32 replies to this topic

[Rols O'Bertilsson]

Check … one … two. Okay, hit it guys!



Thank you to Steve Guttenberg and the Village People for that opening musical tribute to the Big Apple. No expense spared with the entertainment budget on GamesBids!

And welcome everyone here today to the roof of the United Nations Building in New York City!



We were going to use the Security Council Chamber for the announcement, but the fisticuffs on the stage at the start of Round Three meant that all the podium decorations were destroyed. Baron and bgdrewsif are now sweeping up the mess before the Council goes into session again. They don't often see eye-to-eye, but it seems they can agree on one thing, though. Who they support for the Logo comp!
On the other hand, we have the Afiqnadzir/Aismanggo brothers – it seems sibling loyalty does not extend to who they support in the final.

I want to extend a welcome to President Obama, President Rogge, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary of State Clinton, Mayor Bloomberg, GBModerator Robert Livingstone and all our GamesBids members who could make the occasion.



Before I hand over to IOC President Jacques Rogge (I'm lending him my IP address for the day … no, true. He's NOT my alter!) to make the big announcement, I'd just like to thank everyone who entered and voted in the competition this year. You've all done yourselves proud – I think everyone agrees that the standard reached new heights this time around. So did our standards for scandal – mysterious identities, vote rigging, brawls on the tally room floor, votes from beyond the grave and to top it off, a razor-thin, ever changing last poll - we had it all! With one of our closest and hard fought finales to it all to cap it of. As I compose this, I still don't know who is likely to be crowned.
A big round of applause to everyone who made it all happen. Also a special thanks to Scotguy for pestering me long enough to bite the bullet and get the comp going, to Citius Altius Fortius as my sounding board when I had to make some tough calls, to intoronto for help in Rotorua in tallying the Christchurch short round votes, and to all those who posted their evaluations of the designs.

And I'd ask Prince Albert and Mr Bubka to both sit back down again. Question time is over …

And that's it from me. It's over to the President of the International Olympic Committee, the Big Belgian Waffle himself, Monsieur Jacques Rogge, to announce the verdict.

*Applause*

Jacques Rogge: Mesdames et Monsieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Bienvenue a Man'attan, New York City!

I am always 'appy to see zee spirit of Olympism inspire our youth to beecome involved in endeavours to make zee souls soar 'igher. But then there eez zee GamesBids contests – zey serve to remind me of 'ow things worked when my departed colleague, His Excellency the Marquis de Samaranch, was een charge. Still, this contest 'as been organised better than my colleague, Monsieur Blatter, has presided over lately.

We 'ave 'ad a very strong and large field zees year, but there can always be more to enter. I would encourage everyone oo as ever put les crayones to papier – or not - to enter zee contest next time. Zere can never be too many entrants. I would like to see a final field of two dozen at least next time.

I congratulate our two final contestants – Rob-'etch and Pol – for making zee final. You 'ave 'elped make zees an incredible dream contest. But zere can only be one wiener, and the wiener of the 2024 GamesBids New York City 2024 Summer games Logo Competition eez …























… Merde! Please shut up and 'and me zee envelope, Herr Bach, you will 'ave your time soon enough …























Okay, zee wiener eez ….






















C'est Pol!




*Applause*



Sir Rols: Thank you President Rogge, and congratulations to our Gold Medallist Paul winning our latest Logo comp.



Whoa! What a final! And everything still in play to the last moment, with a see-sawing battle to the finish. But there can only be one victor, and it seems, with his fifth title here, there really is a Paul dynasty. As RobH put it, a true GamesBids Logo Legend. Well done and well deserved!

But, seriously, either of the final two would have been worthy victors. I actually thought RobH would win through at this time yesterday. And when I woke up this morning and then made my way to work, I really pondered long and hard who I'd vote for if I had to. I decided, but that will remain ever a secret. Both though were simply spectacular entries. I trust we'll see both of you here again next time to try and extend your run of Logo Titles.

