Newbie Guide to Winning Competitions

Newbies, heads up, here's how you win money easily! Yes, that's right, I said "EASILY". I didn't post this yesterday in case anyone thought it was a joke but it's not so listen up.

Within SecondLife there are competitions at clubs along the lines of "Best in...", best in jeans, t-shirts, latex, masks, chains, boots, whatever.

The scheme is simple, find the ones where only contest entrants are permitted to vote and be as OUTSIDE the theme as possible. If it says best in latex, do NOT wear latex, wear jeans and an old t shirt instead. If it says best in masks do NOT wear a mask!

This also works best if it might require considerable effort on someone's part to procure or make their outfit such that in an open competition with open voting that they just might win.

Also a competition with the lower number of entrants of this type is likely to yield more success.

There you go, that's it! Easy.

So why does this work? Here's why:-

Lets say the competition is best in latex and there are 4 entrants in latex. If the contest only lets the entrants vote, they can't vote on each other so they have to vote for someone else. Now I don't know of any sensible competition anywhere that forces you to vote for your competitors and feel good about it, actually I don't know of one where you're habitually forced to vote on your competitors at all but that's an aside.

So who do you want to vote for? The best person? but that's already you right? If not, you're clearly not going to want to vote for someone else to win so you need to dump your "best in" vote on someone that isn't likely to win. At least that's what you *think*. So along comes default avatar newbie who enters the competition. People in latex now dump votes on this one to save someone in competing latex winning.

The result is that default avatar newbie wins!!! Yay.

I've seen this time and time again, best in latex won by jeans. Best in formal won by a default newbie and yesterday, best in Masquerade, won by someone without a mask.

Totally insane and the club owners just didn't see a problem with this at all?

Too funny. I'm going to hit these compeitions with an army of Janes in the pink and white spotty dress and totally clean up and the good news, there are enough of these stupid competitions to go around!

Bitter about this? Absolutely!

Good points. Also, some have no rules that prevent people from TP'ing friends/alts in and voting for their entrant. Most of those leave quickly after voting. "If you are not here your vote does not count" might help, and some contests have that rule.

Also the basic rule of "you MUST be in theme garb to enter" seems too logical to be employed, which must be why it never is.

Third thing no contest should allow is employees or owners of the place entering the contest themselves. Notice if so, they ALWAYS win?

Long ago stopped entering contests for the above reasons. Or I will enter to stop being asked to do so, and then TP away.

Contests can be a good way for some to make a few Linden, but you are right: it should be handled better.

I used to win a lot of contests using avatars from Grendel's Children. Their avs are high quality, inexpensive, and they have freebies and dollarbies too. Contest is best in green? Show up as the Grendel's Sloth avatar. Etc. You will be the most original avatar there and your chances of winning will increase! People might even vote for you instead of their friends.

I've won a few contests in my time. I agree there is probably a general disincentive for a competitor to vote for the person they really think is 'best in..." but quite often the person who deserves to win does win.

Of course there is another way to win a contest, a way which I don't do and which is cheating. When the DJ says 'TP in all your friends', if you have some alts on your friends list, obviously they can come and vote too! I have never done this and wouldn't do so, I don't condone it. But I'm sure it goes on. I've never had an alt come along to an event, whether I'm in the contest or not.

Using alts is also a good way for a club owner to hang on to the winnings if they don't want to play fair!

Contests just suck.

Ever since 2003 the same message has gone out from many people in contests to their friends via mass IM and that message is always: COME VOTE FOR ME!!!!!

Not even the competitions done by major places or even RL entities can be trusted.

There was a major competition that was held by an international company here and the person that set it all up actually asked someone if they wanted to be the winner since they had history in SL and a face that could be recognized.

Corruption is everywhere when it comes to this stuff.

LL competes against us, lies to us, misleads us. (Remember how the first biz came to SL anyone? Avalon anyone).

I'll never trust a competition here in SL as it is like trusting politics in Chicago.

hence why i gave up on contest 3 months after joining SL back in 06. fixed 9 times out of 10.

for instance on a old AV the contest was be naked without showing anything. i had on electrical tape covering my pointers and about the smallest g-string ever seen in SL...did i win, no and should of.

the girl that one had on stocking, gloves, boots, a two piece bathing suit and a see thru button down top on. maybe her clothes didnt rezz to everyone?.... :/

Harmony, if it was anything like the ones I gave examples of, was probably vote dumping on the one NOT in costume.

