Hi Seran, let me first say that I fully understand where you're coming from on this. I myself am not a big fan of prebuilt MOCs being entered in contests either, as I've been a victim of meeting several in the polls and losing quite thoroughly to them. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that in this blog entry, you're talking about the MOC I entered in the contest. I knew there would be some controversy when I entered, mostly due to the fact that it was about 90% prebuilt. I've read your's and many other's posts and blogs concerning my entry and prebuilt MOCs in general, and every argument you and others bring up makes perfect sense. However, I believe that every conflict has two sides, so if you'd let me, I'd like to explain to you my reasoning for entering Eideann.
As I mentioned in my topic, although I don't think I made it clear enough, this MOC has been a work in progress for a quite a while. A year and four months, to be precise. It was not completely finished before I saw the theme, but when I saw it, I immediatley found a source of inspiration to finish the MOC which had been sitting around, incomplete, for a long time.
Think of it this way, you spend countless hours on a project, and you keep working on it through blood, sweat and tears. (And yes that actually happened. Well not the tears, but I did accidently cut myself a few times while I was working on it. ) So you've spent all your time on this project, pushing through multiple instances of builders block, but you're never able to fully complete it, due to real life stuff, other contests, etc. This frustrated me a lot because I knew I had something pretty neat in the works, but I couldn't finish it. Then finally a contest theme comes along and gives me an inspiration, finally allowing me to finish this guy. Well let me tell you, that felt good. To finally add the finishing touches to something I've worked on for so long, it was very fulfilling. Obviously there is a lot wrong with the MOC, mostly some stuff that I learned over the past few months but haven't encorporated into the MOC. Proportions, color grouping, overall shape, etc.
However this MOC still means a lot to me; it's pretty much my greatest accomplishment in my MOCing career, although I do not think it's my best MOC, nor do I think it's even remotely close to a "world record" or whatever some people are calling it. Needless to say though, I'm proud of it. The year and four months I spent working on this MOC as it consumed my piece supply had a negative affect on the rest of my MOCs. As you have probably seen, most of my recent MOCs and contest entries have been mediocre to bad. So when I saw the theme, I knew this was my chance to finally finish this guy and get my pieces back. I had two other options of course, I could've stopped in mid-progress, given up, and just gotten the pieces back, but I'm sure you, as an accomplished MOCer yourself, can understand why I wouldn't want to give up on something I worked so hard on. My second option was to just post him and not enter him in any contests, but I wanted to, I dunno, pay myself back for what I could've done if all my pieces hadn't been used on this guy. Selfish? Maybe, but it's what I chose to do. Maybe I could've made some better MOCs instead of working on this, and done better in the past few contests, but I can't change that now. What I can change is the future, and what I choose to do with something that I put all of my effort into. And I chose to enter it in this contest and in order to give myself the best shot at winning. After all, that goal is what is on most MOCers' minds when they enter the contest. Sure there's that feeling of participation, or maybe the feeling of entering a certain number of contests in a row, but I think deep down, most people enter contests to win.
I saw someone, sorry can't remember who, mention that entering a prebuilt MOC takes all the enjoyment out of entering a contest. I think that, on the contrary, there's even more enjoyment for me in entering this guy isntead of making a new MOC because I'm finally able to find a use for something that I worked for a long time on. Maybe it'll pay off, maybe not. That's for the voting to decide.
So where do you draw the line between a prebuilt MOC that can be entered in a contest without conflict and one that can't? I honestly don't know. Some prebuilt MOCs are less easy to identify than others, but it does happen quite often. And yes, it is a problem. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to stop them from being entered aside from restrictive themes like BBC#39 and the Iron MOCist one. Prebuilt MOCs are just another wildcard to the BBC contests.
There're obviously two sides to this, as your poem analogy is the perfect contrast to my reasoning. I don't want this to turn into any argument of any sort. I just want you to know that I'm not trying to defend myself or my decision, or change your opinion on my entry. I'm just trying to provide you with a different prospective about the MOC and why I entered it, from the builder's standpoint.
-T08-
