Kurogane/Fai

Come one, come all, don't be shy - newcomers and veterans alike are welcome to sign up as members of the mod team for this year's KuroFai Olympics. I'm looking for a team of hopefully four, but three or two would work just fine. All you need is a willing spirit, some time to commit, and of course, an intense love for Kurogane and Fai!

Late August looks like it would be the best time of year in both hemispheres to hold the event itself, and if we can get organised before the end of June, that would give our Olympians all of July and the first half of August to write, with the posting week in the last half of August.

All we need is the mods, a theme, and our teams!

So. If you are interested in being a moderator for the 2018 KuroFai Olympics, please respond to the Mod Sign-Up Thread in the comments below. And if you have an idea for a two-fold, mirrored theme for two teams to battle it out in, please respond to the Theme Suggestion Thread with up to three (3) of your best ideas or personal favourite themes, which our mod team will compile into a list for voting later.

A note on theme suggestions: themes for the Olympics work best when they're simple concepts that have two opposing 'sides' that still relate to each other: Sci Fi vs. Fantasy, Angst vs. Fluff, Canon vs. AU, Dragon vs. Phoenix, Light vs. Dark, Sun vs. Moon, Fire vs. Ice, etc. Prompts can be more complex, and allow for more creativity, but it's important to keep the overall theme simple and easy to understand. (Not to mention, family friendly - nothing suggestive, sexual or gory please!)

I'm going to be making a post promoting the sign-ups on tumblr - please reblog it to spread the word!

 
You're not dreaming, folks: we're looking to bring back that fandom institution, that fantastical fanfic extravaganza, that fabulous festival that is the KuroFai Olympics back for the seventh year running!

But Clover, I can hear you asking, what exactly are the KuroFai Olympics?

That's a great question! The KuroFai Olympics are a friendly, fan-run fanfiction writing event, where two teams working with paired-but-mirrored themes compete to create fanfiction entries based on a series of prompts. The Olympians for each team write frantically over the course of several weeks to finish their entry for their respectively assigned prompts, and then the teams post according to a roster during the much-anticipated posting week... and then comes the voting! Fans vote for their favourite entries in accordance to a scoring rubric, and at the end of the voting period, the scores are tallied up to name a winner!

Clover, that really sounds more like a writing contest than the Olympics. Don't the Olympics have, like, sports and naked oil wrestling or something?

You have a point - it is a contest in a sense, but the name comes from the concept of the Fandom Olympics, which it was inspired by way back when the very first KuroFai-specific Olympics was held on livejournal. And even though it's technically a contest between teams, there are no winners or losers or medals - just a little friendly competition, and a whole lot of amazing fic to read! Besides, no-one's saying you can't strip Kurogane and Fai, cover them in oil and make them wrestle in your fic - just as long as it fits the theme!

...Thank you for that stunning mental image.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but you're welcome! [wink]

Still, naked oil wrestling or not, it sounds like a lot of fun! When's it being held? Who's running it? What's the theme for the teams, and where's the prompt list? When do we start writing, and when do we vote?

Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's a lot of questions that we don't have the answers to yet... and that's what this post is for.

This is an Expression of Interest: we're looking for volunteers to be the contest moderators (the hardworking peeps that run the show), ideas for themes for the teams to compete in (such as Fantasy vs. Sci Fi, Angst vs. Fluff, Canon vs. AU and so on), and suggestions for what dates we should hold the event on (remembering that we need it to be fair for as many people as possible, and accommodate an international calendar - we've got fans all over the world who'd like to join in the fun!).

If you can supply any of the above, we want to hear from you! I've put together three separate threads for volunteers, themes, and dates respectively down below,  as well as a miscellaneous suggestion thread, so if you can, please drop a comment to the appropriate thread with your suggestions!

Hey Clover, didn't you run the event one year? Why can't you just run it again?

You're absolutely right, I sure did - back in 2015. And I don't think I can do it again: I'm a lover writer, not a event-runner, and while I had a blast doing it, it played merry hell with my anxiety. Because of that, it's probably best I stick to doing what I do best: writing about the scowly ninja and his mage husband, and leaving the hard work to other people. Basically, I'm anxious and also lazy, and I wanna write for this year's Olympics - which is a lot harder to do when you're running the whole thing behind the scenes.

That said, I am more than happy to help out to the brave souls that step up to the plate and take their places as event moderators - and as an admin for the comm, I'll lend as much behind-the-scenes help as I possibly can. Now, since I a) work full-time, and b) live in The Land Down Under (aka Australia, aka really bloody far away) it might take me a little bit to get back to you, but please don't hesitate to chat amongst yourselves. I'll chip in when I can to help you out, and I have faith everyone will be polite and friendly to one another! (Because if you're not, then I'll feed you to Mokona [cheerful grin])

SO! Please check out the threads below, and reply to any where you think you have an idea or a suggestion - to make this year's event a successful one, we need all the input we can get!

Thanks, Clover! This sounds really exciting - I can't wait to get involved!

Me too, friend, me too! [finger guns]

EDIT: So far, we have the wonderful animangod , flowerspeaks  and aquarius_galuxy  as part of our moderating team - hopefully we can finalise our whole team soon! I'll update the post again once everyone is confirmed!