CommentChamp Contest 2026

This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Plilt for becoming the first ever Comment Champion, as well as to the runners-up, zipzipskins, PallidAlbumen, and Castaigne!

They say that, in the farthest-flung corners of the Library, a group of great scholars gathers once every hundred human years to discuss the various texts the shelves have given to them since their last meeting. These thinkers have a friendly competition: Whoever says the most insightful thing about a work is crowned champion of the meeting and bestowed a special hat. Many Library denizens, in pursuit of this fabled hat, have traveled far and wide in search of the scholars' stomping grounds, but none have ever found it. The scholars make themselves scarce and say nothing of these meetings; rumors of their exploits seem to appear from nowhere and reach everywhere.

The most recent rumor is that their next meeting is fast-approaching, and this one will have a theme: mountains.

All Entries:

↬hiking the loop, created by possum_punk

↬Where a king weaves its golden tapestry §7 : What a Time, created by Castaigne

↬I stood?, created by MightyBear

↬I AM A TOWER, created by TroutMaskReplica

↬The Mountress, created by Writer123

↬Responsibilities, and the ones who dealt with him, created by PallidAlbumen

↬Cloud Forest, created by Plilt

↬Six Etchings in the Basalt of Olympus Mons, created by zipzipskins

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Show Contest Info, Rules & Prompt

The Contest

Welcome to the CommentChamp Contest! This contest will work a little differently than prior ones: Participants will still submit written works that adhere to a certain theme as part of the event, but rather than crowning a winning piece, we will crown a winning commenter across the entries. Our aim is to promote deep engagement with, careful thought about, and extended analysis of each other's work.

The Dates

Drafting Begins: NOW!
Posting Opens: August 22nd
Posting Closes: September 12th
Commenting Closes: September 26th
Results Decided: October 3rd

The Theme

The only required thematic element for contest entries is the prominence of a mountain, be it as a setting, a character, a narrator, a symbol, or some other thing. Otherwise, entrants are free to write whatever they wish. Our aim is to build a counterpart to the River Canon that users can continue contributing to after the end of the contest; we encourage all participants to get creative and have fun with it!

How to Enter

Post your entry/entries to the site with the tag "commentchamp2026" and the normal URL(s) you would like it/them to have. Solo efforts must be posted by their authors; collaborative efforts must be posted by one of the partners. Because this contest will not crown a winning piece, you are free to submit as many entries as you wish. Furthermore, all forms of entry are allowed, be they text-based, audio, visual, or anything else. A piece being sorted into Hall One will not disqualify it.

Once you have posted your entry/entries, go out and leave comments on the entries of others. In order to be eligible to win the contest, you must post at least one entry of your own and leave at least one comment on another user's work. Users are free to only do one or the other if they are not interested in winning, but our aim is to promote site-wide collaboration on a canon, and we do not want to incentivize users to forego contributing to the canon by making comments the only things that matter for eligibility.

How to Win

As previously mentioned, the winner of this contest will be determined by the comments of eligible users, rather than their pieces. The winner will be decided by a panel of judges, who will also list three runners-up in no particular order (i.e. there will be no second/third/fourth place). These judges will evaluate comments according to the formal analysis, thematic consideration, and attention to detail on display. In choosing the winner and the runners-up, they will value comment quality much more than comment quantity. In other words: leaving a large volume of comments will not boost one's standing if those comments are not substantive.

The prize for the winner will be a Critic's Choice role with a color of their choosing in the Reading Room Discord server (if the winner already has a Critic's Choice role from a prior event, it will be upgraded to Critic's Choice+). The winner and all three runners-up will also earn the right to feature a piece of their choosing on the front page for one month.

The Judges

• lzhoudidion
• carolynn w
• UncannyClown
• meltedbee
• Vishardsh

The Rules

• Be good to each other. Seriously.
• No shenanigans.
  • Examples of shenanigans include, but are in no way limited to:
    • Downvoting all of your competitors' works within minutes of them being posted.
    • Spamming people with PMs about your work.
    • Spurring malicious up/downvoting, whether on your work or anyone else's.
  • If you are not sure if something counts as shenanigans, feel free to ask one of the organizers.
• Voting on a piece based on anything other than its content is grounds for disqualification. Theme-related disqualification is determined by the organizers.
• Pre-existing drafts are allowed, so long as they have never been posted to the wiki.
• As previously stated, the theme shall be interpreted broadly. We intend to inspire, not constrain. If you are unsure of a piece's eligibility, feel free to ask one of the organizers listed below.
• Edits to works are allowed.
• Contest entries will undergo normal deletion processes.
• All organizers have the ability to disqualify entrants for violations of the above rules, egregiously poor sportsmanship not otherwise enumerated, or failure to fit the theme with their entries. All decisions are appealable to lzhoudidion, carolynn w, and/or UncannyClown.

Happy writing and commenting!

+Translations