2015/2016 Sputnik Awards Progress Report

Jo Lindsay Walton writes to say the Sputnik Awards are almost fully gestated! Well, not in those words. In these words:

Just wanted to let you know that we’re finally going to announce the winner of the Sputnik Award within the next couple weeks. The slowest award in the multiverse, but hopefully worth the wait

Walton started taking votes in May 2016, and in December announced two finalists had emerged from the Dungeons of Democracy —

  • N.K. Jemisin, THE FIFTH SEASON
  • Naomi Novik, UPROOTED

Do those titles sound vaguely familiar? Didn’t they contest each other across all the major awards a year ago?

Ah, but their ultimate merits have yet to be decided through trial by (simulated) combat!

Victory in the Sputnik Awards depends on an RPG-like tournament governed by rules like these —

(6) Ballots who have run out of HP flee the Dungeons of Democracy using a Town Hall Portal spell, to await the results.

(7) The process is repeated from (2). If two rounds pass in a row without any damage being inflicted, the award administrator must either:

  • introduce a Monster Ballot (see below); and/or

  • eliminate the ballot with the lowest number of total HP, even if it’s not yet at zero.

Walton shared a transcript of one of these tournaments in a new YouTube video.

4 thoughts on “2015/2016 Sputnik Awards Progress Report

  1. I note in passing, in the background text in the intro:

    You hang with Chad the Barbarian.

  2. Pingback: Inaugural Sputnik Award Winner Announced | File 770

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