Hello dear readers and welcome to this special edition of Shoot the Rookie! I want to use this post to say a few words (a speech, if you will) about the awesome experience of competing in Blogger Blitz and say a couple of thank-yous to some amazing people!
If you’ve been paying attention to the Blogosphere recently you will know that last week saw the culmination of the third edition of Adventure Rule’s blogging competition, Blogger Blitz! For my part I was there in the final representing two wonderful boys from Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE – Itsuki & Yashiro. If you HAVEN’T been paying attention then I have something to admit…
I won!
There. I said it. It feels good. Actually, it feels amazing. I am so happy about it and actually quite of proud of myself. It feels weird typing that I’m proud of myself, I worry that someone might read this and think I wrote it in order to brag but I hope that isn’t how you are reading it. I just thought it would be nice to say for once that I am proud of something I’ve done, even if I often still feel unqualified to be here.
Blogger Blitz is a big deal in the video game blogging scene. I first encountered it in 2017 when I had just started this blog and remember thinking how far above me it all seemed. Then last year after a fantastic few months getting to know the community I signed up to be a judge. This was hard work but really satisfying as you get to be a part of the entire thing. This year’s judges, Jace, Andrew & Heather, were truly awesome and clearly put a lot of time and effort into making their judgments and I hope they know that every comment was very welcome! I actually asked to be a judge again this year but with spaces limited I decided to bite the bullet and put my name down as a competitor.
The reason I’m recalling this story is that I really want everyone reading, whether you are a new blogger or a seasoned pro, to know that YOU can do it! You can enter! I absolutely adored writing for this year’s event but I am no creative genius and at times my writing isn’t even that good – I just had an idea and went with it! So if Blogger Blitz runs again next year you have no reason whatsoever not to enter and I hope that a few of the new faces in the blogging community might have been inspired by this year’s competition!
I mentioned at the start that I am super happy about my victory. I mean, of course I am, who wouldn’t be? But I just wanted to talk a little about why I’ve enjoyed the competition so much. Simply put, this is because throughout the competition, but particularly in the championship match, I successfully communicated to the judges how powerful Itsuki and Yashiro’s relationship is. This is a ship that I believe in and have believed in since I first encountered the characters. I think that my belief in this ship is something which helped me win the competition. I know these characters inside out and as challenging as writing the pieces was, the actual interactions between Itsuki and Yashiro wrote themselves because of the strength of their relationship. I love these characters and the world they inhabit and it was a joy to be able to express that!
Anyway, enough of my gushing! Before I leave you I just want to say a couple of thank-yous! As I mentioned above, the judges did a tremendous job (I’m not just saying that because I won…) and I know how much work it is, so thanks for getting involved! Thanks of course to all the other competitors. I’m a massive fan of this competition as well as a participant and I read every entry. I want to give a particular shout out to my favourite piece this year which was Winst0lf’s Semi-Final entry Hotel Hijinks – make sure you check it out! I also want to say a big thank you to my partner, who had to put up with many evenings of me chained to my computer writing romantic fan-fiction about a couple of teenagers from a video game. I couldn’t have done this without your support (and understanding!).
Finally, of course I want to say a huge thank you to Blogger Blitz founder Ian from Adventure Rules. I know a bunch of us wrote thank-yous last year and I don’t want to repeat myself too much but THANK YOU! Not just for pulling off this wonderful event, but also for giving me the chance to write about characters I love. I have enjoyed participating so much and that is all thanks to you Ian! Thanks also for the amazing pictures…I’ll stop stealing them for my header pictures now!
Right! So, I hope you all enjoyed Blogger Blitz: Shipping Wars and that you’ll all seriously consider signing up if it runs next year! I’ll be back with some more regular Shoot the Rookie posts soon, but before I go… did I mention that Tokyo Mirage Session #FE Encore is out on Nintendo Switch on January 17th 2020? I wonder what those ‘new story elements’ might be… Make sure you pick it up and see what all the fuss is about!
Thanks for reading,
Pix1001 x
Shoot the Rookie 