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Alexa, this is the final announcement. I don't just need a big Irish name...I need the biggest of them all. Don't let me down... OK that's it Alexa, you're sacked - bring on the real opener! They had to appear eventually, and what could be more suitable for the night where we finally find what we've been looking for since December 1? We have visited Munster, Ulster, and Connacht so far, so we need to go to Leinster, the province of the capital city - and the home of the only place we could finish the crawl. The greatest pub of them all. Welcome to the iconic Temple Bar, Dublin! Dozens of pub crawls end here, and that's just tonight - but none are more special than this. It's time to announce our winner for the Dublin Olympics, so please welcome back to the stage one of the most famous & most available Dubliners of all, Bono! B: Thank ye. To be sure, it's been a great contest, on The Edge right through to the final. And before I announce the winner, I can say this'll be the most watched ceremony ever, broadcast live on every iPhone on the planet! Sure, whether they want it or not, because that's what we do... Anyway it gives me great Pride to declare that the winner is...ow! Ow! What's this about?! This is meant to be my job! Y: Tommy, what are you doing?! Bach: * sings * Oh Scotty Boy, the Pipes, the Pipes are calling…Jaaa, it is go time! Woohoo! B: Bloody hell, what are ya playing at? Oh ffs...top of the Joshua Tree is: SCOTGUY II! Yoshi: Thank you. Tom, really, you've only had one whisky... @AustralianFan! You want a job? Take Thomas off to sober him up! The final result was A: 12. B: 7. I was sure for ages I'd need to vote again, but no - it turned out comprehensive. And so after 17 years and presumably 34 attempts, including in his home city, @Scotguy II has finally won a GB logo comp! No less a figure than Rob (the London version) said it was unbelievable that you've never done it, but finally the non-existent trophy will cross the ditch to Scotland (or cross the world to Wellington, I don't know if he's still there). Congrats at last, and congrats to @Glacib too for getting to the final. I think @krow wants to buy you a beer. Krow! Krow - don’t spike Scotguy’s drink! It's going to be a long night... And that's it for 2023-24. Thank you to all the participants and voters, especially @Sir Rols for the usual grid-making, advice, and additional quips for the announcements , and for being one of our winners alongside @Scotguy II. For now though, we are in the Temple Bar. It's Saturday night. And at the fifth time of asking, that wombat over there is paying for the drinks for once. Party time!

