It's a shame to read that this competition has tarnished your enthusiasm for Character Building and I hope something comes along to inspire you again soon. It'd be a shame to have come so far and delivered such a good entry to let this experience leave you with a sour taste in your mouth.

For the record I thought your enthusiasm and staged cockiness brought an element of excitement to what I feared would be a boring robes and dagger fest during the build up period. Indeed, I think you made others work extra hard to beat you, something that can't be considered a bad thing by any standard. Whether that is true or not I can't tell, but the end result is a fine line up of quality builds by the other contestants.

As for the BS you come up with in all your builds that make them so entertaining to read, I think the fact that your are consistent with your praise for others belies the seeming arrogance of your words; it's only a shame harmless self promotion wasn't mentioned as a rule you could have been marked down for. The fact that all the judges seem to agree on this point makes me wonder what they expected from a No snakes build.

My main gripe is the judges collective comment that "Gameplay in general wasn’t particularly exciting or unique". This is a tall order to achieve on a game that is already a year and a half old with hundreds of builds dedicated to offering something different each time. In this case, it may pay to count exactly how many builds use the Champion's Cudgel and Flaming Familiars. I'm no expert like the judges are but I don't recall seeing that many.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's moreso the way Snakes felt like he was treated that caused him to take his heart out of it. They basically insulted his writing style and directly linked it to a flaw in his character. I mean, no matter what, that's gotta sting. All over something that he clearly does with passion and in the spirit of the game. 

Sure, what they said would have been a good observation if it was phrased in a way that simply said: "This style could come across the wrong way in the context of the contest, but we understand why you did it. No worries."

I for one don't want to see you stop making builds. Your builds helped inspire mine.

Indeed. I think the best thing about your builds is the enthusiasm you have when making them. I don't want to see you lose that

Exactly. The way I see it, they basically told him that he was deducted of not good enough to place because he was himself. I would stop writing if I couldn't incorporate myself into what I'm doing. That's what makes these builds! If you can't feel the writer's passion/excitement/accomplishment and/or picture the character they try to portray clearly, then that's a horrible writer. Period. Snakes does these exact things, which makes him an excellent writer. His presentation? Comes out clean and the pictures are persuasive and make his point. I rambled off again, but in essence, Ehjookayted is right.

Of course! I'm just saying they have to find better criteria to peg people for than that! He won't quit Snakes is too boss for that :D

Alright Matt, I suggest more transparency from the judges in terms of criteria. In fact, I can link you to the page in which I asked for exactly that.

Had Snakes to have known he'd have been marked down for his hyperbole he might have curbed it.

Scratch that, he shouldn't have curbed it anyway. Judges shouldn't judge a build based on pre-release comments and salesmanship in a build. I agree with Whitney on that, it basically looks as though Snakes has been dissed for the very same writing style and presentation that has made almost all his builds legendary.