In our conquest to help Newbs members put away those Ghastly Gibuses, we’ve been taking from the rich and giving to the Irish all month. If you missed it, don’t worry we’re just getting started.

Our 1st Annual “Its a holiday about pumpkins” story contest was a success with prizes going to the top 3 spots. Koans dug into his bottomless pockets to make sure you got yourself a pre-order of Super Meat Boy or a copy of Poker Night at the Inventory for you and that special someone.

• First place is Red Badger for $25 Steam bucks.
• Second place is Major Dewar for $15 Steam bucks.
• Third place is King for $10 Steam bucks.

We also wrapped up our 3rd Annual Team Fortress Newbs TF2 Themed Pumpkin Carving Contest. With the top 2 entries receiving more of Koans money in steam games!

• First Place: NFreak $25 steam bucks
• Second Place: Sharpevil $15 steam bucks

We’ve had less participation this year than in previous years on these competitions, but that doesn’t mean the prizes stop flowing. A great example of this is our Newbs Team Fortess 2 Christmas and other Winter Celebrations Contest in which contestants had to submit something holiday related. Although the competition was stiff, I still managed to win $20 steam bucks for my entry. How in the world did I win money with an entry like this? Well Octo felt since it took him a few months longer than it should have to judge it, that every contestant was a winner! He also gave out a reserved slot on ALL SERVERS for every entry.

Not only did I win $20 for this, but your mother has a laminated copy of this hanging on her refrigerator. Happy Hanukkah Mrs. Feuchtwanger!

Which brings us to our most recent contest: The Newbs Stimulus Plan. If you haven’t heard about this one.. Shame on you. Haha, no really.. shame on you. It’s our latest and greatest, and it’s designed to bring the hat poor’s backpacks on par with the likes of Octo and Crap (full vintage sets – oh yeah). All entries in the previous contests I have mentioned received 25 bonus points towards the Newbs Stimulus raffle. We compiled 3647 entries this month and plan to top that in December. Octo wrote the code for the lottery, so plan on this being a monthly tradition. Without further ado, this months winners:

• 1st Place: Stax1 Voodoo Juju or Spine Chilliing Skull
• 2nd Place: The Shark (Stout Shako)

Stax1 came in with 84 entries, and The Shark came in with 26. The Sharks entries were composed mainly of his bonus entries from another contest. What does this mean? It Pays to Participate. Literally, we here at Newbs rack our brains trying to conjure up new and exciting ways to give back to our great community, so take advantage.

Current Contests:

Newbs Stimulus December is under way and the same rules apply:

• Each post = 1 entry
• Great Threads / Posts (I like the cut of your Jib) = 50 entries
• Winning or Submitting info for other contests = Bonus Entries
• Signing up for the forums = 20 entries

We will now be awarding 30 entries for referrals to the forums. If you refer someone, have them post a topic in our [N] section with your name in their post. This only counts for new sign ups as of December 1st.

Prizes:

1st Place: Choice of Voodoo JuJu or a Spine-Chilling Skull!

2nd Place: Chieftain Challenge!

Drawing will be held January 1st, so get busy!

Newbsmas has Began!

Its that time of year again – Newbsmas.  As you all should know by now, Newbsmas is an elusive holiday, it begins and ends on different days each year.  This year it will be ending January 15th (2011).  The celebration is the same as last year.  Create a TF2 Themed wintery craft, story, item, short design, comic, whatever give it to the contest, and sit back and wait for prizes of great joy.    More details to come.  Prizes are great as always and will be announced shortly.

A more formal blog post detailing Newbsmas is on the way. Keep an eye on the updates in this thread.

Other Notables:

Think you can jump? A chance at 30 bonus entries for Newbs Stimulus! (Ends 12/3/10)

Want to win an unusual? Sharpevil of [N] is giving his away! If you’re a current [N] member it might not be too late!

Newbs Hat Lottery: 1 scrap gets you in the running for a crafted hat!

Whether steam bucks or sexy hats are your thing, remember it pays to participate this holiday season.

-JiB