I DECLARE CHRISTMAS 2023...OPEN! And with that, we get December underway with the only major Christmas song I know that shows off the sound of Ireland and the spirit of Christmas...kinda. You'll soon see why that's appropriate. RIP to Shane MacGowan, whose voice begins that song. It is time to get the board's most loved, most colourful, and most deadline-phobic annual event back up and running - yes, it's THE 17TH ANNUAL GAMESBIDS OLYMPIC LOGO COMPETITION! Last year Bear took the title in Reykjavik and Glacib won out in Nairobi, and now we are here to see who will be their successors - if they don't retain them of course. The format is traditional - winter, summer, one of each - and we are about to have half a good old big reveal, and half a coronation of what we already know. We of course must present them, because things must still be done properly! Here goes: SUMMER 2036: DUBLIN, IRELAND Yup, you voted for it, so don't complain - but who would complain? The Irish capital is one of the most popular cities in Europe, so there can't be many better places for a rare Summer logo comp visit to the continent. Dublin is a prime example of the kind of middle-sized major city the IOC could really do with attracting, so maybe you can convince them - and it's a measure of Ireland's cultural impact that I've promised Rols I'll only resort to Eurovision once but still won't struggle for musical choices in a city that should probably get to host just for the ceremonies. Whatever happens you won't be short of inspiration, so how will you brand the Olympics in this "fair city"? WINTER 2030: NICE*, FRANCE The observant among you will notice this is not not in Europe, and yes, this is a change of plan. We were set for somewhere very very different until some German with a sword turned up & decided he really wanted to alter the logo comp. Still, this is our newest Olympic City, and there are worse places than the Riviera to spend winter. Although I'll be honest, I don't think too many people come to Nice to ski. The pressure's on for this one, because depending on whether they come up with something really soon to serve them now, your designs will be the first logos for the French hosting of 2030 to appear on the web - as France nears one Olympic moment, how will you brand its next? *I'm going to give you the choice of how to name this. Nice, Nice Alpes, Nice Alpes Francaises, Alpes Francaises, the only thing that seems sure is Nice is there, and the Alps are there. If they don't know what their own bid is called, what chance have we got?! --------------------------------------- And now THE RULES, copied and pasted (mostly) from last year, because unlike the IOC I don't change them every week: We are, as ever, after logos that encompass the overall feel of the city and local influences that can be tied into a design concept. How can any of these cities articulate graphically what they could bring to future Olympics hosting? What flavour will they bring to the games? Will you end up accidentally designing the logo of something completely different? (Hey Krakow!) The logos should be presented as full colour designs on white background. If you like, however, they can also be presented in black and white or utilised in forms like street banners, t-shirts, apps, vehicles, pins etc. For voting purposes, the main (colour) logo will be used on the polls, & extra stuff is not obligatory, but any extra material you produce may help you “sell” your design better to the wider GamesBids voting membership.  These logos are for the cities as they HOST the games. So you CAN use the rings, and don't need to include the words “Candidate City, Olympic Games 2036” or whatever the IOC want this week. Please post your preliminary submissions on this thread. If you want to hold anything back to be presented as a “surprise” when voting starts you can contact me or Rols via PM and I'll tell you where you can send the extra material. However, it would be nice to see as many on-thread submissions as possible for people to chew over in-thread, & to try & get the old buzz back. We can hope, right? You can submit logos for either or both cities. However, you cannot enter more than one logo for the same city (see below). So entering one logo for each is fine, but two logos for Dublin, say, is not fine. You are able, encouraged even, to enter both 'sides' of the comp. Feel free to post as many logo designs as you like, & to ask for feedback from our famously discerning electorate. If you really can't decide between your own designs for a city, feel free to start a poll (or to ask for one to be started). When the time comes for voting, however, you will be asked to settle on a maximum of ONLY ONE official logo per city as your official entry. The format depends on the numbers. Most likely, it will be the traditional exhausting exhaustive ballot preferred by the IOC, and the winter & summer 'halves' will be entirely separate, there will be two winners in the Olympic comp tradition. The competition is open to all members of GamesBids, or to any new legitimate members who join before the end of the submission period. I, with consultation, will rule on the legitimacy of new members. As you would expect, I will rule on any disputes - always aiming to be as fair as possible in the process. As always, just remember, this is all meant to be fun. Olympic spirit, remember?. Hopefully this will spark up some action on the board. I'll be dipping in, keeping a close eye on things, but otherwise will try and keep my green yoshi-paws off until the polling stages. The deadline for submissions is 1pm London time (that is, midnight in Sydney, as per tradition) on NEW YEAR'S EVE, 31 DECEMBER 2023. Thus, GB will begin 2024, the year some of our members have waited a century to see, with the voting. Just one extra thing, there is something of a tradition of that being extended, but I'm hoping not to have to do that this year as we already have 12 members sufficiently interested to vote in the city election, and hopefully at least some of you will submit logos within the month. I will @ all those voters (yes all of you) in the next post. And this is just to alert @Rob. Rob to the existence of the new comp in the hope that he'll do his traditional bit of putting up links to various free design programs etc for the benefit of those who want to take part but may not have the facility at the moment, and to alert @GBModerator Rob to the fact the comp is back! In addition, we had a member ask in the election thread about info on programs people use - I don't know that world (those who can't...) but I'd encourage anyone who does to share. All that is left to say is thank you Rols once again, and to all participants for having the guts to put your logos up for the annual GamesBids dissection, & may the best logos win - GOOD LUCK!

