the contest has finish & the constant spaming naming names has finish.

i got some really great news FF4 IOS be comming soon as you know what you don't know is i read be out world wide on 20th december. ^_^

dark_js: The competitions it's very very interesting. SE should make a Final Fantasy with a story based on this XDDDDD

And as for me, i undestand the problem about de loopholes and i won't ask more about it, but it's a pity that tifita lose :(

Congratulations, Randis, because you deserve it so, and enjoy with the first prize.

Viento84 -> I'm glad you did like my collection :) ! I spend a lot of time searching for those figures (I sadly don't have unlimited money so I must search for bargains ^^). Specially the ragnaroks ! I'm happy having amazed you :) !

I also liked your video, the domino idea was really original ! And you've got so many games (I only own one copy of each title not even having them on multiple supports - except some rare exceptions : I guess we have different priorities in the FF goodies ^^) ! But seriously I'm such a maniac with my games that I would never have dare done that, I would fear a box getting damaged xD ! Anyway it was really cool and you really managed to retrace the final fantasy chronology within a minute, congrats ! :)

Well, the contest is almost finished and it's a fact that RANDIS is a fair winner. He shows up de perfect mix between the most awesome collection (collection I've been following via facebook long time ago) and a life style inspired by Final Fantasy as a designer (designs I've also been following). Indeed, it was enough honour for me to be in the final contest. #6 is more than I expected when I started to record my video.

Every time I played RANDIS video, I saw a new collector's item more incredible than in the last reproduction: Judge Helmet, Chocobo WSC, a black FFII, the FFV vendor box, music box, FF:SW Seiko Watch... amazing. (Hey, enjoy the FF Vinyls ;) )

It's a pity that TIFITA lost at the end of the contest, she also has a great video. I listened long time ago all of Final Fantasy videos she put over the internet, and all of them are really awesome. It's like listening a random piano collection. And another thing that people don't know is that she started a campaign to support my video, and this is something that I appreciated so much. May be one day she could play piano with Uematsu and fulfill her dream... who knows?

I also was deep impressed by CHOCOBOZERO's video. Not only for the great stuff (same applies here as Randis' video: FFVIII Minidisc, the cold casts, Yuna's Wedding! ...), but also the events involved like the request for Ihis girlfriend's hand in a Distant Worlds (If I do that to my girlfriend I'll get a slap in the face)

And finally, special mention to ARME_EMERAUD for his merchandising collection. I was impressed with the 2 cold casts and the 2 ragnaroks! Holly ghost! What an amazing collection!

Enjoy the VIPs tickets for the concert, RANDIS, I met Uematsu in London one month ago and it was an unforgettable experience. He signed the vinyl I show at the beginning of my video.

Thanks everyone who voted me and thanks SQEX for let me be in the Final Fantasy History as one of the 24 candidates to be the first Superfan.

-Viento84

Hi,

I've been reading lots of the messages. I'm really sad to see how Tifita's fanclub is acting here (at least Dorothy finished by excusing herself !). But I'm really glad to see that every finalist that have come here to express themself (including Tifita) have done it in order to calm down the situation and with words full of wisdom (specially Randis and Arme_Emeraude who really impress me by saying what they said knowing how hard other people were talking on them) ! It's great to see that there's a good spirit in the 24 superfans that our now representing so nicely this wonderful saga that is Final Fantasy !

Ben Bateman -> I've also read that people are now asking for rank 2 and 3 to gain something more than the announced prize. In my opinion this would be unfair. I mean the SuperFan rank #4 may have gave up because he knew he will not win, maybe would he have continue if he knew something could be win for rank #3. Changing the rules during the contest doesn't look fair to me. But sincerly I watch all the 24 videos and I trully have seen 24 SuperFans ! They all seem to have dedicated lot of their time to Final Fantasy and have done the effort to do their own video. They're not all as good but all of them doesn't have the same material and knowledge to create videos ! They all did their best ! I also noticed that lot of them collect Final Fantasy things (well kind of logic..). I don't know what contains the goodies bag they will all receive, but if it "only" contains things that every one can buy easily on the internet it would be sad for them. I think they all can be proud to have represented so well the Square most famous franchise and that they deserve something, even really small saying that they had been to the worldwide SuperFan Final Fantasy final and that no one else can have ! All of them ! But sure something not comparable to the secret prize for the winner ! As I said, many of them collect FF stuff, I'm sure something you can not buy would have so much value in their eyes event if it's small (and actually cheap for SE ^^) !
It seems clear that it is a honor for them to have made it to the final, but really the honor should be for Square-Enix to have fans who are that much devoted ! This little idea would, in my opinion be a nice way to say "Thank You" to all of them !

