Guild Wars 2

National Camera Day comes around on the 29th of June every year, and to celebrate this year Powertrip [POW] decided to hold a screenshot contest so you can show off your skills and win fancy prizes to boot!

This contest is more about how you take the screenshot (National Camera Day!) and less what the actual subject is. Timing, lighting, and angle will do a lot more to impress the judges than having the fanciest armour or the flashiest weaponry. This is an opportunity to showcase not just how beautiful Tyria can be, but how well you can show us just how beautiful Tyria can be.

Duration:
Entries must be submitted by July 14, 2015. Don’t worry about timezones, if it’s July 14 somewhere in the world, you’re still good.

Prizes:

• “Best in Show” Grand Prize: 500 gems (83.75 converted gold value – we will send a gold version if you wish to get something else, at a maximum of 75 gold).
  In addition, you will win a free commissioned portrait of your Guild Wars 2 character by Magic_Pen_Asura who has generously agreed to provide their services.
  If you’d like to see a sample of her work, click here.
• 1st Place Rewards (Per Category)
  1: First person: Gallant Weapon (of your choice)
  2: Selfies: 3 Bolts of Damask + 50 ecto
  3: Landscape: 100 Ancient Wood Planks + 75 Globs of Ectoplasm
  4: HoT Expansion: 1 Stack of Heavy Thorned Bags + 1 Stacks of Heavy Bag of Supplies + 75 Globs of Ectoplasm
• 2nd Place Rewards: 12.5 gold + 30 Globs of Ectoplasm
• 3rd Place Rewards: 5 gold + 50 Crystalline Dust

Categories:
Category 1: First Person View
Show us anything in Tyria taken in first person! For more information, click here.

Category 2: Landscapes
There are some beautiful, awe-inspiring, and just plain weird landscapes in Tyria, and we want to see them. For more information, click here.

Category 3: Selfies
It can be argued that the selfie is the lowest form of photography, but this is where you make it work for you. For more information, click here.

Category 4: Heart of Thorns
Show us what makes you think of the coming expansion. This is a special category, so be creative- the subject can be anything that makes people think of Heart of Thorns. For more information, click here.

How to Enter:
You can enter in one of two ways:

• Email your screenshots to pow.zorav@gmail.com
  1: Subject line should read: “Powertrip Screenshot Contest 2015”
  2: Include your account name (NAME.XXXX)
  3: Label each screenshot with the category you’re submitted it to or include, clearly, in the body of the email which photos go to what.
  4: Attach the files or provide links to imgur/flickr/some other image hosting site.
• Register on our forums and post in our contest thread here.

Rules:

• All screenshots must be taken in the Guild Wars 2 core game- screenshots from beta events will not be accepted.
• Screenshots from cutscenes will not be accepted (unless they’re glitching out in some amusing manner) – exceptions can be made.
• Screenshots must be taken by you. You can’t ask a friend to take a picture of you doing something awesome and submit it. We’ll know. We’re magic.
• Graphic injectors and manipulation programs (such as SweetFX or Photoshop) are allowed, but these should only be used for colour correction, smoothing, levels, cropping, etc. Entries with content actually added to the shot will be disqualified.
• Screenshots must be at least 500×500
• One screen per category (max of 4).
• Contest is open to everyone, NA or EU.
• We heavily recommend captioning photos! While the judges won’t see names while ranking shots, they will be able to read your commentaries.
• All screenshots must be submitted by end of day July 14th, 2015, by the time the it hits UTC?12:00 (aka, as long as it’s July 14th somewhere in the world, your screenshot is good).

To see the entries so far, take a look at POW’s forums here!

The winners of the contest will be determined by a panel of judges appointed by POW’s officers. The judges will review each of the posted screenshots and rank them based off of creativity and originality. Winning entries will be posted to Imgur and lavished with all the praise we can muster.

Disclaimer:
There’s no purchase or donation necessary to participate or to win. Any monetary thing that you provide will not improve one’s chances of winning.

Screenshots that are deemed offensive or otherwise distasteful will be moderated or removed from our entries as we see fit. We will contact you if this is the case.

As for claiming a prize, a mail will be sent to all winners requesting a response for activity / accepting of prizes. All prizes in each category will be mailed out together. Once the mails go out, each person has one week to respond. Prizes are not transferable (but you can do it yourself) and cash alternatives are not available unless otherwise specified.

For answers to any questions you might have, feel free to contact us:
Zorav (NaviNation.2680 or pow.zorav@gmail.com)
Varr (AkioFallstar.5460 or varr.business@gmail.com or @KaedeVarr)

Or, of course, post below!

Want to win a free commissioned portrait of your character? Take a look, the grand prize has been updated!