‘Bout time this had it’s own thread, considering the news last month:

There was a Eurovision theme to the Reykjavik music. The national language of Kenya is Swahili. You might think Swahili has never been heard at Eurovision. You'd be wrong, this was robbed in the semis in 2011: Welcome to the place where the Olympic Stadium would be if this comp ever became real, the Moi International Sports Centre! Hopefully this is where the 2027 or 29 World Athletics Championships will finally arrive in Africa. For now though, we're unveiling our winner. And we have someone very special to do it. Taking time out from a UN summit to be with us for this, it's the 44th President of the USA and the world's most famous Kenyan, Barack Obama! Barack: Good evening friends. It is a huge honour to be here to launch the long-awaited & much overdue first Olympic Games in Africa. This is a part of the world where my wife & I have done a great deal of work on education & development, and so it is a great pride for me that this is the place for such a momentous... I NYOOOOOO IT! I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU! AH, THIS IS YUUUUUUGE SO YUUUUGE THE COVFEFE IS YUUUUGE THIS IS OFF THE CHART SO BIG SO BIG BIGGER THAN MY *bundled off stage by security* Barack: As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by The Thing - it is my pleasure to announce that the winner of the 16th gamesbids.com Summer Olympic logo comp is... GLACIB! Yoshi: Thank you Mr President, apologies for the interruption. It went the distance but we got there in the end, with the final result being A: 6. B: 7. In the last round, it went to the wire all the way to the very end, but that one vote margin means we do have an outright winner at last & that winner is @Glacib! Congrats on your second summer title in a row. Thank you to all entrants and voters, especially to @JDCLauronwho came so close. It has once again been wonderful to see such interest, both submission and voters - you've all made this comp successful despite the lack of Olympic interest Obviously, once again the biggest thanks go to the wombat king @Sir Rols for the grids, the Photoshop pics of Barack and Greta, part of the presidential intro tonight, the advice and generally you know, making it all possible. Congratulations to @Glacib & @Bear , our 2023 champions - if we do the 17th comp in the same way next winter, we will hopefully see you all again then. Until then, the comp sleeps tonight...

This was going to be saved for the announcement, but it works better for our arrival in the big city: The urban sound tells us, the logos tell us, the tower blocks tell us we've arrived in one of the biggest & fastest growing cities in Africa, Kenya's capital, our Olympic city - we made it to Nairobi! The centre of the buzzing metropolis is the ideal location for the final battle to determine our champion - once we look at how we got here: A: 2. B: 4. C: 5. It's a close one, but there's no majority, meaning that we must have a one-on-one between the top 2 to determine our winner. We must say goodbye to @Aussie bum/Davey - better luck next year. For @JDCLauron & @Glacib, welcome to the final! The rules: This voting round will be open for (approximately) 48 hours - it will close at 10pm UK time, Wednesday 18 January. This is the final. There are only two candidates. Most votes wins, simple. Vote in the poll for your favourite logo. You have ONE vote, so make it count. Your vote is public and can be seen by all. Entrants MAY vote for their own logo. For transparency, I will not vote unless required to break a tie. Votes are valid if cast by members of GamesBids as of January 1 2023 with a bona fide posting record. I will rule on the validity of any suspicious or disputed votes, or who constitutes a bona fide voting member. I will not vote in this round. However, if a tie-breaker vote is needed, I will reserve my right to vote in order to break it. Be fair and sportsmanlike, this is meant to be fun and the entrants all deserve RESPECT. Whatever happens, we will see each other again on Wednesday in the national stadium, to announce our winner. Until then, good luck, and may the best logo win!

Shakira, what is the time? It is indeed time for Africa, just like the Colombian (!) says - so where better to be than the very heart of East Africa, Lake Victoria. It borders 3 countries, including Kenya, where we find Kisumu! Looks like a very pleasant place for a game of cricket, and a third round logo comp vote! Here's the outcome of Round 2: A: 1. B: 5. C: 3. D: 4. A rare chance to do an exhaustive ballot properly, knocking out one and only one. It means it's goodbye to @fatixxx, better luck next year. For the other 3, it's Round 3! Rules: This voting round will be open for (approximately) 48 hours - it will close at 10pm UK time, Monday 16 January. Voting will now be conducted in rounds until one entry has an absolute majority and is declared the winner. In this and following rounds, the logo with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated at the close of the poll. Vote in the poll for your favourite logo. You have ONE vote, so make it count. Your vote is public and can be seen by all. Entrants MAY vote for their own logo. For transparency, I will not vote unless required to break a tie. Votes are valid if cast by members of GamesBids as of January 1 2023 with a bona fide posting record. I will rule on the validity of any suspicious or disputed votes, or who constitutes a bona fide voting member. I will not vote in this, or any subsequent rounds. However, if a tie-breaker vote is needed, I will reserve my right to vote in order to break it. Be fair and sportsmanlike, this is meant to be fun and the entrants all deserve RESPECT. We will see each other again on Monday in the capital city, either for the final or the winner. Until then, good luck, and may the best logo win!

