NewGrounds Audio DeathMatch 2021 - Final Round Thread!

[SplatterDash]

**Please don't use this thread for anything other than posting submissions! Instead, redirect all comments, banter, questions and anything else over to the 2021 Discussion Thread. ALSO, if you wish to post anything in this thread PLEASE use the "Respond To This Thread" button at the top of this thread (yes, I do see it). If you ABSOLUTELY MUST respond to this post, PLEASE REMOVE ALL TAGS FROM THIS POST IN YOUR RESPONSE! Nobody wants to be repinged multiple times for this thread. Thanks!**

Welcome to the Final Round of the 2021 NewGrounds Audio DeathMatch!

This year's artwork done by the amazing @travsaus - go check out the page for this art and follow him for his future works!

This is it - the round where the best of the best compete for the top spot! For one last time, every one of our four finalists will be making a piece in two weeks to face off in a four-person free-for-all - no brackets, no walls, no worries!

As before, all members who participated in the previous round will be getting reviews by judges. We will be making sure to catch up on those if we haven't gotten to them already, but for the previous round every piece should have at least three reviews on them.

Before we get into scores, if you had a piece from this round that was your favorite, drop it in the Fan Favorites thread! There's prizes for the top songs in each round, so if there's something you liked the most, give it a shout! If it's hard to decide, or you wanna give something specifically to the winners, you can also donate to the prize pool! More info on that in the rules thread.

Now, without further delay...

Moving on first to the Final Round, beating out their fellow competitor with a total score of 430 to 401.5, @GameBoyFireworks has successfully defeated @satanicpotatoe !

In the second corner of the arena, having won another battle with a total score of 433.5 to 375.5, @LD-W has taken the throne above @DawMii and is moving on!

Our third competitor for the final round fought a hard and well-won battle in the last round, emerging with a total score of 440 over 419. @TheVodouQueen is moving on over @eliasalija !

Last, but certainly not least, of the competitors to enter the final round entered with a score of 391.5 to 365. @SenseiTree has fallen in the wake of our final competitor, @MaldivirDragonwitch !

For all of the competitors who did not make it into this round, you all are part of the backup pool. In the case that any one of the four finalists have to drop for whatever reason, you have the option of filling in for them, and I encourage you to create a song alongside them if that is your intent. To the main competitors, keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks, as you'll be notified of details involving a collaboration episode with @TheNewgroundsPodcast where we will reveal the final results live.

The time is neigh for the final round. For one last time this year... COMPETITORS, BEGIN!

EDIT: To clarify, the songs for the Final Round are due by 11:59 pm EST on October 17. Judging will take place in the week following.

[Santi-Montali]

Congrats to all! Seems I've been well-defeated lol

[TheVodouQueen]

Good luck guys, and it was a real pleasure to be a part of this and make it to the Finals amongst incredibly talented and skilled fellow competitors. :) ♥

[GameBoyFireworks]

Finals submission. Thank you all so much for the support and for listening!! Good luck everyone. <3

[LD-W]

It's in.

[MaldivirDragonwitch]

Hah, I can't believe I made it before the deadline! Jeez, this was a wild ride...

Good luck everybody! <3

[SplatterDash]

And that's a wrap for the final submission period! We will now go through the process of judging for one last time and reveal results on or around October 24. For the final four, please keep an ear out for the podcast episode that you will have a chance to be a part of to celebrate the finale of the NGADM! Lastly, all of you should be getting reviews from each judge for the final round.

[SplatterDash]

PRESENTING THE FINAL RESULTS FOR THE 2021 NEWGROUNDS AUDIO DEATHMATCH!

It's now finally time to reveal the final bracket! These were first revealed live on an episode of the Newgrounds Podcast, which will be posted soon. It was great to listen to our finalists talk about their experience with the ADM and the inspirations behind their final pieces, as well as compliment others on their works. As with the other rounds, us judges are more than happy to provide further feedback upon request.

And now for the scores, each out of a highest of 600:

4TH PLACE: @MaldivirDragonwitch (total score of 487.5)

3RD PLACE: @GameBoyFireworks (total score of 488)

2ND PLACE: @TheVodouQueen (total score of 525.5)

1ST PLACE: @LD-W (total score of 538.5)

*You can find the public Google Spreadsheet here to check out your scores!

And like that, another year of the NGADM has formally concluded! There's a bunch of people I would like to thank this year, including the following people:

• All of my fellow judges this year, including @Spadezer , @Jacob , @Troisnyx , @AceMantra , and @Glassedhouse . You guys helped out so much to not only provide feedback for numerous pieces, but also helped with running the competition at times where I had something to ask about. While I am considered the main organizer, it was you five who provided the most insight with this competition, and I cannot thank you guys enough.
• Our artist for this year's promo art, @travsaus - for those who don't know, Trav is a really active Newgrounder that has provided art for other places across the site, including the past Supporter advertisements for those who haven't purchased Supporter status (speaking of which, why not take the time to do that? ). If you haven't already, go check out his stuff and take a look at the art at the bottom of this post and on it's dedicated page!
• @Xinxinix for helping to arrange the finale show on late notice - I cannot thank you enough for making the final moments of the competition some great ones!
• Of course, you - whether you just took the time to look out of curiosity or participated in some rounds, your support for both the competition and its competitors mean a lot, and it helps to bring out talent that is worth your time and ears.

Before I go, I of course do owe an apology for how bumpy this year went in comparison to other years. Yes, I know I've been judging for the past couple of years, but what happened were things that I hope to either avoid or provide insight for in the next years. I'm hoping to continue my support for the competition, whether it's as a host or as a judge, and from this year the only direction to go is up. I hope to see you all around next year, but until then, I hope to see you sooner around the site, wherever it may be.

Promo art done by travsaus - again, go check out their works and consider following and supporting them!

[LD-W]

Thank you for hosting the contest this year! I wasn't expecting to get as far as I did (let alone scrape the 1st Place Win!) since I've had an admittedly flaky past with being able to commit to entries in NGADM without scrapping them 3 days before deadline (something which I've managed to avoid this time around!), and also cursed to never progress beyond the early rounds. I half-destroyed myself doing that finals entry this year, so I'm definitely not commiting that level of hours to a single project ever again in a 2 week period haha. Everyone who competed done some very solid work this year, very tough competition!

I took some pretty big risks doing projects like A Wasteland Dream and The Tridecahedron Blood Summoning, since I had 0 clue as to how projects of those types would be recieved by the judges at all, and are almost-firsts for me in those types of project directions. I'm hoping to do more like them in the future though based off of reception! Exoskeleton Deathmatch for sure though back in Round 1 was by far the funnest one to make, still rotating it in my playlists!

I'll hopefully see alot of you next year for NGADM 2022, with me either as an observer, judge or something else ;)