MTG Content Creators Awards Future Planning

First and foremost, I would like to say thank you to all who participated in the inaugural MTGCCA ceremony.  It was the first of it's kind, so I'd like to take some time to illuminate the origin of the awards, their purpose, and some ideas for next year's.

If you haven't seen this year's video it is here:
https://youtu.be/KEUwpX-cpNM

Origin

A few years back I had a giveaway.  I hit 666 subscribers on this blog and wanted to say thanks by giving away a not so good Modern devils tribal deck.  It was like every other giveaway with one exception.  Instead of retweeting or subscribing to my channel, I asked people to find a new content creator, watch one of their videos and tweet it out with #WeAreMTG.

I was not prepared for the thousands of entries.  

You try counting every #WeAreMTG, making sure the attached video was an MTG content creator and that it wasn't tweeted by that person previously...  The spreadsheets were staggering.  It became a second job.  I regretted making the contest last over a month.  

But in the end, I found that a huge group had developed.  The one common factor throughout that group?   All of them wanted to be part of a community where the members support and help each other.  

I couldn't just walk away from that.

So came the Facebook group (MTG Community of Content Creators) and the associated Discord server.  The group grew, but stayed manageable.  We talked about how to work together to make better content.  New creators would post technical or social questions and the more senior members would help them find answers.  We collaborated to help each other grow.

The Purpose

A while back we were going through a rough patch.  Divisions were forming and people were finding themselves on one side or another.  I thought it would be cool if we could expand this sense of community to every other MTG content creator.  

It seemed like a good time for a grand gesture.

The awards were announced and the reception was varied.  They ranged from "this is awesome, vote for me!" to "he's a witch, burn him!!".  I had many many many many side discussions.  Individuals wanted to highlight people that shouldn't be allowed to be nominated for the awards.  Others wanted to know why I followed certain people on Twitter.  More wanted to know why I thought I could judge everyone's content and declare a winner.  

But the majority of the feedback that I received was positive, so the awards moved forward.  

The nomination process brought more discussions.  I spent the majority of my time trying to figure out how to make the process credible.  I found a voting system that worked well for the number of nominees.  I found a group of over 60 voting content creators.  I began to cold-call other content creators to see if they were available to present awards.  Some were happy to do it, others had an already insane schedule, some weren't into it, and others didn't understand what I wanted them to do.  

The categories that I settled on were more based on the amount of money I had to spend.  I decided that I could afford 11 awards.  People asked me how they could donate to the process.  I told them to let me make sure this will work and then, maybe next year, we could crowd fund more awards.  I needed to figure out the process first.

It worked pretty well.  The nomination process, the voting and the award presentations seemed to go off with little difficulty.  The audience reception was mostly positive.

The Future

Looking to next year's awards, I had an open discussion with AlbyMTG to see if we were going in the right direction.  That discussion is here:
https://youtu.be/mfyn2vihmjY

The most pressing items that need to be hashed out are the number of awards and how they are broken down.  Previously we had 11 awards.  I'd like to expand that to 18 or more (pending funding).  The newly proposed award categories are:

• People's Choice Award
• Content Creator of the Year
• Best New MTG Content Creator
• Best YouTube Channel (Small, Medium, and Large Audience) (3 separate awards)
• Best Podcast (Audio Only)
• Best Podcast (Video with Audio duplication)
• Best Article
• Best Blog/Website
• Best Video
• Best Streamer (Small, Medium, and Large Audience and Mythic Pro League) (4 separate awards)
• Best Artist (Professional and Fan-Artist) (2 separate awards)
• Best Cosplay

Additionally, we discussed how to fund the awards.  Initially, I thought I could seek sponsors and use the money to fund each part of the awards, but then I found myself in the awkward position of seeking sponsorship from award nominees.  So rather than have any part of the award program under the sponsorship of any business, the intention is to crowd fund the awards.  This will accomplish 2 things.  1. There will be no financial influence from any sponsor.  2. The financial goals will be 100% transparent.  All costs associated with the awards will be published. 

The goal isn't to turn a profit.  The goal is to highlight MTG Content Creators. 

And finally, we discussed how Wizards of the Coast should be involved.  It seems right to get the mothership involved.  So the idea is to see if WOTC will provide our nominees with MTG promotional products such as preview cards, games or other products for presentation on their channels. 

I think that brings you up to speed. 

Over the next few months, I intend on holding additional open meetings to discuss this further, but your opinions are very much needed. 

What are we missing?

What are your concerns?