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 Archives:
Descon 1-15 on EMRR (click here)
Overview and
Stats:
December 10, 1997 a fellow
suggested an rmr-based design contest. That person was Chris Timm. Here is a
short interview with Chris.
It was kicked off in 1998 by
Dave Lee so that modelers, rocketeers, and most specifically readers of the
Usenet newsgroup
rec.models.rockets
could showcase their talents, display their design on the internet, and win the
acclaim of their peers. Prizes were donated by those entering the contest or
readers of the newsgroup who had extra goodies underfoot and wanted to put them
to good use.
Please enjoy these statistics
and interesting interviews and findings!
Top
Winners of Descons (Ranked 1st=3, 2nd=2 and 3rd=1):
- Kelo Waivio - 9 Points (1-1st, 3-2nds) in 6
Descons (interview)
- Robert Galejs - 8 Points (2-1st, 1-2nds) in
5 Descons (interview)
- Darren Longhorn - 6 Points (2-1st) in 2
Descons (interview)
Top
Winners of Descons (Normalized to Points/Descon):
(With >1 Descon
participation)
- Darren Longhorn - 3 Points/Descon in 2
Descons (interview)
- Tom Stagner - 2 Points/Descon in 2
Descons
- Mark Schrader - 1.7 Points/Descon in 3
Descons
- Robert Galejs - 1.6 Points/Descon in 5
Descons (interview)
Top
Participants by Number of Entries:
- Dick Stafford - 10 in 9 Descons (interview)
- Chris Taylor - 9 in 5 Descons
- Bob Fortune - 8 in 8 Descons (interview)
Top
Participants by Number of Descons:
- Dick Stafford - 9 Descons (#7 - #15) (interview)
- Bob Fortune - 8 Descons (#2 - #9) - (interview)
- Nick Esselman - 7 Descons (#6, #9 -
#14)
Descon 1 - 13 Entries
January - March '98
Descon 1 was ground breaking and
notice the initial winner announcement:
The results of
the first rmr Design Contest
*******************************************
Totals for first place result in a tie between Tom Stagner and Yitah Wu.
Using the second place vote as a tie breaker THE WINNER IS...
Yitah Wu with the Falcon XTRG
Tom Stagner with the SST-3000 coming a very close second.
This was quickly followed
by:
My search came
up with a missed vote from Doyle Tatum. To my great embarrassment this changes
the previously published winner, before I make a bigger fool of myself have I
got it right this time? Sorry about the error I will cross check with another
news source next time.
See
All Descon 1 Participants
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Descon 2 - 10 Participants
April - June '98
At the end of Descon 2, Dave Lee
asks: "If *you* have any ideas about improving the contest, or contest
site, now is the time to jump in and voice them. Mail me or post back here for
discussion."
Here's an interesting response:
"I would also like to see this a little more "anonymous"; the
contest should be based on the rocket and not the person who posted it. For
example, if Jerry Irvine submitted an otherwise outstanding design, how many
people would *not* vote for it just based on who submitted it? I also
wonder...If John Cato submitted something, would a bunch of TRA folks vote for
everything else just to knock him out of the competition?"
This may have been something
that influenced Descon 5's "Mystery Rocket Designer"
competition.
Here is a
short interview with 2nd Place Winner, Bob
Fortune.
See
All Descon 2 Participants
|
Descon 3 - 10 Entries
July - September '98
For all those that are feeling
like they "know it all", Rachael was 10 years old when she won this
Design Contest! Here is a short update on
Rachael.
Also, Chris Taylor had five (5)
entries... sparking a rule change!
See
All Descon 3 Participants
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Descon 4 - 12 Entries
October '98 - January '99
Dave seems to disappear? Chris
Taylor seems to do a "site take-over move" or is it all just
innocent? (you
decide)
On to Descon 5, but without
Dave.
Here is a
short interview with 2nd Place Winner, Kelo
Waivio.
See
All Descon 4 Participants
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Descon 5 - 15 Entries - Mystery Rocket
Designer
June - November '99
Bob Fortune writes in RMR:
"I wouldn't mind doing the HTML the first contest [since Dave
disappeared] to see how it goes. Maybe we just drove Dave crazy with a
bazillion changes to our plans, I know I may have learning about jpegs and gifs
and the like. It may have been a _major_ time sink, won't find out till the
next contest I suppose."
Starting in late 1999, Bob
Fortune picked up and carried the ball from Descon 5 through 11. His handy work
and added wackiness has kept the contests fun and progressive.
Here is a
short interview with 1st Place Winner, Kelo
Waivio.
See
All Descon 5 Participants
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 neXt Descon
(clever play on X meaning 10) - 17 Entries - Kit Bash
February '02 - June '02
Bob writes:
"Unfortunately it won't suit everyone but I think it's fair and it
should be fun - I tried to pick the predominant direction the group wanted to
go in because at some point the rubber must meet the road."
This contest was the first
"kit-bash" and was primarily based on the Estes Gemini DC, however,
there was a list of parts that could be used for a High Power version.
Robert's winning HPR version saw
some controversy about whether it was fair. Well, read more about that in
Robert's reply on his short interview.
See
All Descon 10 Participants
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Descon 12 - 12 Entries - Comedy Sci-Fi
Multiple MicroMaxx Grissom Kitbash
September - December '03
After 9 months of no contests, a
RMR thread was started and shortly thereafter Descon 12.
The contest is currently being
administered by Nick of Essence's Model Rocketry Reviews (EMRR). It is being run as a separate
entity and has no connection to EMRR, other than the ongoing archiving of
closed RMR Descon's. Additional support and direction is being provided by
nOrM. The new Logo is also by nOrM.
See
All Descon 12 Participants
|
Descon 13 - 19 Entries - Inconsequential
January - June '04
in-con-se-quen-tial (in kon si
kwen'shuhl, in kon -) adj.
1. having little importance; trivial.
2. inconsequent; illogical.
3. irrelevant.
Translation: NO
THEME
Here is a
short interview with 1st Place Winner,
Darren Longhorn.
Here is a
short interview with 2nd Place Winner, Robert
Galejs.
See
All Descon 13 Participants
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Descon 14 - 22 Entries - Multi-Engine
Online Invitational Design Contest
June '04 - September '04
This contest became an
"invitational" inviting rocketeers that do not participate in the RMR
newsgroup to participate. So announcments were made on the other leading
discussion forum, The Rocket Forum (TRF).
The participants were:
- RMR'ers: 9
- TRF'ers: 11
- Both: 2
And, although it wasn't a forum
contest, some looked at it that way. So, here are the results:
- 1st Place was an RMR'er
- 2nd and 3rd Place were
TRF'ers
- Total RMR Points = 287 (31.9 Average
Pts/Entry)
- Total TRF Points = 249 (22.6 Average
Pts/Entry)
See
All Descon 14 Participants
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Descon 14 1/2 - 28 Entries - Best of
Breed
October '04
In this very special Descon, you
have seen all these entries before, but take an extra look at them this time so
that we can determine the "BIG" winner!
All the entries placed either
1st or 2nd in Descon 1 - 14.
"Best of
Breed"
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Descon 15 - 11 Entries - Nihil de nihilo
fit!
November '04 - March '05
Nihil de nihilo fit! =
"Nothing comes from nothing"
Translation: NO
THEME
See
All Descon 15 Participants
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Descon
8 - 43 Entries - Flounder Parts
Descon 9 - 28 Entries - Positively No Theme
Here
Descon 11 - 20 Entries - Elebben Anything Goes
