THE shocker for me was Splodge's Waspital losing.


Best entries for me were Hellraiser's Cleese-bug, Zetape's magificent robo-bug, Rey's wonderful chop, Tea Man's spider (that I'd assumed was Koois tbh), Stevesters brilliant craft, Volkwes' near perfectly lit crime scene. Clonestamp Troppers bug rider, ThBeghin's suckling weirdness, Jerico's body builder, Marks ninja-bug, Pakimos gorgeous effort and prolly a few more.

that's a cool summary Splodge. wow, i knew there were a lot of entries, but it just puts it in scope when you see them all on 1 page like that.

i had 2 favs ... ReyRey's child warrior
- like you said earlier, the idea was not original, but you more than made up for it with incredible attention to detail ... the translucent wing allowing the color to pass through, and the dust in the air in the foreground added great perspective. i was wondering at first how you found a source pic with perfect positioning and facial expression ... that's smart making your own source pics ... i'll have to keep that in mind. excellent work!

... and Nunosk8's born to be wild
- very cool. the speed blur and the crispness of the bee/moped were perfect. it reminded me of some of Anfa's work.

and i also wish we had the ability to add H2H images to our favs! any chance of that happening?

thanks Buglover and Eve for the compliments. i haven't chopped in a year or two and have had a blast since coming back for H2H.

This was a hard task... So many great chops.

I actually laughed out load when I saw this one, which is _very_ rare. I think I was quite surprised by the whole thing.
http://photoshopcontest.com/tournament/view/2443/display.html
Could be a bit more work on the details, but that doesn't matter, we need more humor!

I also think the losing entry in this match deserved more votes. It's a simple (?) chop (well performed though), but you know that sometimes less is more.
http://photoshopcontest.com/tournament/view/2459/display.html

Alot of these were harder to decide than I thought they would be. Very impressive first round images!
These were the toughest for me to decide:
nunosk8 vs. batichan (def. the hardest for me to pick one, both great!)
thBeghin vs. infected (2nd hardest to pick, thBeghin's was weird in a good way and the other was very nicely done)


Favorite(s) of Round 1:
mason4300 - for the humor (I laughed out loud)
stevester - execution, execution (wowed me)
deshone - overall theme and execution

Great job everyone!

*DING* Round 2!!

Favorites:
1. ReyRey™, Woow!!!
2. Stevster, Rey vs Stevster in the final match would be awesome!!!
3. thBeghin, shadow concept was flooring
4. Reggienoble, that worm was reedikuluous!!
5. Hellraiser, so clean and well executed

Good Matches:
There were quite a few good ones

1. Oscar lost by one vote, Ouch!
2. Cafn8d, lost in a tie!
3. Splodge and myself were only 10 vote difference!
4. Can't believe DP lost! Friggin box (I thought he had the winning chop)

They're where so many overall just good chops and creative fresh ideas:.
Can't wait for round #2

ahh yes, i forgot to include Stevster's in my favs, that was amazing, and yes, that would be a good matchup.

I totally recognized Rey Reys daughter.

I think the motorcycle was an outstanding picture but no source kinda disqualified it for me.

I totally figured the dead bug/murder/crime scene would be cliche but, I never expected all of the joust pictures. Awful lot of racers and riders.

The best of the riders was the mantis at gunpoint.

I didn't get clobbered as bad as last year so overall I'm happy.

Ok...I admit...I threw Round one.
THERE...ya HAPPY NOW?!?!?!?!

My favs... in no particular order...

Zetape´s Wasp Chopper
Anfa´s Chopper´s Rider
Nunosk8´s Chopper´s Rider
ReggieNoble2´s Worm

This just took my breath away, its just amazing

http://photoshopcontest.com/tournament/view/2455/display.html


everyone did a great job...it was really hard to pick on some of them!

A lot of great chops. I also like the format of these H2H contests.

Sent you a PM, but congratulations on such a close round. I truly didn't expect to have the upper hand at the end of the round, since my entry was rather plain. Yours was very nice to look at, especially next to mine. I can imagine what it's like to be that close. I think my head would pop if I got knocked out by one vote.

thanks for the votes everyone, didn't expect it

my favoritest were stevsters and eragons

lot of good ones, but i know a lot of people can do better

Many of the runner ups would have kicked my ass. Well done, everyone...

Just going down the list.

The first one that jumps out is Screwloose's, aside form the aforementioned flaws, it had a nice feel to it.

Dbbowling did rather well on his, a good first round showing.

Goat's was a weird idea, but very well executed.

Jerico's was very solid, through and through.

vunt's stood out, though it had some foreground/background conflict in making it out clearly.

Rey's was uber clean, as good as it could be executed for that idea.

Zetape's was more than just a robot, but a really cool motorcycle thematic that I thought was quite good.

Clonestamp also did a very nice, clean execution of the rider idea.

arcaico's may be a little underappreciated. The mask work, coloring, and overall thematic integration was fantastic.

Krank's play on words was very nicely done imo.

Deshone's stands out because it wasn't necessarily a dialed in idea and was executed with his normal high level of standards.

Humor wise, listen2WEEN's was one of my faves of the round, thinking about the kid running away as this insane creature washes up.

dewking's is very solid, a nice execution of that idea.

mightybeet, despite his berating me at every corner, did one of the best source efforts of the round.

blue lurker's army ants, imo, exceeded his normal level of chopping and was a standout.

Janfet's was funny and quite nicely executed.

Serps' was also a very nice source effort and one of my faves of the round.

anfa's was his typical good symmetrical style stuff, very nice.

I thought caf's was the best use of the source background, sad to see it go out.

hellraiser's was fantastic, not only for idea, but for the marvelous clean execution.

Stevster's is my pick for the best of the round and clearly he is in full form for the h2h once again.

Reggie's really popped, maybe more than any other image in the round, but suffered from some big execution flaws, especially the shadow.

Ok, anyways, that's kind of what stood out to me.

-Stephen