Let the work speak.

1. Eligibility and original work

The intended audience is U.S. residents who are at least 18 and have reached the age of majority in their state. Paid leagues will exclude anyone residing in OR physically located in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, or Vermont. Other states remain subject to legal approval. Void where prohibited. Read the eligibility disclosure and location policy. Staff, judges, and people with disqualifying conflicts will not be eligible in affected leagues.

One original human-created work per entrant per league is proposed. Entrants must hold the required rights in every submitted element. No plagiarism, generative AI content, or unauthorized third-party material. Ordinary software tools, source materials, and permitted editing must be defined in each discipline’s final rules. Process evidence may be requested, with a fair review and appeal process.

Using a VPN, proxy, false residence details, or another method to bypass eligibility restrictions is prohibited. Suspected violations may trigger immediate suspension for review; confirmed violations may lead to disqualification or account termination under the final rules. Awards, refunds, and other funds must be handled under applicable law and the published contest rules, without automatic forfeiture of all account funds. Final acceptance and verification procedures must be in place before registration opens.

2. Separate leagues, clear limits

Each league would have a fixed brief, category, fee, deadline, judging rubric, and maximum of 500 confirmed entries. Fees are proposed at $5, $10, or $20. A successor league would be a distinct contest with its own terms and pool; entrants would knowingly choose it. The preview does not operate capacity reservations or automated rollover.

3. Judging and conflicts

The proposed rubric is originality 35%, craft 30%, interpretation 20%, and impact 15%. Judging should be anonymized where practical. Judges record scores and reasons and disclose conflicts. The planned tie sequence is originality, then craft, then an additional independent review using the same published criteria. Final rules must resolve any remaining tie without chance.

4. Money and prizes

The proposed split is 60% of retained eligible fees to the winning artist, 10% to one runner-up, and 30% to the site before operating expenses. First and second place would go to two distinct eligible artists under the published scoring and tie procedures. At least two eligible entries are needed to make both awards; the final operating minimum may be higher. A future 5% charity allocation would reduce the site share to 25% while leaving both artist shares unchanged. This structure is not legally cleared. Full-capacity figures are examples only. No guaranteed amount, minimum participation level, award date, or payment method is currently offered.

Official rules must specify minimum entrants, treatment of disqualified entries and refunds, cancellation triggers, full refund terms, chargeback reserves, verified winner eligibility, tax reporting, payout deadlines, and what happens when a prize cannot be delivered. A creator must see the base entry fee, any permitted processing fee, the total due, and applicable rules before authorizing payment. Processing fees are excluded from the 60/10/30 allocation. Planned third-party escrow would hold the prize portion until winners are announced and verified, then release awards under the final rules. The escrow provider, release conditions, timing, refund treatment, and responsibility for escrow costs must be agreed and disclosed before payments open. No escrow arrangement is currently in place.

5. Ownership and presentation

Artists would retain copyright. Any contest license must be limited to rights needed to review, judge, and display the work, with scope, duration, and publicity permissions disclosed. The winner and runner-up would receive dedicated showcase features after final results, eligibility checks, and required display permissions. The exact work or excerpt, credit, display duration, and any publicity terms must be agreed in the final rules. Private development drafts are not automatically published or entered into a league. Artists can separately opt to share selected work on their community profiles.

6. Fairness and administration

Before launch, we need moderation standards, a copyright complaint process, documented conflict recusals, a scoring audit trail, an error-correction and appeal window, and operator contact details. No rule should be changed retroactively to reduce an entrant’s promised award.

7. Artists’ Choice and the community

Artists’ Choice is community recognition with no cash prize. Voting eligibility requires an accepted contest entry during the 30 days before that league’s voting opens. Eligibility is checked against that opening date throughout the seven-day ballot; a draft or shared portfolio piece does not qualify. Entrants and credited contributors cannot vote in their own league. One person may use one account and cast one vote per eligible league, changing it until the deadline. Additional entries grant no additional votes.

Submissions close and cash judging is locked before voting opens. Vote totals stay hidden until results are reviewed and released. The most-voted eligible work receives an Artists’ Choice badge, a showcase entry, and rotation through the homepage spotlight for 30 days after release. Ties share recognition. A ballot with no votes produces no award. Judged winners can also receive this recognition. Community votes never affect cash awards or cash tiebreakers.

No duplicate accounts, purchased votes, coordinated vote trading, harassment, or spam. Comments should focus on the work and be constructive. Authors may delete their comments, and artists may remove comments on their work. Invalid votes may be excluded before verified results are released under the final contest rules. Profiles, follows, opt-in shared work, and comments are being prepared for launch. All participation is disabled in the current Coming Soon preview; no accepted paid contest entries or live ballots exist yet. Entrant identity checks and the trusted contest administration workflow must be completed before live voting launches.

8. Current development studio

After participation opens, the planned studio will support up to 20 private drafts with one supporting file of up to 10 MB each. Supported types are JPG, PNG, WebP, PDF, and UTF-8 plain text. Audio, video, and native 3D files are not supported yet; use a render, storyboard, or score. A draft is not a confirmed entry, does not reserve a slot, and creates no prize entitlement.

Preview the future studio or explore the proposed prize model.