Wow, this is certanly an interesting competition XD Can´t wait to see who wins
Anyway, for finalists like myself that have no hopes of winning this now(currently nº19 and very proud of it ^^) Do we get a goodie bag? If so......what´s in it? Or is it a surprise?

I am the only responsible for my own words. Please do not blame tifita for what I have said in this forum. I am sorry if I have upset any of you. I wish the best to all the participants.

I have to agree with BloodyKefka about Arme_Emeraude's votes. I don't understand how the votes were higher than the views by around 300, and then the view count increased by around 10,000 in just one day.

BUT... I'm not saying that the user had done it. In fact, I'm more than happy to see Arme_Emeraude (and Randis and tifita) actually come on here to say what they have. I think they've handled it really well (especially after the way some people on here talked to Randis) and they have my full respect because of that. I would like to know what happened though. Because I'm really confused about what is going on here with the whole vote/view inflation thing (I'm studying Computing and I don't even get it myself so...).

Well this certainly has been an interesting 25th Anniversary celebration xD Let's just relax, enjoy and join in with what's left of the celebrations.

Hello Ben.

"I think it's important to remember that you don't have to watch the video to vote on the person. "

I know, but was a huge diference between the votes and the clicks. For this I thinked that it was very weird. But these things are from the past, and Arme_Emeraude had admited it. I don't worry about that.

This is for you, Arme_Emeraude: I was one who thinks that you had hacked or had cheated the votes, but if you say that you didn't it, i beleive you. I beg your pardon. I studied Computer Science so and I have got a little knowledge about those things (a little).

If Arme_Emeraude isn't the responsible, I don't know what happend. Maybe there is technical problems or another dificults that forces SE to make that decisions. Because of this, I beg for SE aclares all soon.

I

@ Adrathor: Hey guys, i’m happy that you mounted on my troll as fastest as possible, it was just to know the famous guys/”fanatics” that I mentioned earlier, and I’m sorry about using this ridiculous trap to know something.
Yes she makes a blog, a nice one, because maintain to the top this sort of site is a hard work, this is really impressive, and I congratulate her for this!
She have her proper game too, a final fantasy she mentioned? Not fear about the copyright? :-)
But there’s not only one participant, don’t forget that, this is a contest, so please consider each participants as a human who made a video to try to win the first place. Not a cheating competitor.
There were some peoples who are trying to cheat for the contest, but I don’t think this came directly from participants, I don’t think Titifa or Arme_Emeraude made fake account to improve their scores! But their neighborhood or knowledge who tried to help them.
On this words, I hope now everything will calm down with rumors, cheats and stopping to speak on participants, S-E is here and watch if there’s something strange or wrong, let them make their work correctly, if you find something suspicious write them by mail, and please, don’t rotted these comments which are meant to encourage participants, not make them down.
I already congratulate each participant and the 24 finalists!
Long life to final fantasy !

Hi all,

I'm the creator of the video submitted by Arme_Emeraude.

I have contacted Square in order to have information on why my votes have been removed and they explain me the situation. I understand that they have been looking were the votes came from (for me and all the other superfan) and it appears that lots of mine where not legit so they have taken them out. I admit it and find it fair. I also trully thanks them for not disqualifying me as I was not aware about that ! I'm really, just as the other finalists, a huge fan of final fantasy and have spend thousands of hours playing them, creating things about them and raising up items for my collection. I trully didn't want that people who support me start cheating.

But there are things that I do not admit.
I do not admit that because I have studied computer sciences people who appearantly know nothing about computers (or maybe what they see in movies and series, that's to mean nothing) call me a cheater and start saying that I programmed a bot to create votes for me. Seriously, creating a bot that can read the captchas of square enix would be REALLY impressive ! Square told me what trick was used on my votes. I'm not gonna reveal it cause that could only give bad ideas to other people for other contests, but really it's something that you all could have done !

I also don't admit that when S-E take out my vote people are claiming that I should be disqualify but when another candidate's illegal votes are removed the same people claims it as an attack against a country or even the people talking a language. Please be fair to the end. I admit that my votes were apparently cheated and that it was fair not to having them, but it must be fair for everyone ! I have no doubt that S-E has been investigating the votes. As you said I'm a programmor, I really can imagine what the database of the votes looks like and I'm sure that if they have taken votes out of severals candidates it was because it was sure that hey weren't legit. I even read about going to the european court to make things right ? Is this serious ?? If yes please make your acts reflet your words, but I beg you go with a camera and post the video on the internet ! I would love to see thaht !

