The Brick Awards: the best of the worst tournament

[littlebum2002]

About 2 years ago, a great forumite named Porthos created an OOTS voting contest (based on a much shorter lived, but equally fantastic, previous version) which had forum goers vote on the best OOTS strips of all time. It was an impressive contest which has gone on for over 2 years (and only ended, or went on hiatus, due to running out of strips) and will undoubtedly be remembered in this forum as one of the most well-run ongoing threads on here.

This is not that contest. This is a shameless mockery of that contest.



Welcome to The Brick Awards, the best of the worst tournament! :smallsmile:

The Stick Awards were handed out to the best strips of all time as chosen by our fellow Playgrounders. However, when voting for the Stick awards, some strips felt left out, abused, unloved. Whether they simply were a weak strip, or a decent strip surrounded by amazing strips, for whatever reason some strips just didn't get any votes. :smallfrown:

So this contest is designed to give those strips the morale boost they need and deserve! I am collecting all the strips which received zero votes in the Stick awards and presenting them in groups of ten (Or, at least close to ten, since I don't want to cut off in the middle of a group of strips). We will then vote as to which is our favorite of the worst strips so we can finally decide which the best worst strip is!

(And let's be honest, even the worst OOTS strips are still pretty good and deserve our appreciation!)


To vote in this thread, simply state which comic of the ten eleven listed is your favorite. Bolding the number of the comic (Like this) helps it stand out.

Voting for this week will close on Tuesday, November 10 at 10AM (MT). Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.



.THE BRICK AWARDS: 0001 - 0100

1 New Edition (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html)
5 When Plotlines Collide! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0005.html)
18 Double Surprise (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0018.html)
21 It's All About the Drama (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0021.html)
35 Rogues Gone Wild! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0035.html)
39 Date with Destiny (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0039.html)
43 What's Behind Door #2? (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0043.html)
67 Cliffhanger (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0067.html)
72 Loose Ends (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0072.html)
78 Unfinished Business (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0078.html)
82 Beats Pay-Per-View (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0082.html)

[Mordae]

Wow. What an interesting bunch. I'm going with Elan over Nale in #67, please.

[Gift Jeraff]

#043: What's Behind Door #2? for the extra, circular panel at the end and for starting the plotline that created my forum name and current avatar/signature.

[ti'esar]

No opinion (so far) on the comics up for voting, but this is hilarious.

[FLHerne]

#5.
:roy: Wait...what were you guys running from?
:elan: Well, this looks like a good place to rest.


Aside, I think 10 strips per round is too many - it was hard to directly compare all of them, so I had to run a mini-tournament in my head. :smallconfused:

[ChillerInstinct]

I'm not gonna lie, there's one strip I'm surprised got no love whatsoever the first go-around. It's unsurprising that it failed to advance, obviously, but there's something kind of charming about 18. It's a simple punchline, yet one that does its job well enough and also is something that most RPG fans can relate to, D&D or otherwise (like me).

Honestly, of all of the rule-based humour from the first arc, this is the one joke that I can't help but keep thinking of whenever it happens elsewhere.

[Vargtass]

Between 18 and 43, I vote 43.

[Killer Angel]

Well, 18 is good, but I'll go for #1
After all, it all started from it. :smallsmile:

[Lolo]

#18 is definitely the funniest of this lot.

[Murk]

Seeing how this contest exists to even give the unloved strips some love, I'll vote #35. With all the hate it's gotten since the day it's come out, I think it'll desperately need my pity vote. I love underdogs.

[Porthos]

Said it before privately and I'll say it now publicly:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a35/BuckGodot/Icons/thumbsup_zps4d77a316.gif~original http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a35/BuckGodot/Icons/thumbsup_zps4d77a316.gif~original http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a35/BuckGodot/Icons/thumbsup_zps4d77a316.gif~original

====

A lot of these are actually really good, so it'll be a shame to leave some to the side. Of these though, I think it has to be...

