That's right, friends! It's the moment you've all been waiting for! Here are the winners of HSO Round 1!

( And the winners are...! )

Everyone please remember that Round 3 Entries are due by 11:59 EST tonight! So you have about an hour and a half from when this post goes up to have your piece in on time.

Happy Shipping!

Hey shippers! We're still getting the voting form set up, but in the meantime, here are the top 12 from each sector in alphabetical order:

Sector 1 alpha!dave♥alpha!rose aradia♥rose autoresponder♥roxy dave♥dave dave♥jade dirk♦roxy dirk♥jane john♦vriska john♥karkat karkat♥nepeta nepeta♥terezi terezi♥vriska

Sector 2 ar♥pm♥wv dad♥roxy dave♥rose♥terezi dave♠karkat davesprite♥john dirk♥jake♥jane♥roxy eridan♥feferi♥sollux♠eridan jade♥rose karkat♥sollux meenah♠roxy sollux♦terezi terezi♠vriska

Sector 3 aradia♥jade bro♥dave dave♥feferi dave♥john dave♥kanaya♥rose dave♥karkat dirk♥equius equius♥eridan gamzee♦karkat jade♥nepeta rose♥roxy sollux♥terezi

Sector 4 aradia♦sollux dave♥rose dave♥terezi dirk♥roxy feferi♥jade gamzee♥jane grandhighblood♠summoner jade♥john♥karkat jade♥karkat john♥rose john♥vriska slick♠snowman

In other news, the late submission penalty has been revoked. After discussion, we have decided that applying a penalty for late entries isn't something we're going to do. We feel that extreme lateness is its own penalty, and encourage everyone to submit their round entries as close to the round closing as possible, because late entries are seen by fewer participants and receive fewer votes.

Hey, shippers!

We've got all the Round 1 entries up now, just about, and it's almost time for voting! Exciting, I know.

Before you head to the comm to read, please go here and click 'Join Community'! This will enable you to read all the entries that have been posted this round, even those that have not been unlocked by palhonchos.

Then go to hso2012_r1 and scroll down to the section that says 'Most Popular Tags.' It'll be on the left. Click on the tag corresponding to your assigned sector. This should give you a list of all the entries you'll be voting on! We do want to stress that we're adjusting the voting form to account for which entries have and haven't been read, and we absolutely do not want people to read anything they think might make them uncomfortable! So don't feel obligated to get through everything. If you have time, you might also want to take a look at all the awesome entries in the other sectors, too!

Palhonchos should go and unlock their team's entry as soon as possible. (Or whoever posted the entry--I know we've had a couple of absences.)

Lastly, since this has been coming up a lot in the past few days, please, please contact us if your palhoncho has gone MIA or is otherwise not performing their required duties. Do not wait until after main round entries are due to tell us that you haven't heard from them in weeks and you don't know whether they submitted an entry. While we understand that sometimes life happens, palhonchos are vital to keeping a team intact and a team's experience enjoyable, and we do expect all palhonchos to be active and involved with their team on an ongoing basis. If yours is not we would really like to hear about it, I cannot stress this enough.

At the very least, your team should have a defined process for a) assigning people and tasks for each main round entry, if your team's a collaborative one OR b) choosing which of several potential entries will be submitted for voting. If it does not, this is a concern! Please do not vaguely waft your entry in an absent palhoncho's direction and hope for the best. You deserve a friendleader who communicates with you.

Our email is always open. We are busy, as we always are, but we will try to respond to team-related concerns as quickly as possible.

ROUND ONE: GAMBLING

they call you lady luck

Hey shippers!
We are so incredibly excited to announce the first main round prompt and the official start of the HSO!
This year, we’re loosely theming the prompts around patron trolls. We’re also trying to give you a little more creative space with this year’s prompts, so we’ll see how this works out!

For Round One, incorporate gambling--literal or metaphorical--in your submission. It doesn't need to be the central focus, but it should be a major theme.

And as always, if you are unsure whether something counts or not, just ask! You can reach us at homestuck.shipping@gmail.com

All submissions must be created/assembled new for this round by members of your team.
No fan-created content is allowed that has not been made by members of your team specifically in response to the prompt. Mainstream creative content is fine (e.g. popular music, well-known art pieces, the Homestuck soundtrack), but not fanart, fan music, etc. This is largely to ensure that the original content in your entry is clearly identifiable as distinct from the borrowed content.

This challenge will run until 11:59PM EDT June 23. If your Palhoncho sends it in after that time according to the gmail timestamp, your team’s submission will get posted--but we cannot guarantee that it will be posted in a timely manner.

Requirements (as stated in the Info Post)
Fic/meta must be between 800-3000 words.
Combination fic/art entries cannot have more than 4 images.
All other image-based media (including comics) cannot exceed 10 images/panels.
Cosplay must be at least 75% created or assembled new for the challenge.
The penalties for going over 3k words will be as follows:
3000-3050: no penalty (to allow for disparities in wordcount software)
3051-3150: -30 points
3151-3250: -60 points
etc.
PLEASE NOTE that gdocs is notoriously bad at generating an accurate wordcount, so you should probably check your submission at http://www.wordcounter.net/ just to make sure.
Also, this year we are requiring transcriptions of all text on images. These transcriptions count towards the wordcount.

Please remember not to post your HSO creations publicly until voting ends, whether or not they are chosen as part of the team submission. We would like to keep things as anonymous as possible!

Submission Format
We’re still working out the details, but this year we’re probably going to ask palhonchos to post their entries directly to the round comm! Stay tuned for more details.

Questions about this challenge should be emailed to homestuck.shipping@gmail.com; we will attempt to check the comments on this post, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to see all of them.
Please remember to check the Info Post and FAQ to see if your question is answered there!