Velkomin til Íslands! And welcome to the world-famous Blue Lagoon outdoor spa, the obvious place to spend January: After a month (and only a month!) of submissions, we have a remarkable field of 8 logos - so now it is time to head to Reykjavik to find out what you think about things! As that field is so big, having 7 exhaustive rounds would exhaust your patience and my supply of Eurovision songs, so we begin with a shortlist round to put half of the field in the nearest volcano before we properly start. Please read this next bit carefully, it's time for THE RULES: This voting round will be open for (approximately) 72 hours - it will close at 10pm UK time, Thursday January 5. Voting will now be conducted in rounds until one entry has an absolute majority and is declared the winner. IMPORTANT - As I say, this is a cut round - so the (around) FOUR logos that receive the fewest votes will be eliminated. The four remaining will go to the exhaustive ballot. All logos that get 0 votes will be eliminated, even if there are more than four. What exactly happens will depend on the exact numbers that we get, it might not be exactly four that go out. Vote in the poll for your favourite logos. You will notice this is a multiple-choice poll - you may give up to FOUR votes, so make them count. More than FOUR votes will invalidate all your votes. Sir Rols and I will monitor votes cast, but feel free to alert us if you notice anyone voting more than thrice. Your vote is public and can be seen by all. Entrants MAY NOT vote for their own logo. For transparency, I will not vote unless required to break a tie. Votes are valid if cast by members of GamesBids as of January 1 2023 with a bona fide posting record. I will rule on the validity of any suspicious or disputed votes, or who constitutes a bona fide voting member. I will not vote in this, or any subsequent rounds. However, if a tie-breaker vote is needed, I will reserve my right to vote in order to break it. Be fair and sportsmanlike, this is meant to be fun and the entrants all deserve RESPECT. Thanks to Rols for assisting with some of the rules for the multiple voting section. That is all - time to finally get voting. Unless one logo here gets a majority - unlikely in a field of 8 but you never know - we will move to somewhere a bit more...warm for Round 2 on Thursday. Until then, thank you to all, good luck to all, and may the best logo win!

Over to you Yoshi...

Again, sorry, not really. But we can live in hope! But now I again have your attention, you might wanna do us all a real big favour and click on the link below and vote in the logo comp. that’s all it takes, one click and then tick one box! It’s not hard to see that it hasn’t exactly been an active time for the board, but nevertheless, we managed to get a reasonable amount of entries for the comp. Now for those who put in the work to design some logos, it’d be great if we could get some real votes and judgement from the wider membership so we get a truly deserving winner rather than one by default. Round one got a reasonable number of votes. Round two so fast has been, well, quiet is an understatement! C’mon, if for no other reason, for old time’s sake. Just click here and then tick one box to vote. Simples! https://www.gamesbids.com/forums/topic/28868-round-2-vote-13th-annual-gamesbids-logo-comp-summer-2032/?tab=comments#comment-531793

Okay Yoshi...

Okay Yoshi...

It's yours Yoshi...

And over to Yoshi...

And over to Yoshi...

Over to Yoshi...

