UC BEST DECKS OF 2013 & 17 subcategories - WINNERS!

[Strag]

Interesting how few votes the established companies (T11, D$D, Blue Crown/HOPC, Bicycle) actually got. Maybe a bit of a wake up call for them?

[vasta41]

Interesting how few votes the established companies (T11, D$D, Blue Crown/HOPC, Bicycle) actually got. Maybe a bit of a wake up call for them?

Either that or Jackson simply stole the show.

[volantangel]

Charlie81dbz's vote:

Best Ace of Spades: ➙ Calaveras
Best Back Design: ➙ Boss Deck (from the Draw Like a Boss ks project)
Best Court Cards: ➙ Calaveras
Best Pips: ➙ Empire
Best Jokers: ➙ Venexiana
Best Deck Series (at least one release this year): ➙ Fed 52
Best Gaff Card (not gaff decks, eg. Gaff System): ➙ Grid 2.0
Best Use of Colors: ➙ Emperor
Best Deck for Flourishing: ➙ Virtuoso Launch Edition
Best Deck for Fanning: ➙ Empire
Best Deck for Magic: ➙ Grid 2.0
Best Uncut Sheet: ➙ Royal Optik
Best Tuck Box: ➙ Blue Blood Redux
Best Packaging (not tuckbox, ie Brick-boxes, Wooden Cases, etc): ➙ Royal Optik (not sure if this is all the packaging offered for the deck or one in particular; if only one, then the Commemorative 6 deck box is my choice)
Best Deck Accessory: (Coins, Chips, dice, etc):➙ Imperial Coin
Best Innovation on a Deck of Playing Cards: ➙ United Cardists 2013 - Foil inside the tuck
Best Kickstarter Campaign: ➙ Empire
Overall Best Deck: ➙ Royal Optik

Points: 47
Just to clarify, this was submitted between flyers3003 & th4mo =)

[DukeBoy]

Interesting how few votes the established companies (T11, D$D, Blue Crown/HOPC, Bicycle) actually got. Maybe a bit of a wake up call for them?

Either that or Jackson simply stole the show.

If I remember correctly the indys did well in the 2012 votes too.

[phantom1412]

I got 52 points. Nice number for me.

[shadowkat]

My total comes to 34 points. This was very fun, thanks!

[volantangel]

Guys do let me know if I counted wrong for your points so I can make the necessary changes

[Firthetic]

I calculated mine as 46 points, but that isn't in the top 10 so I guess it's alright. Guess we'll be seeing your ugly mug in the Grotesque deck, Kai!

[Yashi]

I new I shouldn't have switched my answer for Best Tuck Box. Oh well. Fingers crossed for the brick of nocs. But I never win contests or giveaways. (Reverse psychology for a little luck)

[Mike Ratledge]

OK, this was not supposed to be announced until noon tomorrow (Monday, the 24th), but it's too late to put the "cat back in the bag" at this point. I'm going to work on this post for a while and try to make about 1/2 of what I had intended to put into it by noon tomorrow and go ahead and move it back into the "New & Custom Decks" folder.

To begin with - remember that this is a weighted tally system. For your own points, like volantangel posted originally - to compute how many points you got take every 1st place vote you had in your entry and add 5 points, take every 2nd place winner you got right and add 3 points, and take every 3rd place winner and add 1 point. Volant will double-check the math on the top 10 or 15 scorers and insure that we get the prizes right. There are also a couple of prizes for non-winners and for the person that get only 1 point total (see the OP or "Prize Contributors" post). Lordy - I think that is correct, please reread his post to be sure that I have it exactly right before you computer your total. Please use the post he made at the top of this page instead of trying to calculate it from the info-graphic here.

We also added a couple of prizes between when we posted the "Ballot" and prize list and when the contest ended, so those will still be a surprise.

Now, that being said: Ivan of Kardify Analytics put together an info-graphics for us that shows the winners of all 18 votes in a tabular format, or graphic format rather. That's here: (big link to graphics & article on Kardify Analytics will open up).

UC2013_DotY_winners.jpg (40.5 KiB) Viewed 1855 times

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Click on graphic for full-screen view and article (Kardify Analytics)

Jackson Robinson was 1st overall with his "Federal 52" series of decks. He had 6 overall wins with "Federal 52" series, and an individual tie with "Federal 52 Black Reserve Note" for the best uncut sheet. Chris Chelko came in 2nd overall with "Whispering Imps" and 3 individual category wins, most by a large margin, and Lee McKenzie came in 3rd overall with his "Empire" deck, also coming in 1st in 3 individual categories. Beyond that, there were 5 other winners of a single category, one actually tied (Uusi) with 1st on one category (uncut sheet for "Royal Optik") and was 1st alone in a second one. That's not reflected in the graphic (yet).

