Boy, you guys did not make this easy at all. In the end, we ended up receiving nominations for over 30 different Honorably Mentioned artists from forum members and the staff judges for the three available wildcard spots. Going over the scores from previous rounds didn't help much because each of the artists had some pretty amazing works. If I could, I'd create a whole bunch of wildcard spots for all of you and let the readers do the eliminating, but then OmniArt 2005 would end up lasting until 2008 or so.

In the end, it was a combination of the judges' nominations and nominations from RPGamer readers that helped narrow things down to just a handful of contestants. From there, it was up to lil ol' me to make the final determination. Making the final picks did not come easily at all. Just when I thought I had made up my mind, I would take a look at another piece and reconsider. Ultimately, the artists that were selected for these three wildcard places were picked because we felt they had the best chance out of all the Honorable Mentions of making it to the final three contestants in the December round. If you weren't selected to be one of the 21 finalists in this year's OmniArt contest, it certainly does not mean you weren't up to the challenge or your work was in any way inferior to those of the other artists. I hope to see each and every one of you entering into next year's OmniArt competition, details of which will be revealed later this year.

On to the wildcard picks! I will admit that the first choice for a wildcard was not a very hard one to make. The closest difference between a third and fourth place piece was back in Round Five, the wedding-themed round. I was personally surprised when that piece didn't place in the top three, but I was glad to see so many nominations for the artist of that piece from judges and readers. So I am thrilled to award the first wildcard spot to Nosseren for her absolutely stunning Valkyrie Profile piece entitled "What might have been."

At this point, I think I started to cry like a little girl at the prospect of having to pick just two more wildcard contestants. Once again, the judges and readers made it ever so slightly easier by mentioning the next wildcard contestant's name a number of times in their recommendations, and she received bonus points in my book for entering two of the preliminary rounds. You may remember her from Round One for a delightful Sephie'd Tifa and Aerith and Round Two for a gorgeous Magna Carta summon. Let's everyone give a round of applause to our second OmniArt wildcard, Megs!

So it comes down to this. One more slot left and dozens of artists each worthy of it. I don't think anyone would blame me if I broke out the 20-sided die on this one, because this was the hardest choice to ever make in any contest ever in the whole history of the universe. I must have talked to three-quarters of the staff looking for opinions to help make this pick a little easier, but they were equally split between several artists. I went to sleep last night and had dreams about being attacked by artwork screaming "Pick me! Pick me!" and I would yell back "Entering my dreams to influence the wildcard decision is a clear violation of the rules! You're all disqualified!" And then a giant blue elephant appeared and talked to me about his journey through time.

Oh, sorry. The third wildcard spot goes to Xavier Garcia for his fantastic Chrono Trigger cast entry in the black & white round. Forum member and OmniArt 2005 finalist Maiji said it best in her nomination of Xavier...

I know from first-hand experience how ridiculously difficult it is to squeeze an entire cast of characters into one picture, while making it look interestng, cohesive and proportionate. Not only that, Xavier's entry exhibits some amazing linework. A lot of artists can NOT do linework very well, and hide behind fancy colouring, and when their work gets stripped down to the basics, you can tell. I am blown away by the details and textures like hair, fabric, metal, wood, which all look great. The entire piece is so bold and full of life. If Xavier could do something this fantastic and professional without support of a background or colours, I can only imagine what kind of awesome entry we can expect to see for the finals ...!

Congratulations to Nosseren, Megs, Xavier, and the other 18 OmniArt finalists! Your fate is now in the hands of the RPGamer viewing audience.

Two quick notes before we close things out for tonight. First, any artists who wish to participate in the challenges of the final rounds are welcome to do so for the fun and experience. Obviously those submissions won't be eligible for the contest, but we'll put them up along with the contest entries. You can expect some grueling challenges, but they should prove to be a lot of fun and give everyone who participates some big experience points to their Artist job class. Er, what did I just say?

Also, a quick reminder to the OmniArtists and any other interested artists and readers that you can join us in the Fan Art IRC channel on Thursday night (around 8pm PST) to learn what the challenge for the first round of the finals will be a day ahead of everyone else. Check out the RPGamer IRC FAQ and Java IRC client to get you going with that.

See you all again in just a few short days!