On Judging the OSR Superstar

I just read over at Tenkar's there are 339 entries in the OSR Superstar competition and that the first round of entries is in the books.  Wow.  It's impressive, a book load of magic items.  I can't speak for the other judges, but sifting through that many entries is intimidating.  I have no idea what will catch my eye and what won't.  I imagine myself as a fantasy guy on Hoarders.  I have this mound of magic items I need to organize.  I'll have my no pile, good pile and the winner pile.  There might be some criteria as to judge them, I'm not even sure of that yet or if the judges need to get together and bring to the table our favorites and discuss which ones get in.  Should be a lot of fun.  +Rob Conley I've known for a million years (give or take a few months) and +Mark Gedak I've never met or spoken to except for a few exchanges on Google+.  Now I wait for the grump dwarf to get the items organized and sent to us.

Random thoughts on it as I look at the numbers

I certainly glad the opening round was expanded to 16 winners.  That mean 5% of the entries will make the playoffs. I imagine since you were permitted to submit 3 magic items most of you did.  There never seems to be a shortage of creativity in the OSR.  So I am guessing that there are 113 individuals who submitted.  Which means 14% of the people move on.  Even in the NFL 37.5% of the teams get to play in the post season.  And the generous prizes that people have donated...another example of why the OSR is a fun and supportive community.  Prone to spats, but in the end we're here to game, promote gaming and encourage others to share their gaming.