The final, incredibly close, count, with only two three two votes separating them and a lot of last-minute declarations, was:


Paul: 19
RobH: 16 17


Before I welcome Paul and RobH to come to the podium for the winner's and runner-up's addresses, I'd like to invite everyone to help yourself to the refreshments at the bar – you better be quick before Sepp gets there and scarfs all the drinks and nibblies. And I call on the Youth of the GamesBids world to assemble again in … how ever many months' .. time to once again show your graphic design talents by conjuring designs for the upcoming games of Puxatawney* and Kabul*. I'll be there (if you all want me) to organise it … or not! Each comp I always think “never again” and each time I'm talked into it again.

Thanks again everyone. It's been a treat. This is Sir Rols signing off …

* Sample only. Actual venues may change at any time at organiser's whim.

Edited by Sir Rols, 16 January 2012 - 05:27 PM.

[Soaring]

Congratulations Paul. You took the whole pie!

[Bezzi]

Epic!

[daveypodmore]

Congratulations Paul, u did it again. You should be very proud of your achievement. Congratulations to Rob too, these competitions just get better and better.

3 cheers for Sir Rols for organising the event and keeping everyone in check. Hip hip hurray, hip hip hurray, hip hip hurray.

Same time next year everyone : )

[Gangwon]

A competitionon for the ages! Congrats to both finalists...

But one must wonder... How does this affect voting for the next races for Puxatawney* and Kabul*? If RobH had won, I'd say the next race would've been open, but you gotta think a European will take the next one.

And further, what have we learned? That lobbying plays a huge role in deciding the winner. It's been widely circulated that winning depends on relationships as much as it does on merit. RobH and Paul, being two of the more respected members on GB, could rely not only on the technical quality of their bids, but also their relationships with the people that matter most- the voters.

Finally, the GamesBids Members Committee have made it clear that new frontiers do not play as big a role as originally thought. But you gotta think sooner or later, the voters can't keep going back to the same repeats all the time.

(And a special hello to the late Baron Pierre, who communicated to us from the grave during the comp's final days)

[Soaring]

I send my deep appreciation to Sir Rols, you did a fantastic job overseeing such a challenging competition.

Rob, you're a true sport. Great job, and better luck next time.

Edited by President Jacques Rogge, 16 January 2012 - 05:54 PM.

[Rols O'Bertilsson]

Gangwon, on 16 January 2012 - 05:25 PM, said:

A competitionon for the ages! Congrats to both finalists...

But one must wonder... How does this affect voting for the next races for Puxatawney* and Kabul*? If RobH had won, I'd say the next race would've been open, but you gotta think a European will take the next one.

And further, what have we learned? That lobbying plays a huge role in deciding the winner. It's been widely circulated that winning depends on relationships as much as it does on merit. RobH and Paul, being two of the more respected members on GB, could rely not only on the technical quality of their bids, but also their relationships with the people that matter most- the voters.

Finally, the GamesBids Members Committee have made it clear that new frontiers do not play as big a role as originally thought. But you gotta think sooner or later, the voters can't keep going back to the same repeats all the time.

(And a special hello to the late Baron Pierre, who communicated to us from the grave during the comp's final days)

You know, I wondered yesterday if it was going to come down to the Nth American members versus the Euro members to decide the final. And with Davey out yesterday, I sorta expected the second preferences would go to RobH. I was happy to see that wasn't the case, though - we had Euro members voting for Paul, Norte Americanos going for Rob, and a lot of Davey voters switching to Paul. I think there was a lot of judgement on merit at the end - even if there did seem to be a definite split in what people preferred.

I guess the next comp here will be the traditional Eurovision fest here.