I contacted each of the 3 top overall winners today to get comments and statements, and those will be posted after noon tomorrow when the official results were supposed to be posted. At this point, it's no longer a secret (well, obviously I was the only one that thought it was?), so it's officially public knowledge at this point.

1st place overall - Jackson Robinson: (the rest to be posted no later than noon tomorrow)...

[walrus]

Do I get an honorable mention for my support of The VORTEX DECK.

[volantangel]

I calculated mine as 46 points, but that isn't in the top 10 so I guess it's alright. Guess we'll be seeing your ugly mug in the Grotesque deck, Kai!

Hahah thanks Fir ! I double counted and it was 42 points tho. Haha but it probably doesnt matter. Hope everyone had fun !

[Mike Ratledge]

1st Place - Volantangel (82pts)
The winner's face to be forever immortalised as part of UC's history by being illustrated by Lotrek for the 2nd UC Deck (Grotesque) plus two Grotesque decks.

2nd Place - MonteCarloJoe (70pts)
A Skulkor Brick Box containing 12 decks of Sharpie's choice

3rd Place - Jason_Taylor (60pts)
Deco set + Aurum sovereign + Aurum white gold + Encarded sticker

4th Place - Dukeboy (58pts)*
Bedeceived trio + Purple LTD + Madison Dealers

5th Place - Flyers3003 (58pts)*
Ornate Set (4 decks)

6th Place - Th4mo (58pts)*
Tendril 1 of 20 bamboo clip + G.O.D. Chinatown deck

7th Place - Ivan (57pts)
Americana uncut + Feminist uncut

8th Place - Phantom1412 (55pts)
Black club stainless clip + Black club brick box with membership card (not valid) + Black JAQK deck

9th Place - Kdklown ( 54pts)
White Rabbit Deck + Purple LTD + Madison Dealers

10th Place - Sms69x (53pts)
A set of signed Venexiana court prints

Last Place with a non-zero score - Dazzleguts (4pts)
2 decks of fire and brimstone

Random Prize for a Non-Winner - Strag!!
1 brick of Black NOCs


Jackson Robinson offered a prize to whoever guessed the most correct overall 1st place winners, and since we had a 3-way tie for that (and Jackson was the overall 1st place winner), he graciously agreed to provide three "Federal 52" custom brick boxes instead of just one - one for each of those three people that tied for that prize: "volantangel", "phantom1412" and "samwisethegrey". I'd personally like to thank volantangel for his hard work on this one - twice due to the board crashing, and to each of those people that provided the prizes for this contest. In total we had somewhere around $3500 value in prizes including the two extra bricks Jackson added. Next year I hope to see at least twice as many people enter the "UC 2014 Deck of the Year" contest - hopefully more!

Each person that provided a prize or prizes will be shipping the winner their goodies. In order to do that properly, I need each of you named above to contact volantangel and get the name of the provider of the prize, and then send them your (real) name and address so they can ship the prizes.


* Ties were broken by the earliest entry

[dazzleguts]

Woohoo!
I'll just send Hikeeba my address then.
Thank you very much kind sir.

[Eoghann]

Holy fudge cakes! That was an epic contest! Congrats to everyone!

[Yashi]

Volantangel, the future of Grotesque lies on your face!
Congratulations to the winners and thank you to the sponsors. That was a great contest.

[volantangel]

Kindly contact:

Sharpie for 2nd place, 6th place, 7th place, 8th place.
Strag for 4th place, 5th place, 9th place.
Encarded for 3rd place.
Lotrek for 1st and 10th place.
Hikeeba for last place XD.
Mike Ratledge for random prize.

Hope everyone had fun ! I had a blast myself, even though i swear i killed more than a couple of brain cells for this contest ! Thanks Mike for helping me officiate thing to keep things fair, and to source out additional prizes and wrapping up the whole event. And Ivan for the brilliant infographic as well. Was a pleasure working with you guys!

[samwisethegray]

Wow!! Incredible contest and thank you everyone who donated rewards.

[Eoghann]

It all paid off V, you received a ton of highly coveted prizes. You lucky son of a gun.

Make sure you shave and get a haircut. Don't want to be immortalized with your bed head!

[dazzleguts]

Do I get an honorable mention for my support of The VORTEX DECK.

We were going to hoist you up and carry you around on our shoulders Walrus, but even virtually you're way too heavy. How about a limited edition tin of sardines?

[volantangel]

It all paid off V, you received a ton of highly coveted prizes. You lucky son of a gun.

Make sure you shave and get a haircut. Don't want to be immortalized with your bed head!

Just lucky my friend, i was surprised how the votes turned out in my favour. But honestly the votes for several categories were pretty close (can be seen from the infographic) a little change in the votes could have made things pretty different.

[ivan]

Thanks for the fun contest... and the generous sponsors! Good to see everyone's view on some of those categories.



I will contact Sharpie directly for my prize.

