A while back, Shapeways announced their Valve Design Contest and asked the community to submit their entries for Valve merchandise ideas, and announced the winners today on their website.Â
The prize pool is nothing short of wonderful for Team Fortress 2 enthusiasts. The grand prize winner wins a coveted TF2 Grey Medic statue and $500 in Shapeways printing credit, and four additional runners up also won TF2 statues and $100 in Shapeways printing credit. They also received the Team Fortress 2 soundtrack on both CD and LP.
You can see all the entries that were picked HERE:Â https://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/36508-announcing-winners-valve-design-contest.html
Many fantastic fanworks of Valveâs IPs were submitted and considered, and weâre happy that so many people contributed. That being said, weâre also proud to see that a Team Fortress 2 entry has taken first place - and itâs a very meaningful winner too. Created by ring enthusiast James âUniverse Becomingâ Kincaid, itâs a silver ring connected by all the Team Fortress 2 class emblems.Â
Shapeways described what made the entry the grand prize winner, praising Kincaidâs ideology and thought process behind its creation:Â
This ring by longtime Shapeways member Universe Becoming celebrates the camaraderie of a team. Itâs based on the first-person shooter Team Fortress® 2. The circles contain the logos of the nine emblems that represent the nine different classes in the game. Universe Becoming went above and beyond by taking a beautiful photo to show off the gorgeous polished silver finish.
Additionally, Kincaid also made several more rings that can be found and purchased on his profile HERE, including these stunning HL and CS:GO rings.
The 4th Place runner-up is also a TF2 entry that truly deserves recognition by the most engineered of engineers: a miniature sentry gun created by model miniature designer Neemesh âPsychobob Artsâ Patel that not only is very accurate in design, but itâs accurate in its ability to upgrade itself!Â
Shapeways described their runner-up choice by praising the technicality behind Patelâs model, as well as the craftsmanship:Â
What truly makes these special is the way the sentry can be upgraded physically to its different levels, and the lovely paint job Psychobob Arts did for each one. This model is a fantastic example of translating objects that originally existed only in a virtual world in the physical one.
Psychobob Artsâ Shapeways page and merchandise can be found on their profile HERE.
What do you think about the silver class emblem ring, as well as the miniature buildable sentry?