But if someone does want to organise a bidding contest, I would venture to suggest that now we have a 2024 host - NYC - why not actually do a bid book race for it? One of the probs with past bid book comps here is I find it hard to judge the merits of a fictional, eg, Paris bid versus a fictional Chicago. If everyone did a bid for the same city - and NYC would be an interesting one: how would members approach fitting the games in the Big Apple? - there would be something concrete to compare them all against.

It would also still let people design "candidate city" logos. I think you'd probably need someone who is into technical specs and bid books, as well as a native New Yorker, to help oversee it, though.

[Gangwon]

Sir Rols, on 16 January 2012 - 05:37 PM, said:

You know, I wondered yesterday if it was going to come down to the Nth American members versus the Euro members to decide the final. And with Davey out yesterday, I sorta expected the second preferences would go to RobH. I was happy to see that wasn't the case, though - we had Euro members voting for Paul, Norte Americanos going for Rob, and a lot of Davey voters switching to Paul. I think there was a lot of judgement on merit at the end - even if there did seem to be a definite split in what people preferred.

Sorry if my post came out wrong, but I didn't mean that at all. I was just imitating the post-mortem that follows here on these boards after the results of a real bidding race. I just had Rob represent a Euro bid and Paul an American bid. Of course Euro, NA, Aussie and Asian members here don't care where a poster comes from.

[Scotguy]

Sir Rols, on 16 January 2012 - 05:37 PM, said:

I guess the next comp here will be the traditional Eurovision fest here.

But if someone does want to organise a bidding contest, I would venture to suggest that now we have a 2024 host - NYC - why not actually do a bid book race for it? One of the probs with past bid book comps here is I find it hard to judge the merits of a fictional, eg, Paris bid versus a fictional Chicago. If everyone did a bid for the same city - and NYC would be an interesting one: how would members approach fitting the games in the Big Apple? - there would be something concrete to compare them all against.

It would also still let people design "candidate city" logos. I think you'd probably need someone who is into technical specs and bid books, as well as a native New Yorker, to help oversee it, though.

Generally a good idea rols but could be repetitive if say there were 5 to 6 people with NYC bid books. Would be alot of the same things being proposed. Still think the normal candidate bid book comp would be best. And after the drama of the last winter comp, with a smaler easier bid book, i think it would continue the enthusiasm for the comps.

[RobH]

Silver matches my complexion much more anyway. Pah!

Oh, a runner's-up speech?

OK....

Erm, first of all, happy new year to everyone present (2013 already eh?). This has been a long hard slog, and congratulations to the winner. I'm not going to pretend now, after not nominating his entry for the shortlist, that Paul's logo was my personal favourite of all those up against my entry - I think Soaring's gets that distinction. But he did a superb job and the crowd has spoken, even if they are wrong on SO many levels to reject my pretty, shiny blue tower....democracy eh? (Note to self, buy bigger brown envelopes next time and don't leave desperate PMs till 15 minutes before voting closes).

No, seriously, I think there's something very humanistic and "Olympic" in Paul's entry which works well; I can see why it is well-liked. And the phenomenal effort he puts into these contests (did everyone see his website?!) means he more than anyone deserves to be the first to do "The Double", an acheivement which eclipses even that of the great Tottenham Hotspur team of '61.

Thanks to all the other competitors, though I was saddened not to see one of Baron's sketches this time out...too busy brawling at the back. Yes, the sexual tension in the room was palpable and thank God the Mod stepped in before things got out of hand.

And thanks to those who voted for me of course, you all have marvellous taste, but that goes without saying.

Thanks to Sir Rols for running this as well as could be expected under the circumstances. The lack of BBC documentary makers was a dissapointment, but frankly it's their loss. If they think FIFA is somehow more important then more fool them.

Lastly, thank you for my new moniker. Zut alors!

Well done Paul! We all need to up our game next year!

If anyone's interested (and I could do with the money after sinking all of mine into this failed venture), I'm selling t-shirts out the back of my car. I'll hand out flyers as you leave.

Edited by Rob-'etch, 16 January 2012 - 06:09 PM.