[Mike Ratledge]

Kindly contact:

Sharpie, Strag, Encarded, Lotrek, Hikeeba, Mike Ratledge...

I already relayed volantangel's information to Jackson Robinson, but "samwisethegrey" and "phantom1412" both need to send their (real) name and mailing address to Jackson and claim their prize - a custom brick of Federal 52 "variety pack" decks. I'll let him know you're both coming!

[max]

Congratulation to all!

That has been really cool!

And thanks to the sponsors for such a great generosity

[Strag]

Dukeboy - Bedeceived trio + Purple LTD + Madison Dealers

Flyers3003 - Ornate Set (4 decks)

Kdklown - White Rabbit Deck + Purple LTD + Madison Dealers

Please PM me your address. I have quite a busy week with meetings so it's possible they don't go out until next week but I'll do my best.

[Jason_Taylor]

Wow, this is great. Thanks to the Team for running the contest and to all the fantastic sponsors for providing prizes.

[montecarlojoe]

Gotta say I'm really surprised and very happy! I missed out on Sharpie's amazing giveaway last year - and now I get to join in Woo!

[Mike Ratledge]

Thanks again to all involved - especially volant for running a really good contest and everyone that voted for participating, and also for each prize offered here in the contest. I don't think I've seen anything with quite this large a prize pool.

OK, notified Jackson, Chris, Lee and Uusi about their 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th place finished respectively.

Here's what Jackson had to say:

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To UC,

2013 was truly an awesome year for both my family and myself. The world of playing cards has single-handedly changed my life. I want to thank all of you who have supported me and also been a part of the creation of Kings Wild Project. I have had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful people throughout this process. The Federal 52 series has a very special place in my heart and I thank you all for honoring me. I also want to say congratulations to Chris and Lee as well their decks are truly inspirational are are both on my own top 10 list. The playing card world went from 0 to 60 in 2013 and it is only going to get better this year. Without communities like UC and incredibly talented designers like Chris, Lee, and many more inspiration and encouragement would be non existent.

My family and I sincerely thank you,
Jackson

---

Chris Chelko just finished 5 years as a Talent Coordinator at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and wrote:

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I've been collecting playing cards for over 10 years and had always wanted to create a deck of my own that magicians and playing card enthusiasts could appreciate. The Whispering Imps is that deck and Mark Stutzman was the only person I knew who could make that vision come alive.

Thank you to all the members of the UnitedCardists community who voted and showed their love and support of the Whispering Imps, frankly, I'm honored. 2013 was an incredible year for playing cards. There were so many other creative, beautiful, and successful decks released that I'm very grateful to this community of enthusiasts for acknowledging the intent, design and function of the Whispering Imps playing cards and for voting it the 2nd best deck of 2013. Thank you.

-Chris

---

and Lee McKenzie responded as follows:

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Wow....I'm stunned. Not only have you liked Empire enough to back it in Kickstarter, but now to vote for it to win in 3 of the greatest categories in UC Deck of the year too! Unbelievable. I couldn't be happier with the results, thank you all for showing your support and I will continue to put my everything into to make kick-ass playing cards for us all to enjoy. Congratulations to all the other competitors too, it's a scary thing being judged. However, from all the amazing emails I've received and the UC Deck of the Year votes on top of that, it helps me feel I definitely made the right choice starting Kings & Crooks. I'll have so much more to share with you soon (the next Kickstarter almost ready to drop).
You guys are incredible, thank you all so much. I'll keep making them if you keep loving them!
Thank you too Mike for all your hard work in keeping our community truly alive and kicking, you're a star.

With my deepest gratitude,
Lee McKenzie

---

Unfortunately I haven't heard from Linnea of Uusi, but I suspect that they are likely not in Chicago, since I have always heard back from her overnight every time I have emailed her. If I get something later today (or even tomorrow) I will come edit this post to add it.
I knew something was wrong, but I found out the specifics just a few minutes ago. One of Peter & Linnea's best and longest friendships ended with the death of their friend about a week or ten days ago, and they closed the Uusi shop in Chicago to be with friends and family through the ordeal. When they send a comment, I will post it separately. Please join me in wishing that they both find peace in this time of turmoil.

Again, congratulations to all of the winners of the voting and also all the winners here on UC that voted and split a jackpot of over $3500 worth of prizes!

[Mike Ratledge]

Congratulation to all!

That has been really cool!

And thanks to the sponsors for such a great generosity

Thank you, Max! Max posted an article about the UC 2013 Deck of the Year winners here: In English and Spanish. It's on the front page "headlines" of MaxPlayingCards.com right now, but I posted the "deep links" so when a new article is posted you can still find these.

[flyers3003]

Wow! Thanks Mike and everyone involved in helping make this contest possible. So glad I found this forum over a year ago. Great resource, great fun, great community and even greater people. Even the sea mammals of this board rock!