I do not admit people saying I said how to cheat on a french forum ! I do admit that people supporting me noticed on a forum that you could create an account without confirming it and still your vote was counted. But I clearly said to them no to do it. That those votes will clearly no be counted at the end and that the best way to spend time helping me was to ask their friends to vote for me. If you don't know french, please don't talk about what you don't understand !

I also don't admit reading that once my votes were taken out I started cheating for Randis ! Seriously ?? Why am I suppose to do everything wrong ?? Come on tifita got a thousand votes not legit and nobody says nothing, but for me I must be the sin of everithing ? In a way that point was real ! Yes I did vote for Randis once I lost my votes. I vote for him with my personnal S-E account because I love his video and I like his attitude toward all those problems. I also voted for Chocobozero, IMO he has the most impressive collection and his video is very nicely done !

Talking about Chocobozero I also like a lot his spririt in his post here we're all here to celebrate final fantasy anniversary ! So please let's do that without fighting ! It's normal to report things to Square-Enix if you have seen something suspicious in the votes but really trust them, they know what they are doing !

I apologize again for what happened with my votes. Have fun playing Final Fantasy and congrats to the winner and all the other contestants !

Sincerly,
Alex

Ben, I think it goes against the FF play spirit that only one person wins, why don't you choose the first 3, like the FF teams? xD

It would be nice if the #2 and #3 most voted finalists receive a consolation prize. Something better than just a 41$ goodie bag. For example, a commemorative plaque, or a free copy of the next Final Fantasy game or a bigger goodie bag.

The extra cost would be ridiculous for a big company like S-E, and it would a great detail. After all, these fans have put great effort into promoting the name of Final Fantasy in their respective countries.

What do you think?

The contest was poorly organized with Inadequate safety, is disappointing.

I congratulate all the 25 contestants, they deserve greater recognition than just one person above all others.

Keurkouille: Yes, being able to play the piano is not proof to be the biggest fan. Neither is being a good illustrator like Randis. But tifita has run a blog devoted to FF for 4 years, without expecting nothing in return (http://finalsworld.com). In case you didn't know, running a blog about a specific theme such as "FF" requieres a lot of devotion and hardwork. Have you ever consider that? She also has a Youtube channel where she has been recording FF covers for years.

Ben Baterman: When you click on "vote", the video starts playing automatically. Even if you don't pay attention to the video, I think that Youtube counts it as a view.

By the way, tifita uploaded a copy of her video to her own Youtube account, where she has 3600 additional views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXLlUPavCbo

Regards

Arme_Emeraude earn hundreds and thousands of votes everyday, but the number of clicks for watch his video doesn't increase. The votes and clicks for the spanish participants are more regular.

I want to think that SE make the best decision but i feel better that it explain what is the problem.

But it Ramdis wins, don't problem, beacuse he deserves it.

I´m spanish and I respect all the spanish, europeans and all over the world fans and its great videos, they are very good! But I must say I support Randis because I think his FF collection is amazing as well as his artwork and I hope he wins. Congrats to everyone for their videos!

Hi all,
I follow the contest since the beginning and seriously, this is sad to see how some "fanatics" speack and launch so many rumours on other participant. Hopefully S-E have a look on all mails and try to makes this contest as fair as possible.
First, Arme_Emeraude (and the other french participants) was the first guys to loose all their weird votes, and ? This is normal! Have they said something about that ?
But all the "fanatics" said, yes he's programmer, he's a cheater, he have to code some bot to increase his votes... pathetic, when you are programmer like i am, you know that there's so many trap to know how someone can cheat, and you dont do that.
After, there were another butcher hit on the votes of the other participants, including Titifa and then the storm has been launched ! She loose more than 1.000 votes because S-E made their work correctly, so now why "fanatics" said it's a personnal attack against spanish poeple ? Why they can't only approve the decision of S-E ? And why are them attacking personnaly Randis where everything looks fine yet ?
The worl say : French poeple are the biggest weeping when something goes wrong... but we found something bigger than the french :)

Personnaly i play all final fantasy music on piano/keyboard very well... and i'm not alone to do this. and for me it's not a proof to be the biggest fan :)

At least thanks for make me laugh et thanks to S-E to make their job correctly.
And please calm down it's only a contest! You win congrats, You loose accept this.