I remember going to an event one night where it was "Best in silks, best in boxers". There were no gender specifics for who was supposed to wear the silks or boxers, so I showed up in boxers... Yeah... Just boxers. =^-^=

Needless to say. I won. (^_^)y

Bestiality competition was it?

Pep (The weekend is starting early)

Yes, it's the "safe vote" victory. Everyone picks the same underdressed person because they think it'll give them a better chance, and they all wind up losing to that person. Been going on for years. There's a bunch of different tactics/antics that people use to try to secure themselves a not-so-straightforward win. Some camp on the DJ/host, some try to win with their mouth, some are everyones friend, and some try the slutty/naked card. It's all pretty funny really.. the extents some will go for a tiny bit of L$ and some marginal recognition at best. With all this going on behind the scenes, it's no wonder they call them "events" instead of competitions.


Heh, I know one popular club owner who doesn't even count the votes, he just picks who he wants to win.

Now that I think about it. I ain't been in a masturbestion event. Most of the time the contest seemed pretty honest and typically me or one of my friends would win. I club hop pretty randomly and usually don't know the DJ or staff for more than a week at a time. (^_^)

Though, I always put a spin on the theme. One thing holds true, I stand out since I rarely wear black. "Best in latex": I have purple and pink latex. "Best in goth": Crimsons, pinks, and whites. And... That boxers example I said before. Few things get attention like simply showing up topless. (^_^)y

.....So that's why I've won a couple of sleepwear competitions by turning up naked! I thought it was to do with my overall tan and svelte physique! My confidence has been shattered now.

The whole "invite your friends and ninja vote your way to victory" was always a hot topic at a club I use to go to. The owners eventually instituted a policy that only allowed people who were invited to the group to vote. That and public humiliation work pretty well. Peopel that use this tactic to win don't have my respect.

I agree with Sassy's assessment of vote-dumping. But my best results have come from chatting up the other voters. When I really want to win, I talk to everyone at the club. I ask them questions, comment on their costume. Yes, they can and will vote for their friends, but you never know, after complimenting them on their new outfit, I may be their new best friend.

Oh, and I have a friends list about a mile long. If you want to get off my friends list, send me a random teleport request, or a "COME VOTE FOR ME" request. Bang, Pow, Remove.

That easier than most unsubscribe methods used for most websites and even inworld services!

I don't enter contests any more.

Not at clubs, not modeling contests, nothin'. No matter what the rules are, there are people who will try to game them. There are enough "gamers" that people who enter the contest trying to win legitimately don't have a chance.

I've been wanting to do a pinup photo contest for a long time, but just can't come up with any format that would be both fair and generate traffic into my store. The two things just seem to be mutually exclusive.

sounds like something I wanted to do at my store as well
where folks would send me pics of themselves wearing something from Rha!

then it would be put up so others could vote, winner would win something (undecided at the time of thinking about doing it)

but never bothered, cuz I know some people would game it

I wanted it to be fun for the Rha! regulars, but someone would come along, game the contest, and ruin it for all

this^^

enough of those and i just take them off my list..i used to go to some events and dress up but never enter because they just turned into no fun..everyone always seeking opertunity instead of having fun with something just kills it..

i like things like name the song and band or some trivia..something that gets you having fun with the people in the club..
sploaders were fun before they were getting gamed too..

Definately agree with that. I can't remember that last time I entered a contest, and I used to make a few thousand L$ a day doing events way back when. There got to be a point where no matter how perfect your AV and inventory skills were, someone would always take the low road and turn the supposed competition into a farse.. that and the fact that regulars hate to see the same person win all the time, especially if you aren't in their little friends group.. maaannn do they hate that lol.
Nowdays, it's sorta fun to just play games with the voting peoples *evil grin* because those "best in whatever" events are nearly never decided by who's actually best in whatever

If you're in a dress contest, just find the biggest free dress you can find. We've found it never was the one who spent a fortune on a beautiful dress. It was almost always the big dress that won and you can get lots of those free.

Is a guy I know who won a best dress competition for 400L when he was brand new. He turn up in a hunky avatar and a freebee cheerleader skimpy outfit. He had no shame and was a really funny guy and quite witty. Is not many people can carry this kind thing off well and walk away with the money.

I dont go in competitions myself. I will vote in a photo competition though when I come across them and is open for me to do so.