2024 SC Formation Finalists

I was very excited at another opporunity to sponsor a prompt this year, though I must admit I was a little nervous because military formations are certainly not my area of expertise. But first and foremost, as I would with any other prompt, I looked for creative responses--touching stories, mysteries that make me want to read more, and clever ideas I wish I had come up with myself.

I use a bracket system to judge. This helps me keep my sanity by focusing on two articles at a time. And though it does mean a roll of the dice could have given me a slightly different finalists bracket, I am confident the winner could have come out on top no matter what. During Summer Camp, I lurked amongst these articles, only commenting if I noticed particularly confusing sentences or formatting errors to give the writers a chance to fix them before judging began. Then I used a random number generator to place all the competing articles into 16 brackets. The winner of each bracket went into a finalists bracket, and from there, a first place was chosen.

I believe there were 237 articles for me to judge this year! And I noticed some trends I felt like sharing with you:

• No less than eight articles were specifically about libraries or archives. I didn't expect this many librarians lurking in your formations, but looking back on it, I feel like I should have.
• The dominant color among the articles seemed to be green. I didn't actually count these, but the greens seemed a lot more prominant than other colors.
• The vast majority of people interpreted "guard" as meaning "protect." The number of people who wrote about groups more along the lines of prisonguards were in the single digits.
• Finally, with so many elite formations, I particularly enjoyed running across the small number of articles about shlubs who had a job to do and were only in it for the paycheck.

And the Winner is...

Reading The Flower Guard literally gave me the shivers. I love how Paul Norris managed to twist the prompt so that literally, the Flower Guard protects nothing, but because of the cultural significance of the flower the princess found, they metaphorically protect everything. The article does double-duty with this by opening with a quote claiming that if The Flower Guard falls, the castle will fall, and only explaining that the significance of this quote at the end, thus providing a bait-and-switch in a good way.

The Finalists (AKA The Shortlist)

These were really tough to judge, and several times, I had to go away and come back because I just couldn't decide. But I finally decided the articles below were the best of their brackets. They include some ideas I wish I had come up with myself (but probably never would have) and some that I think deserve a lot more love than they've gotten.

World Smithy's article is thoroughly written, painting a grim picture of an all too realistic police force that is tainted by corruption and all to often harms the most vulnerable of their society, rather than protecting them.

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for steampunk aesthetics and trains. Rumengol's article quickly painted a picture of a tense setting and made me sympathetic toward Matthias, the railroader mentioned in the opening scene.

Simply put, Serukis was the only Anvilite to write about guarding cheese. I enjoyed the unique take on the prompt, as well as the way the position of the Cheeseguard looked different at different points in history.

Since I don't know most folks' pronouns, I tried to use they/them for everybody. If I messed up, of if you're in here and would prefer other pronouns, let me know, and I will change it!

And these are some articles that stood out to me for one reason or another, even if they got beaten in their individual brackets (aka...

The Longlist

• Knightguards by CruiserCrusher


• Sycophants by Smokingbat7906


• The Arms of the Protector by elsbeth87


• Trappers by Butcher of Seville


• Earth Defense Guard by Frodo0_Baggins


• Widower Knights by Hanhula


• Guard by Jacob-w


• Art Preservation Agency by Absinthe


• Their Majesties of Ancient Power Empire Royal Guards by HunterChristmas1247


• The Royal Protection by Shalyn


• The Brainless by Escritora Novata


• The Wysterian Border Guard by RPGDinosaurBob


• Ordergarde by Csor96


• Weyland-Yutani's Dog Catchers by D3vilmade


• City Watch by Vibeca


• Les Gardiens de d'Avarichesse by Alyvins


• Metvardia by DM Eilers


• Wardens of the Written Word by Tillerz


• Techguard by BCGR_Wurth


• Zaeternas Prinzessinnengarde by Nightmane


• The Light-Blessed by Kwyn Marie


• Tagapangalaga ng Aten by Demongrey

Also, Tajh1r wasn't competing, but I enjoyed reading about their Elysian Guard who are chosen, rather than recruited, and feel this article could use some more love too <3

One of the few articles with a unit made up of (non-sapient) animals, as well as one of the least expected, TLCassis had me laughing at the sheer insanity of training wild birds to protect the local temples.

Simple put, I found Thereasonwhy's prose beautiful to read. They also included their own artwork, which always impressed me.

Machiavelli3060 took one of the most unique takes on the formation prompt, creating not a military, but a beaurocracy who protect their people not with weapons, but propaganda (and dragon-shaped kites).

Perhaps the cutest response to this prompt, Moonlight Bard's article makes me want to move right into the world.

I really enjoyed the 1st person narrative style WantedHero chose to write their article in. Very different from the wikipedia-like entries that I myself typically use, it still gets across all the salient details of both the unit and the world at large.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Moonlight Bard's article, Endrise's is terrifying to read. And that is the very reason it stuck with me.

At first glance, Shaaman's article is reminiscent of the King's Guard in England--not talking, not moving, except for their duties. But unlike the King's Guard, no one is quite sure who (or what) they are.

Wordigirl's article sticks to a given theme, with "spikes" and "spines" that make up the Cacti formation. (And for those familiar with her world, they are also responsbile for literally guarding "Someone.")

Like WantedHero, I enjoyed The Big G's narrative style for their article. With the alternations between 3rd person POV and the swarm's report, the cultural differences make this group particularly interesting.

I'll admit, reading this one made me realize that I had I gotten around to answering this prompt myself, I could have written about teachers. In short, I was touched that jylietz chose to write about a group that protected children.

SableAradia's connection to the Game of Tomes made this article a fun romp. It also hit a little too close to home, seeing as I'm not alwasy good at self-care myself.

A third article written in narrative (anyone starting to notice a pattern?), I really enjoyed reading drunkenpanda951's story, which I feel wound up and delivered perfectly on its ending.