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, Mesdames et Monsieurs, And Hola! Welcome to Havana. I hope you've enjoyed your cruise on our slow boat from Hamburg, but all good things must come to an end. Tonight we reach the culmination of our journey to choose this year's logo winner, a journey that took us from the wilderness of Nepal to the streets of Hamburg and now to the delights of tropical Havana. On the way we've crowned an all-time logo winner, a winter games logo winner and now we are set to add another name to our pantheon of summer logo winning designers. I want to thank everyone who entered this year - these comps couldn't go on at all without your keenness to put pixel to page and your willingness to share your ideas and put them up for appraisal by our tough judging panel. It's not easy - I know all too well - so I salute you all and give you my heartfelt thanks. I also want to thank everyone who voted - I hope it's given you a bit of diversion and something fun to do on the board. And it's true, you all are a discerning and knowledgeable audience. You always come up with a winning entry that's truly worthy to crown at the end. Anyway, to make the winner's announcement, I'm going to hand over to our special guest presenter who has flown into Havana by special request to associate with winners. Senors, Senoras and Comrades I give your, ahead of his inauguration as most powerful man in the western world, US President-Elect Donald Deejay Trump! DJT: Thank you Mr Rols. Aint you glad you didn't sign Alec Baldwin now. Who better to crown a winner to than me. And I can tell you, I've grabbed a few winning pussies in my time. And it's great to be here to support GamesBids and build walls with Mr Castro. Vlad was just telling me the other day that Cuba's not that bad a spot and i gotta agree with him now. It'd make a great new State. But I get ahead of myself, I'm here to crown a winner instead of that loser Mr Bach or that crook Hillary. That's what I'm great at. And I think it all gives you all great pleasure and honour to be here to hear me declare that Miss Universe 2017 is... errr... the winner of the 10th Annual GamesBids Logo Competition is..... Mr Daveypodmore with Havana 2032! Sir Rols: Thank you Mr President-Elect. We hope you'll grace us at future logo comp announcements. And congratulations to Davey. For the record, the voting was 10 to four in favour of your Havana logo. About time you've made it to another win in the comps. I'm surprised it's taken so long. You now join the list of our multiple award winners like Demetrius, DannyelBrazil, aismanggo... and Paul. Also again, congratulations to Paul for taking out the Winners' Cup last month, and following that up with your Kathmandu win. I think all our winners this year were very fitting. And that's it for this year. Again, thanks to everyone who got involved an a big thanks to Yoshi for your moral support and advice. All that's left now is to say Hasta La Vista, invite you all to have a taco in memory and tribute to TeamBlakeUSA and let's all let our hair down and mambo!

So there's one last act left to play out, and it comes down to Davey versus Davey! Round three of the Hamburg vote ended with a decisive result. With 12 votes cast, we had Davey's logo A come in comfortably with eight votes against Scotguy's Logo B with Four. I was actually quite pleased that Scotty made it this far - I know he's been a bit discouraged with the comps in the past. Maybe he didn't make the big final, but I was pleased to see him fighting to the end here. Good one mate! And great sportsmanship with your vote in the end. Well done! And a big congratulations to Davey - finally cracked it through for a second logo win. Well deserved, whichever one comes through in the end. Which leaves us with one last vote to see which Davey logo makes the Roll of Honour. Simple rules: This voting round will be open for (approximately) 24 hours - it will close after 7am, Monday January 9, Sydney time (8pm Jan 8 GMT). At the end of voting the entry with the majority will be declared the winner of the Summer Section of the 10th Annual GamesBids Olympic Logo Comp and the winning city the Olympic host for 2032. Vote in the poll for your favourite logo. You have ONE vote, so make it count. Your votes are public and can be seen by all. The entrant, Davey, may vote for which of the two is his favourite. Votes are valid if cast by members of GamesBids as of December 1 2016 with a bona fide posting record. I will rule on the validity of any suspicious or disputed votes, or who constitutes a bona fide voting member. I will only vote if a tie-breaker vote is needed. Now, this would be, I won't say an easy one, but not a painful decision to have to make Be fair and sportsmanlike, this is meant to be fun and the entrants all deserve RESPECT. The ship docks in Havana harbour tomorrow, so enjoy your last night on the cruise and be ready for the official Ceremonie d'Annonce tomorrow. If there's one act left to play in the voting, I have one last act left to carry out in the comp. Enjoy the last stage of the ride!

