoyed all the contests and events.