I voted for Tifta based purely on the fact that she is extremely talented as well as a HUGE Final Fantasy fan. Even if she doesn't win, to me she is going to be the biggest FF Fan! It's all just a bit of fun, it's sad that some people have to ruin it. But congratulations to who ever wins!

Nothing to much to say about this but you guys should know, Randis is a great popular guy and a great guy like that have great popular friends and on and on as well, an effect from massive network of that is easy to understand, the vote not only come from his friends but his friends's friends. We love the guy and we dont hesitate to use our source of connections to help him, one social network post and there will be lots of people answer the call. So please dont hate or accuse Randis for being "popular", if you know how much he works and help people in past years you will see that's very natural for being loved by many.

Personally I feel sad when seeing Randis have to explain that to people

Hello. I'm a spanish user who has voted for Tifita. I have note that every spanish partipant of the contest have got less votes than yesterday. Why? They don't playing by the rules?

I don't acuse nobody, but it's a bit weird. I wish that SE aclares everything.

Just had quick butchers at the placings it look like we got clear winner congrats randis after SE adjust all the votes there still time however I discover I voted twice it did not tell me I already made the vote I voted for randis and for the 2nd place.

I think they I'd not told me the message you already made that vote no email address was asked to put in for vote I'm useing the iPad but that does not make a different.

So SE you may have to tell me is that normal do we need a email to cast a vote or is it the norm.

Hi all!
I was one of the first people who wrote to S-E reporting the loopholes the last week. I also asked S-E to investigate all the votes (including my own votes) and to remove all the irregular ones. So I played fairly.

I'm sure that S-E will handle this and will do and will take a fair course of action. So please, calm down, this is just a game after all. Anyway, I'm very happy with all the support I've recieved these days from the media.
Thank you all!

Attacking Spain? Really now... -_-
Ben's given a fine explanation of what happened and I trust SE to play fairly.

@Dorothy

Não sei porquê o Ben retirou esses votos da Tifita, mas acreditar que a SE está a atacar a Espanha não passa de nacionalismo idiota, e honestamente já enjôa.

Aside from Reddit and Facebook, Randis also has a DeviantART account with the number of watchers nearing a million. He has been advertising the link on his recent art submissions and each one is netting hundreds (in some cases thousands) of views within hours of submitting. It shouldn't be much of a stretch to come to the conclusion that it's likely that this is where his recent votes are coming from.

Square-Enix con esa decisión arbitraria le ha faltado el respeto a todo el gentilicio de un país, el ataque fue contra todos los españoles, e incluso contra los hispanoparlantes, no exclusivamente contra los participantes, porque es evidente que se trata de un castigo impuesto por las quejas, por ejercer el derecho humano a protestar. En estos momentos estoy contactando a muchas comunidades de ecologistas y de izquierda simpatizantes de España en Francia, para que vayan a protestar el día del evento a las puertas del concierto por esa discriminación arbitraria. Y estoy seguro que además habrá una demanda ante los tribunales de la Unión Europea.

No preguntes, Gubra, tan solo recuerda con que compañía estás tratando y de qué país somos :6)

Hey Ben, mind explaining why tifita has suddenly ~1000 votes less? not that I'm complaining, but it would be nice to know. Possible error of the counter/mistake?

You took away 1k votes to Tifita and done nothing to Randis? Good job, SE. You continue in the same disappointing way of the last years.

No he visto concurso más fraudulento que este en toda mi vida, y he visto varias ediciones de Eurovisión . . .

I feel really sorry for Randis for getting in the neck from the SE community before Randis was mention it was the other person being name that tells me whoever was winning you get someone to target the next in line.

but the constant spaming on here is Not helping either, I bet SE next time while they do a vote contest they be watching around not just the votes & not even here [SE-blog] but the forums too SE arms are quite large so they Reach and take action.

what we should be doing is ask The SE some tough questions are we getting FF-type0 or Not?

Hey Dorothy,

You make some good points, and you are right to wonder about the recent help that Randis is getting. I think (hope!) I can give you a satisfying answer. Basically I'm supporting Randis in the contest and last night I posted on reddit.com asking for people to vote. It was clear in my post that I think Randis should win, but also I hope it was clear that, above all, I think everyone should vote for who they think should win, even if it's not Randis.

Certainly my stated choice probably influenced votes towards Randis, but even in this case, it's not different than finding support in a blog or major local newspaper, just as Tifita has done. In fact, Tifita herself had asked for votes on reddit just a few days prior.