And so we reach a penultimate showdown. Thanks to everyone who voted in the previous round. Watching the thread over the past 24 hours, I observed the lead change numerous times. Certainly the closest round we've had so far this year in the comp votes. I'm sure it was a tense one for the entrants. I went to bed really torn about what I would do if there was a tie for last - maybe kept the poll open until I wouldn't need to decide. But today dawned with a clearer field. So, unfortunately, we have to lose one of them. Official results from Round 2, with 14 valid votes cast, were: Logo A (Davey) 6 Votes; Logo B (Glacib) 3 Votes; and Logo C (Scotguy) 5 Votes. Which means we lose Glacib's. Really very sorry for you Glacib - a really good entry that I could have seen move on to challenge for the big prize. Thanks for entering - I hope we see you in future comps. Which means we have a showdown between Davey and Scotguy for the Hamburg crown, and to book a spot to face up against the winning Havana logo in the final. So here we go with the rules: This voting round will be open for (approximately) 24 hours - it will close after 7am, Sunday January 8, Sydney time (8pm Jan 7 GMT). At the end of voting the entry with the majority will be declared the winner. The winner of this round will go on to face the winner of the Havana rounds in a final poll to declare the overall winner and Olympic host for 2032. Vote in the poll for your favourite logo. You have ONE vote, so make it count. Your votes are public and can be seen by all. Entrants MAY vote for their own logo if they wish. Votes are valid if cast by members of GamesBids as of December 1 2016 with a bona fide posting record. I will rule on the validity of any suspicious or disputed votes, or who constitutes a bona fide voting member. I will only vote if a tie-breaker vote is needed. Be fair and sportsmanlike, this is meant to be fun and the entrants all deserve RESPECT. That's it. Good luck to both Davey and Scotguy - you both deserve to be here.

Welcome back everyone to Round 2 of voting for the 2032 Summer Games Logo of the 10th Annual GamesBids Olympic Logo Comp. First of all, the events of Round 1. And the big news there was the single round victory of Daveypodmore in the Havana section. Congratulations Davey! Well done. Which means we say Adios to Glacib's, JO2024's and Paul's Havana entries . Results were, with 14 votes all valid: Logo A (Glacib) 3 votes; Logo B (JO2024) 2 Votes; and Logo C (Davey) 9 votes. Davey's, with 64.29 per cent, is automatic winner. The big shock to me was Paul's bowing out with no votes! I really picked it as one of the strongest contenders. As usual, his usual support materials were excellent. I sure didn't see this result coming for his Havana logo. And, I'm sad to say, it means the clean sweep for this year is now out of his reach. Still, I guess the Logo Winners' Cup and the Kathmandu prizes make up a bit for that. And so on to Hamburg. When I went to bed last night, it looked like Davey could scoop the pool in both sections in one round. But those pesky Hamburgers are keeping him honest. As it stands in the cold light or morning (or not so cold in Sydney), the results were: Logo A (Davey) 6 votes; Logo B (Glacib) 2 votes; Logo C (Scotguy) 5 votes; and Logo D (JMarkSnow2012) 1 Vote. JHMarkSnow's Hamburg referendum finger is therefore eliminated and with no other polling more than 50 per cent, we move onto a second round for Hamburg. Not to offend you, JMark, but I'm a little relieved - I thought yours was capable of being the Donald Trump of logo entries. I'm a little surprised a "humour" logo hasn't cracked through to win to date. But thanks for entering and being a good sport. So, to restate rules: This voting round will be open for (approximately) 24 hours - it will close after 7am, Saturday January 7, Sydney time (8pm Jan 6 GMT). Voting in this section will now be conducted in rounds until one entry has an absolute majority and is declared the winner. The winner of the Hamburg rounds will go on to face the winner of the Havana rounds in a final poll to declare the overall winner and Olympic host for 2032. In this and following rounds, the logo in each section with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated at the close of the poll. Vote in the poll for your favourite logo. You have ONE vote in each section, so make it count. Your votes are public and can be seen by all. Entrants MAY vote for their own logo if they wish. Votes are valid if cast by members of GamesBids as of December 1 2016 with a bona fide posting record. I will rule on the validity of any suspicious or disputed votes, or who constitutes a bona fide voting member. I will not vote in this, or any subsequent rounds. If a tie-breaker vote is needed, I will cast the tie-breaking vote. Be fair and sportsmanlike, this is meant to be fun and the entrants all deserve RESPECT. So who's gonna face off against Davey's Havana in the final? Get voting to decide!