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g68/Cats_Are_Aliens/Banners/Trigak_zpsi9x0fkfj.png: Gak
https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g68/Cats_Are_Aliens/Banners/Trigak_zpsi9x0fkfj.png: Gak
https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g68/Cats_Are_Aliens/Banners/Trigak_zpsi9x0fkfj.png: Gak

21, your impact on the plot might have been minimal, but you'll always live in our hearts in the Playground and in the fevered imaginations of a thousand outlandish theories. :smallcool:

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Wow, this is a really interesting idea. Although, it is fairly easy to see why these end up here. I think I'll go with #39.

[nogall]

Torn between 1 (cause its the first!) and 67, with its funny-rific pun ending!
67 it is!

[Bird]

I'll take 39 for Eugene being Eugene. (His characterization would get a lot sharper in pages to come, but this page set up a lot of his personality.)

[Euclidodese]

Imagine the body hair on display in strip 82... I mean, when does his chest-hair end and her chest-hair begin? I can understand the morbid curiosity provoked...

But my votes for 'Dun, dun duuuuun,' number 21... Hey that rhymes! Illuminati confrummed!!1!

[Laurana]

I considered 72, but my vote goes to #43, for Xykon's cutaway panel, and for presenting the Linear Guild.
Glad to see 35 getting a vote, too.

Nice idea LittleBum, this will keep us entertained for a while :smallamused: :smallcool: :smallbiggrin:

[Bulldog Psion]

I'll vote for 35 also. Sure, it's sophomoric as all heck, and I'm strongly for gender equality these days, but I also have an instinctive aversion to all kinds of censorious, uptight reactions to stuff, also, regardless of their particular motivation.

So I'll vote for it on the grounds of "aw, come on, relax, it's just a silly joke." :smallbiggrin:

[ti'esar]

After giving it some thought, I'll vote for 18. I think it or 43 were the leading candidates here, but while the introduction of the Linear Guild may be a far more significant event in the comic's history, I think that Sneak Attack joke is still funny-and-true today.

Edit: I also might have considered Comic 23, "the strip that spawned a thousand forum jokes" and also what I believe is the birth of Elan's DUN DUN DUN. But I'd rather do without the reminder of the spiked tentacles strip in the first panel, which I always thought was bad.

[veti]

I'm going to go with #21, for its narrative characterisational importance. It does a lovely job of establishing the dynamic between Belkar, Haley, Roy and Elan that's kept us going ever since.

[Syldar]

78... 43... 78... 43... 78! The comic that revealed exactly why Roy is after Xykon, and his whole thing with his father. Plus his dad ranting about how wizards are better is just plain funny.

[Ellye]

I rather like #18. Kinda surprised it had zero votes, to be honest.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I came this close to voting for 43, but I'm going for 82 after all. It just has more of that the good kind of bad quality. I do reserve the right to change my vote to 21 if at any point in the future the Chimera comes back as a vampire. In which case it becomes the brick joke award.

[Mike Havran]

This is a good idea (in retrospect, I do regret voting for some strips in the original tournament just to prevent them having zero votes :smallfrown:), but could I suggest lowering the starting number of competing strips to something like 5? With ten of them, there is much bigger chance that some unloved one will end up with double zero.

And with that, I vote for #1. Kinda surprised it did not get any votes originally since it, like, started the whole thing :smallamused:

[Ozy]

I think it's got to be 18 for me, though I'm a huge fan of the way 43 was laid out.

[littlebum2002]

This is a good idea (in retrospect, I do regret voting for some strips in the original tournament just to prevent them having zero votes :smallfrown:), but could I suggest lowering the starting number of competing strips to something like 5? With ten of them, there is much bigger chance that some unloved one will end up with double zero.

And with that, I vote for #1. Kinda surprised it did not get any votes originally since it, like, started the whole thing :smallamused:

Just to interject:

1) the reason I did not start the Brick Awards until the Stick Awards were over was because I didn't want anyone changing their voting behavior to influence it.

2) You are the second person to request less strips, and since that also means this will last longer, I'll consider it.

[D.One]

#1 - New Edition

[The gF]

#18. I think all that needs to be said about it has already been said. And given I can be particularly verbose about strips that inspire passion in me, it does go a little ways to explain why some of these may not have received votes in the first place.

[Bird]

Personally, I'm in favor of the higher number of strips per round. Gives a better chance that folks will find something they like to vote for.

