alright fellas.....

glad to say that i'm finally announcing the winners!
once again, i'm so sorry that this ended up being drawn out nearly an entire month when it was supposed to be a one week ordeal LOL. i think the amount of entries just threw me off a bit and tickled my procrastination reflex on top of everything else i was doing. but now it's over! i want to give a nice congratulations to the three winners, but also want to give a huge thanks to everyone to entered! i honestly believed that i was going to get only a handful of designs and i'd be left with very little choices. guess i made the prizes appealing because i definitely got more than i ever expected!

this post might end up longer than i intend for it to be, so buckle up lol

to get some extra stuff out of the way first:
there was a total of 68 entries!
that's a hell of a lot of entries to go through for something like this.

i do have to say, you all made this super difficult. even if your design wasn't chosen, i hope you know that i still really appreciate the work you put in for your entry, especially if you made multiple designs or even went all out with decor. i'd choose them all if i could, but sadly i don't have the money or space to do that!!

i'll be naming first, second, and third place of course, but i'll also be naming runner-ups and some other honorable mentions. i literally have no other currency to offer, but i have decided that runner-ups and honorable mentions will also get a free studding once the heir is kinged. hopefully that is somewhat appealing to some of you LOL. he's clean and has some bigly stats at least.

for clarity's sake, runner-ups are basically the finalists i didn't end up choosing (i ended up with 6 final entries) and honorable mentions are mainly for lions i would have loved to have chosen, but unfortunately they either had too many BO markings/bases/etc to get or simply did not exist on the site at all!! in the end, it mainly came down to which bases i liked best and, ultimately, how expensive a design would end up being!

NOW FOR THE WINNERS:
First Place:
lance (#173175) with their goridhe design!

your prize is 20gb and 10 free studdings!

i admittedly had my eye on this boy since i first saw the entry, but i ended up deciding that i really liked the whole natural aesthetic he had going on. most of my kings look very same-y and i wanted to do something different. there's also a lot of room to go and add more markings and i thought everything just went together very cohesively. not only that, but i was able to find a super cheap (i think fodder priced, actually lol) lion that i am able to use for the design! i'll just be using the actual heir as a mut/stat/heritage rep. :] congrats!

Second Place:
lamme (#223440) with their grullo design!

your prize is 10gb and 5 free studdings!

i really like the softness this guy had to him, especially with the more natural look. it was actually super hard to place this guy, and in the end i had to resort to being nitpicky in order to actually come to a decision. i really loved the accessibility with the fact that i could use my existing heir for this design and that, although some of the marking apps are either pretty expensive or take a long time to acquire (damn enclave...), he was fully app-based and 100% possible to create, and i really appreciate that you did that. the brown/gold combo is definitely something i've grown to admire and it's a good step away from my existing trend with kings. in the end, i had to go with second place as it come down to what base i preferred more and how long it'd take to finish each design. however, i'm thinking i might use him for a next king, as the design's just too good to waste! :] congrats!

Third Place:
syx (#374987) with their double rosette design!

your prize is 5gb and 1 free studding!

so funny story with this guy, i had actually found a fitting lion on the TC all lined up and had planned to gather up funds (read: spend my nonexistent real people money on gb) to buy out the trade when surprise... the trade went down i think like 24 hours after i had watched it. whoops. however, i did manage to find a replacement for cheaper. i really liked the red/black vibes you went with him, i was hoping more people would've gone with those colors in their entries! he had a nice angry vibe to him that i use for my kings, and rosettes are always good to have. however, since he was still considerably more expensive than the other designs (and i'm a broke mfer), i went with third place. :] congrats!

THE RUNNER UPS:
jungler (#69480) with their noctis design!

you get one free studding!

man, i was SO close to picking this guy, but ultimately it just came down to price! i loved the colors and the rosette and the variations you made for each design you submitted. i almost went for the uneven variation, and i kept going back and forth between your other great designs too! he had a wonderful vibe to him, but unfortunately it just cost too much. congrats for making the final 6!

satanbelle (#143009) with their alabaster design!

you get one free studding!

man, i loved the vibes you came up with for this guy. with the background it almost gives me haunted scarecrow aesthetic LOL. he was hard to place too, especially since he was all applicator-based and i could've used my current heir for him! honestly, both your designs were great, but this guy had taken the cake. ultimately, i felt that he was too similar to my current king and i wanted to try and go a different route. congrats for making the final 6!

uchawi (#251085) with their vitbomb design!

you get one free studding!

i've been a sucker for vitbombs ever since i started playing this game, and i agree that they can be pretty slept on. i loved the whole snowy aesthetic you had for him and the cloudy eyes were a big plus. this design was another one i had a TC mishap with; i had a whole ass trade picked out and everything, watched it, and then surprise! it was cancelled or bought out like the next day or so. i did find one for like 40gb cheaper (!!) and was so tempted. in the end, though, i decided i wanted a design with a bit more variations in the markings. congrats for making the final 6!

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
gin (#217787) with their ebony design!

you get one free studding!

i loved the blues and browns and the overall markings of this guy, but unfortunately he had so many breed-only traits that it was quite literally impossible to find a lion to use for the design without having to remove or rearrange the markings entirely!

grassman (#243884) with their interstellar design!

you get one free studding!

i loved this guy so much. the interstellar with the pinks and the speckles and the ebony, it was like the perfect space aesthetic! i wanted so much to choose him, but unfortunately there were so many breed-only markings that a lion to buy was so hard to find!

venus (#305723) with their madagascar design!

you get one free studding!

this was probably my dream design... madagascar is my ultimate favorite base on this game, and even though i've had madagascar kings in the past, i was so willing to go for another one. i loved the markings and design and i was so close to picking him.... but sadly, the heavy rosette threw it off completely. there literally isn't a madagascar with a heavy onyx rosette that exists on the site. i even thought about buying a madagascar based cub and trying my luck with RMAs, but my RNG luck is so abysmal that it's not even funny and i'd probably spend thousands of GB trying to get it.

shuga (#373461) with their ripe design!

you get one free studding!

honestly, i really like ripe as a base and my dumb ass didn't realize it was breed-only until later on. i actually really liked the torn patches and i surprisingly vibed with the orange/blue color combo you had going there. unfortunately, even though he had so little markings, he was almost entirely breed-only except for the eyes and (i guess technically) the rosette, so i was unable to choose him.

moon (#388155) with their elysian design!

you get one free studding!

i really loved the blue/brown/white color scheme he had going on, and elysian is also another one of my favorite bases. cloudy eyes were definitely a perk too, as it's one of my favorite eye colors! unfortunately, he just had so many breed-only elements that it was way too hard to find a good lion to buy to use for the design.

renioxe (#394316) with their alabaster design!

you get one free studding!

i told myself that i wasn't going to let decor sway my judgement, but bro the decor you put on this guy was awesome. i really liked the pale bloody look he had going on too, which fit perfectly for the kind of kings i go for! sadly, he had a lot of breed-only markings that made it hard to find a lion to buy to use!

viper gecko (#421773) with their ice design!

you get one free studding!

man, you actually made me like natural pied with this design. i liked the blue and white theme you had going for him, and i appreciated that he was (for the most part) totally acquirable through applicators. the evil pose with the decor and the eldritch eyes almost had me swayed too, i was really tempted to have a queen for once! i had almost chosen this one too, but ultimately i decided that i wanted more variation with the markings.

congrats to everyone!! i'll be sending out prizes shortly and i'll be logging all the free studdings too. you're not required to use them, but they're there if you ever want it.

thank you so much to everyone who entered. have a good night!