Tasi's Takeover

By Helderfontein

Most Horse Eden Eventing players know what the HEE Artist Rumble is, or HEE artists do. If you’re new to the term, the Rumble is considered to be the most prestigious art competition on HEE. Created by Llama Queen a couple of years ago, it has been run by other influential players, including Ven (Stormsong Manor) and now Tasi (Spiritasi Whims).

The latest Rumble has recently started round three of the contest, with round two results released by Tasi just over a week ago. Congratulations to the lucky winners from Tiers 1, 2, and 3, who are sitting tight for the results from round 3. This round’s theme, Paranormal, has sparked lots of conversation within the supporting community.

The purpose of the Tier system is to make the contest fair for everyone. The Tiers were created based on prices found in artist workshops, as well as the quality and skills of the artists that are tied to the prices of the art. Tier 3 is for those who are starting out as artists with more basic skills. Tier 1 is for the experienced artists who produce sought after artwork. Tasi explained that the main difference seen between these tiers is that those with more experience tend to be more comfortable with using outside stock. Tasi said, “Tier 3 has been really good about getting their entries in, and the artists, in general, seem to be giving it their all”. She reports that the entries for this Rumble amaze her. She is “always ecstatic” to log in and find that there are new entries in her mailbox.

Taking over the HEE Artist Rumble was a recent decision for Tasi; a decision she made around a month before round one. Having competed in the Rumble in previous years, Tasi believed that she could “get more hype back into it through more crowd engagement”, and hype it up she has! This season’s forum thread, titled “Rumble Thread”, has accumulated a whopping 195 posts, as of June 1st. There has been more activity in the Main Chat about the art contest around voting times, introducing those new to HEE, or those that haven’t heard of it before, to the Rumble. People are excited to see the new pieces made for the contest, and rightly so!

Many artists have conquered the Rumble: Jello Warmbloods (Tier 1, year 137), and HRS (Tier 2, year 129). As previously mentioned, Tasi herself was an artist in the Rumble. In Year 137, Tasi was unfortunately knocked out in the first round. Her persistence shows when she entered the following Summer and won! Her words of encouragement, “don’t give up” are too true, and it’s an encouragement that everyone should keep in mind.

There are many joys and hardships that come with organising and running the Rumble. Firstly, it involves an immense amount of planning, an “aspect of the Rumble [that] has probably given me the most amount of joy”, said Tasi. “I love planning and getting stuff together for any kind of event”, she wrote, which makes her the perfect person to run such an event. “Seeing all the artists’ pieces as they come in each round and seeing how they interpreted the round” comes in a close second. What is most difficult is the part where she has to keep quiet and downplay the excitement about who the artists are (this is quite understandable when there are so many fantastic pieces submitted).

A lot more work goes into running the Rumble than what she imagined as an artist. “You think it’s a lot of pressure on the artists, which it is, but hosting it is another story,” she said. She told us that the process of collecting the stock for each round, putting together the brackets, and following up on entries was surprisingly “time-consuming”. Only now, having gone through the process herself, does she appreciate the time and effort that Llama and Ven put into hosting the Rumble.

Tasi didn’t make many changes to the Rumble this round. “I’ve used the same format Ven and Llama have used in the past”. However, she created a poll to see the interests of the Rumble supporters and what they would like for potential themes in each round. Letting the public contribute to the competition, she thinks, increased community involvement.

As the Rumble steps into the Semi-Finals, the community support continues to ramp up in enthusiasm. Just the simple act of casting your vote for each round goes a long way for both the artists and the Event Organiser. Tasi hopes that players will continue to chat about the Rumble in the Main Chat as it helps bring awareness to others who haven’t experienced it before. It is also the perfect place to let the artists see the excitement and appreciation players have for their work, and entice them to submit their entries.

The planning for the next HEE Artist Rumble, which Tasi hopes will be in the Spring, is already underway. For now, spread the enthusiasm and support for our current artists and Event Organiser, and keep casting your votes!