Greetings unto the Populace,

As announced at ÆLive last Saturday, Their Sylvan Majesties King Maynard von dem Steine and Queen Liadain ni Dheirdre Chaohamnaigh are pleased to let it be known to all that They are looking forward to choosing Their Arts & Sciences Champions at the Virtual Kingdom Arts & Sciences Championship to be concluded on Saturday December 5th.

We are still ironing out some details, but we wanted to announce the Tourney and its concept now so that you can get your act and entry together in time. While some things may still change a bit, the event will be organized as follows. The Kingdom A&S Championship will be held entirely virtual, much along the lines of the Virtual Queen’s Prize Tourney that we ran in the Spring. We will create an online entry form, where you will upload some basic information, your documentation and a few photographs.

This being Kingdom Championship, we require written documentation, however don’t let that deter you from entering. The judging itself will be face to face over zoom during private sessions between each entrant and their judges. Judging will be as close as possible to the normal judging at the traditional A&S Championships: two sessions with two judges of about 30-45 minutes for each entrant.

Judging will be performed with the help of a rubric that will be shared with entrants and judges ahead of time. The scores will be tallied once all judging is completed and relayed to Their Majesties who will choose Their Champions. Right now, we are planning to spread out the judging during the week prior to December 5th so that we can coordinate suitable time slots for the entrants and judges with a limited number of zoom rooms. We plan to have part of the presentations public, so that the populous can also chat with the entrants and admire their entries over zoom. In addition, we will share all entries publicly on the Kingdom Office of Arts and Sciences website and create a public forum to leave comments, just as we did for the Virtual Queen’s Prize Tourney. Unfortunately, at this point, again due to the nature of virtual judging, and the practicality and legality of shipping foodstuffs and alcohol, anything that needs to be sniffed, tasted, or quaffed for proper judging is unfortunately not eligible. Don’t get us wrong – we really would not mind having consumables shipped to us in this time of need! But we don’t want you to break the law either. That being said, we totally encourage and accept research-paper entries in these areas. However, if we do still come up with a way to make it work, you will be the first to know.

We want to emphasize that we totally love to see partial projects! It doesn’t have to be a completely finished entry to be eligible. As usual, you may also enter up to three related objects as a single entry. Prior entry in another competition or display does not disqualify you from entering, we love to see continued progress on existing projects. Finally, given the virtual nature of the competition, we encourage everyone to go overboard with progress and final pictures or get creative with a short video. Show us your project from every angle as if we have it in our hands!

Their Sylvan Majesties and the Kingdom Office of Arts & Sciences are very
much looking forward to seeing what our Kingdom has to offer! Keep an eye out on this channel for further information!

Yours in service,
Hrólfr and Elska á Fjárfelli (KMoAS)
Robert of Ferness (A&S Webminister)