[ChristianSt]

I'm going with 1 - New Edition.

Despite the Giant stated that he thinks the strip doesn't age well, I don't really think that. As someone who has basically no contact with D&D whatsover, I still find the event extremely hilarious (come on - an adventuring group noticing mid-combat that the underlying physics of their world changes).
On top of that it also establish pretty well how the world works: We are told that this is a comic that not only uses role-playing rules, but also that the characters inside the world know these rules!


EDIT: on the lowering the amount of comics voting on: I don't really think we need it and would prefer sticking to the original plan.

[Pyrous]

I wish I could vote for both #18 and #21. But with everyone just waiting for Haley's turn, and the second unexpected SNEAK ATTACK in the face, #18 wins my vote.

[137beth]

Huh, this is a really good idea!


I'm going to go with 43 for the introduction of the first actual plotline.

[Emanick]

18: Double Surprise. I've read that strip so many times, I'd forgotten how funny it was the first time around.

[Bundin]

After careful consideration, my vote goes to #1. The 'in character' commenting about rules hooked me, I came for the dnd gags, I stayed for the story :)

[obaryb]

82. Just like my children... :smallamused:

[declinator]

18 for me. Double sneak attack!

[Dushara]

I have to vote for 35, because that's the strip the Giant is most proud of, right? :smallwink:

[dmc91356]

It's 18 for me, as it made me literally laugh out loud when I read it.

[LotusWyvern]

It was neat to go back and reread these. I liked 18 the best!

[Bluepaw]

Introduction of the Order of the Stick? Necessary. Introduction of the Linear Guild? Important. But dramatic musical cues for the dead chimera? Classic.

#21.

[Elenna]

Great idea! :smallsmile:

I think I'll go with 67, because Elan is awesome. Also, it hasn't gotten many votes so far.

[Sylian]

67 gets my vote.

[littlebum2002]

Wow, #72 remains unloved! Ouch!

I am going to have to vote for #18, not because it's an excellent strip, or because it did anything memorable, but because it has lasted, more than any other, in the hearts and minds of those making outlandish predictions on these forums over a decade later.

On future rounds

I am going to stick with the "10 rounds per contest" rule, but I was "rounding up" when I had to split comics which were originally in the same group together, and instead in the future I'll just "round down" instead. So 10 will be the MAXIMUM number of strips, not the minimum.

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g68/Cats_Are_Aliens/Banners/Trigak_zpsi9x0fkfj.png 18 Double Surprise (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0018.html) is the winner this week. It will probably make it into some sort of tournament if this proves popular enough (which, despite all my expectations, it is!)

Full Results are as follows

........THE STICK AWARDS II: 0001-0100



Comic Number
Votes Received
Vote Percentage





1

5

13.5%





5

1

2.7%





18

11

29.7%





21

4

10.8%





35

3

8.1%





39

2

5.4%





43

4

10.8%





67

4

10.8%





72

0

0.0%





78

1

2.7%





82

2

5.4%




Please join us for the next round of voting for Strips #101 - #140 which can be found here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?457567-The-Brick-Awards-The-Best-of-the-Worst-tournament-(-101-140))

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Wow, #72 remains unloved! Ouch!

And made it through to the **** award, the best of the very worst of the Order of the Stick. So tune in next year.

[137beth]

72 makes it to the Hyper Brick Awards:smalltongue:

[Porthos]

72 makes it to the Hyper Brick Awards:smalltongue:

I'd say the Licked Awards (as in repeatedly beaten), but I'm afraid the other definitions of the word probably precludes it. :smalltongue:

....

Stink Awards could work, you know. :smallwink:

PS: "Not It", BTW. :smallbiggrin:

[ti'esar]

The irony is that I don't even think 72 is a particularly bad comic. It made me chuckle, at least.

[StLordeth]

Yeah, I liked it. It has an even better followup where Belkar/Haley/Elan are pissed at Roy/V for it though.

[137beth]

The irony is that I don't even think 72 is a particularly bad comic. It made me chuckle, at least.

The only comic in this round that I would consider "bad" was 35.

[PopeLinus1]

67The first in a line of Elan-Beats-Nale Strips