Blizzard Entertainment Opens its 2010 Global Writing Contest

Blizzard Entertainment has announced the 2010 Blizzard Global Writing Contest. All interested parties are invited to join – whether you are an accomplished writer or just someone who writes fictions as a hobby – don’t be shy!

They have also listed the winners of 2009 Blizzard Global Writing Contest! Congratulations to the following:

Grand Winner

“In the Shadow of the Sun” by Anonymous

Seven Finalists

“The Baron’s Bird” by Andrew Moeller (Warcraft)

“Into the Void” by Benjamin P. Reeves (Warcraft)

“Why We Fight” by Jason Matthew Rodriguez (StarCraft)

“The Flag of the Black King” by Erik Sabol (Diablo)

“Where Loyalties Lie” by Michael Edmund O’Reilly (StarCraft)

“The Last Days of Crank Fizzlepop” by Sean Riley (Warcraft)

“Kuma’s Song” by Tzu-Mainn Chen (Warcraft)

You truly deserve to be the winners! To those who want to read these winning entries, they have been made available to the general public here: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/contests/writing/

However, only the grand winner’s short story was posted in full. The other finalists’ entries are in excerpts. Also, Blizzard is encouraging anyone who will be entering this year’s competition to check them out so you get an idea on how to present your creative works.

Natives and non native English speakers are welcome to join as long as your short story is well-written and grammatically correct. Of course, all contests have certain rules to follow. Don’t worry! They’re not that difficult.

First, submitted stories must be 2,500 to 7,500 words in length written in English and set in the Warcraft, StarCraft, or Diablo universe. No story may be shorter or longer than the range specified above or they’ll be disqualified.

Second, your story must have a title. And no, “Untitled” does not count as a valid entry title.

Third, this is a contest for short fictional stories. Therefore, poems or other non-structured entries are without a doubt, unlikely to win and wouldn’t be able to pass the screening in the first place.

Fourth, entries must be a complete short story. No “to be continued” types.

Fifth, submit all entries in plain text and in white background. Stick with a simple but readable font. Giving write-ups with outlandish artistic elements such as fancy fonts and/or background images will give the judges headaches.

Sixth, submissions are required to be in .DOC format only.

Very simple rules but you must adhere to them to get past the first screening. Also, you better start writing your short story now so you won’t be late submitting it as the deadline for submission of entries is set on August 23, 2010. Mark your calendars so you won’t forget!

The awards for this contest are the same as last year’s.  The grand prize winner will be granted an all-expense paid trip to Blizzard’s headquarters in southern California. He or she will also have the option of choosing between a Diablo III “OVERTHROWN” barbarian diorama and a Frostmourne sword as an additional price/gift.

For the seven runners-ups, each will receive a prize package of the Diablo Archive, the Warcraft Archive, the StarCraft Archive, and the Warcraft: War of the Ancients Archive. All of which are signed by Chris Metzen, the cover artists and the Blizzard’s writing staff.