Anyway, my request for support on reddit has helped Randis (and others - not all votes went to Randis!), and the attention the request received accounts for Randis' latest round of votes. My post went to a "subreddit" that has more than 2 million subscribers, and it was on the front page for the whole day. Like you, I abhor cheaters, and we shut that idea down fast the few times even a hint of it croped up.

So yes, Randis did get a lot of votes today, but it was because of my reddit post, and not because somebody is cheating for him. I hope that clears things up!

btw, I think Tifita's entry is great and I think she is very deserving of super-fan recognition. I don't know her personally, but I can see from what she's written that she is a really cool person to boot! It's clear to see why she is so popular. I wish her luck, but I fear she might not need it! :)

I think we shall focus on the right topic. Aren't we celebrating the FF 25th birthday?
We all love FF and just wanna be part of the celebration event.
I was so excited when Ben contact me that I am in the list.
It is really an honor to be chosen in the finalist.
Therefore, as a "Super Fan", shouldn't we focus more on sending our best wish to our favorite game instead of doubt on each other here?
I am sorry that someone did something to mass out the contest,
BUT IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!!
Please report to SE if something is abnormal and let the IT admin to handle this.
This is the FINAL FANTASY ANNIVERSARY EVENT blog, not a court, Please don't judge here.
I don't believe anyone here is surpass nor under others.

WE ARE ALL GREAT FAN!!!! Please don't ruin the FAN title.

So, can we get back to the topic and say happy birthday to our beloved game?
I am sure SE will do their job and handle the problem.

Btw. hello everyone, nice to meet you guys. Whoever like my video and vote for me, I THANK YOU!!!
I am gonna fly to Chicago this Friday. Can't wait for the celebration concert and we will have our first ever Super Fan announce too. It will be a AWESOME weekend!!!!

Cheers!

Well, why Randis stood in the competition?
I really don't mind who will be the winner, but a cheater one?
What a pest...

And please, if you don't want to disqualify Randis (something that personally, him a arme_emeraude must be done, because is a pity that the 4th most voted is a looser and a cheater) then please, do something.


Thanks.

Regards.

Greetings everyone.

Nobody doubts about the talent as an illustrator that Randis posses, and nodody doubts he must no doubt have his followers, he is in fact a contestant worthy of our respect, as it is apparent he has a great love for Final Fantasy. However, there´s an anomalous situation with the behavior of his votes this past two days, nobody can control the influx of votes in such a precise and mechanical way to reach a certain score to then slow down and stabilize after reaching that goal in a matter of minutes. No matter how many supporters he has, people are not like ants to be directed in that way, and with the precedent of arme emeraude is not far fetched to believe that someone is using tricks to taint the contest. Randis himself hasn´t got to be who is behind this, but that blind defense of all his votes against logic and mathematics don´t help the investigation nor its credibility.

I trust that the good judgement and professionalism of the contest organizers will prevail at the end.

About Tifita I have to say that she is a humble and honest teacher that works hard to earn her living, but even with her hardships she finds the time to recreate the Final Fantasy music she loves, growing as a human being. She lacks the resources to travel to France to the Ueematsu concert, and thus this is her only hope to go, and many of us support her to achieve that goal. I´m not from Spain, I´m from South America, and she helps us living in this forsaken by Square-Enix corner of the world feel represented somehow. There are quite a few Final Fantasy fans here, believe it or not.

Randis is the only person deserving of this title. lol, haters gonna gate.

I have follow Randis art since years, and all i have to say he has been a huge inspiration for my work and he has proven several times to be a huge FF fan. You guys should really chill out a little.

And Adrathor, Randis has proven he is a "popular guy" with real numbers of followers in social networks and Artists communities.

He is a extremely talented artist with a lot of followers, is that his fault .__O?

I trust in the sense of justice and professionalism of the organizers of the competition

Jukebaum, arme emeraude is programmer, and participated in a French forum on how to defraud the competition.

Okay guys. Chill out please. Accusations over accusations here.
The votes were just purged and probably not because of accusations.

Everyone CAN vote several times if they think it helps but there are several ways of finding out if there is vote fraud. For example same IP region for many votes in a row, same IP overall, email-adresses named "emailadress1","emailadress2".. and maaany more.

I understand that some people might think that now someone else is cheating when their favorite is losing but come on.
SE is not some little company with no IT specialists...
and accusing emeraude now that he always did it? What if a over zealous fan did it for him because he thought he should win?

No one knows that, what we know is that SE is doing a great job keeping people from doing that because of that people don't win directly on the 7th of december but the votes close..after that SE will take it's time again and look if the votes are truthfully given.

Now please stop whining. Thank you

Isoriai, ok, stop