“Welcome, welcome! One and all, welcome to Comics and Random Art Battles! Or CRAB for short! Hoo hoo! I am G. Marion-Ette, your master of ceremonies and host of this incredible tournament this year! I collect beings from various worlds and realities to vie for the incredible reward of a wondrous wish! Is there anything you truly wish in your heart? Eternal youth? Power? A loved one? The chance to live freely? Why, you can have it if your team wins this competition! Participate in my trials three and you may see your wildest dreams come true, hoo hoo hoo!”
You must be 18 years or older to enter
This is an OCT or Original Character Tournament, there will be 10 teams of 5 participants for three rounds where contestants will be challenged in prompts involving a location and task for the OC to accomplish
Participants vote for the winners of each task every round, team members are not allowed to vote for their own or their team’s matches
Complete the Pit Trial to earn a place on the roster!
------The Pit Entry is a 3 page minimum comic or series of illustrations showing your OC defeating Houndclops (reference below) and submitting it to the thread
The event originated on 4chan’s /co/ board in 2022 and is now in its 5th iteration, with integration into Newgrounds as well
The event has an organized community on Discord but is not required for participation to join; though in the interests of keeping in touch with your team you should consider joining Newgrounds and keep up on its thread there
The tournament is scheduled to start May 17th, when voting for Team Headliners will begin to lead the teams for the tournament. CRAB 5 ends August 25th.
If you find this thread after May 17th or if the roster is full you may still submit a Pit Entry and be placed on the Bench, a waitlist system that replaces participants that drop out from the tournament
THERE ARE NO ELIMINATIONS. The winning team is determined by the points accrued from the team members. Winning a round earns more points than losing but submitting an entry earns points over not submitting anything.
Comics aren’t mandatory! The ‘random art’ part of Comic and Random Art Battles could be anything! An animation, a bullet-hell game, VNs, composited videos of real life locations, there’s plenty of creativity among the CRABs that participate!
How long do the matches run for?
For Rounds 1 and 2 the match work-period lasts for two weeks. Round 3, being the final round, has an official work-period of three weeks. Should the community will it, Round 3 may have a three-day extension added to its work period if necessary to finish up! Each round has a week of rest to prevent the workload from becoming too overbearing, and to allow contestants to potentially make additional tournament content if they wish.
Yes! CRAB is a non-elimination tournament which also asks for a little collaboration with our classic team setup! You're all vying for victory and that wondrous wish, why not make some friends along the way? Or foes? Whatever sounds more fun to you, I suppose!
Are there content restrictions?
As this is an 18+ tournament there aren't restrictions for submitted content. Artists on Tumblr who wish to submit entries that are above the age limits Tumblr imposes should use Newgrounds or other hosting platforms to submit their entry.
Is my skill level too low to participate?
CRAB is not a professionals-only tournament! We take artists of all skill levels and try to maintain fair matches between participants. We do however sometimes get it wrong if there's little to know about a participant's skill level which is why the Pit Entry is required for participation.
I have friends who I want to form a team with, can I?
Because of abuse in previous tournaments contestants are not allowed to form their own teams. CRAB is a good place to meet new people and collaborate with them, try giving it a chance! Besides, if you're on the same team as your friends you won't be able to match against them!
How much can I make for an entry?
Each round has specific rules for entries to prevent artists from overreaching and producing unfinished work in the round's work-time limit. Those stipulations will be a round-to-round basis.
What are the three tasks?
They vary and are assigned at the start of each round! It could be dancing, it could be flying, it could even be summoning a demon from hell! Rounds 1 and 2 have a location that the task is taking place in which is expected to be worked into the prompt given. Round 3 is different however, with rules that will come to light once the round arrives!
Am I going to be doing nothing if I'm on the waitlist?
Of course not! Benched CRAB participants will have their own tasks assigned every round they are on the Bench. These tasks are important, because a dropped player will not leave behind the medals they won in previous rounds if they leave unless there is no Bench player to replace their empty spot. You're still a contestant and will enjoy the privileges of them, aside being on any particular team.
The notes above said that the tourney started on 4chan, is it still there?
To have as large and diverse a community as possible there may be participants from other sites which may participate in the tournament. Their entries will be required to be accessible for each round for voting by being hosted and linked to by relevant hosting sites. If the users of either 4chan or Newgrounds makes you uncomfortable I highly recommend not joining the tournament.
The Pit Champion
As I mentioned before, to enter your OC must defeat the imposing Houndclops! Defeat could mean anything, be it kill or best in some way! There is a minimum requirement of three pages worth of content, so keep that in mind while working on your entry! Remember that although there are 50 spots for official contestants there is still room on the bench waitlist for contestants that miss the join window! Dropouts are not uncommon given the length of the tournament, so keep that in mind if you are discouraged by the full roster!
