hey guys, how's it going? Belton here. I am super excited to announce a cash prize Community competition open to all. This is an idea that I've had for over two years, and I've gone back and forth with gg about, that has always been on the back of my mind, and today I finally thought of a way to tie it all together nicely where no rules will be broken, and the core values, spirit, and ideals of this endeavor we're meant to represent will be showcased perfectly. Races and Poe have always been focused on leveling, boss killing, or campaign clearing, and they've brought about the best in the community as a whole, and they've elevated a certain niche in the game that persists well into this day. My favorite part of Poe, and arguably an equal, if not greater, partner to leveling. Point allocation, build makeup, and Gem choices are the items campaigns. Cool making a new build is always exciting. Maps are fun, but at the end of the day, the items are what keep me coming back. I know I'm not alone in this view, in spite.

of this however there's never really been a formalized competitive environment for like-minded players to showcase their skills, passion, and creativity in this massive area of the game. And for years, I have had the joy of being able to share my items, my crafting ideas, my triumphs, frustrations, and failures with you guys here on YouTube, over on Twitch, through Discord, Guild chat, or even the odd Global One Flex. Got who admit it, the reactions and the shared experiences I've had as a result are some of my most cherished memories. And through them, I've developed a level of pride in my work as it were, and a deeper passion for the craft. Now guys, it's your time. GGG has stonewalled my attempts at launching this every time I've discussed it with them in the past. I'll leave a link to the full email below, but as you can see here, I started trying to get this going with them since 2022. Um, this is because of me wanting to provide in-game rewards like alt Tarts.

or demigods, or mirrors, or whatever for the competition. Uh, in their view, this would constitute RMT as I would effectively be trading in-game currency for viewership. As a result, I've decided to put up a cash prize personally outside of the game. No items will ever leave your possession. There are no gray areas or shady conditions for entry. No terms of service will be broken. And many of you have worked hard tirelessly, even making items, pursuing excellence, and doing it for the love of the game. I think it's time that those efforts get the attention they deserve, and the community can have some fun with it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to present y'all with the Crafter's Cup. Now, to answer the obvious question: What's the Crafter's Cup? The Crafter's Cup will be a series of different competitions showcasing the best that viewers have to offer up from their time playing Poe. The possibility exists to run this competition many, many different ways in the future, and if this inaugural attempt goes well, we will definitely do

so to keep things simple for the first round, in this iteration, we'll be doing a super simple but ever enjoyable showcase your favorite item competition. In order to submit an item, simply reply to the crafter's cup thread on the poe forums, as you can see here under item display cabinet, and follow the template laid out there. I will also, of course, link the thread in the description below this video, as well as pin the comment. The competition will be held in a tournament style single elimination bracket, as you can see here, and the submission deadline for the competition will be Wednesday, July 17th, at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. This will give you guys a few days to make your selections, submit your item, and as well as give people some time to watch the video and be made aware of the competition. It will also hopefully chip away at some of the downtime before the next League. When the deadline is up, all parties will be paired off randomly using a random number generator, and if there is an odd amount of participants

some lucky person will get a buy. Head-to-head matchups will be announced in a YouTube video, showing not only the item but the answers that the owner submitted. Accompanying the publication of the video, a reaction Discord channel will be linked in the description and comments. Those who watched will be able to see the matchups from the video, being able to cast a vote for each matchup by simply selecting item A or item B, as you can see above me here, with A referring to the first item in the photo and B referring to the second. The answers that gave during the thread will also be included below the photos so that people can read those more thoroughly. The voting window for following each matchup will be announced with the initial video, and it'll likely be somewhere between 12 and 24 hours. When the voting window is closed, the most reacted-to item of each pairing will advance to the next round. Matchups and pairings will be randomly selected again, and another video will be published on YouTube.

following uh the same rules or structure that I just detailed a minute ago eventually there'll be one item left, and they will be crowned the winner of the inaugural Crafters cup. All right, now to discuss the prize money reward, there will be a cash reward in every iteration of the crafter's cup. This, aside from providing an obvious incentive to participate, will ensure that there are no terms of service breaches or infractions containing any guidelines that have been set forth by GGG on multiple occasions. I've had back and forth conversations with them about attempting to set up a competition like this uh with in-game rewards like dummy Gods alt Arts mirrors uh or whatever establishes prizes. In no uncertain terms, I was told that I would be banned if I did so, as in their eyes, this would constitute rmt as I would effectively be using in-game items to boost my viewership, which would uh lead to Real World Financial gains. By structuring the competition the way that I have at

no point will any transaction or interaction of any kind occur within Path of Exile. Ever. You will never be dispossessed of your item, and there is no fee or requirement to participate. By using the forums as an item submission platform, I'll be able to maintain competition integrity through the verification badge that items have when they are posted by their owner, as opposed to using something like Discord or another platform where somebody could simply screenshot somebody else's item and submit it as their own. The cash prize at the end of the cup will be the accumulative revenue from each YouTube video pertaining to the Crafter's Cup. The more people that participate, the more rounds there will be needed, meaning there'll be more videos, meaning larger prize pools. Google Analytics are very precise in the revenue figures for each video, so transparency on my end will be very easy to maintain. Typically, as you can see here, my videos earned between $50 and $300 each. As a conservative estimate, each iteration of the Crafter's Cup.

and again, remember the tournament bracket can be restarted after a previous iteration or version of the cup has concluded, whenever we want. If it does well and people enjoy it, um, but these will typically probably reward the winner around $1 to $250 US, which I will transfer through PayPal at the conclusion of each event. The potential winnings are much higher, of course, if more people participate and watch the videos related to the Crafters Cup, and naturally will increase with time from the growth of my core audience elsewhere. While I might lose money in the short term doing this, I will likely gain additional subscribers and eyeballs to my channel as a result of the videos. The audience for whom have already qualified themselves as my target segment by nature of the competition that led them there. The downstream benefits of that will circle back around again to the viewers, leading to higher cash prizes for the competition participants through ad revenue. I am confident in my ability to convert any additional eyeballs that my channel may get as a result of

this competition into regular viewers through the quality and merit of my content. In accordance with this conviction, any prize money I pay out, I'm looking at as a long-term investment in the business, so to speak. So do not feel bad or guilty about participating or accepting what you have earned if you win. Get that paper, baby. All right, now let's go over the rules. Number one: the item must be verified, owned, and original. Verified, you can see here, is when you post it on the forum threads, and it just lets you know that you're in possession of the item. Number two: the item must not be a mirrored copy of somebody else's item. Number three: limit of one entry and one item per person. Number four: your PoE profile must be public, as you can see here. This means I need to be able to see your characters and stuff like that, just to make sure the account is legitimate. Number five: submitting account must be your main account. You may not submit from a burner or throwaway account. If an item or an

account is suspected of being illegitimate. Whether I think that's RMT, if it's a duplicate entry, borrowed item, etc., I reserve the right to unilaterally disqualify that entry. In possible cases where this may occur, I will attempt to contact the player to edify any potential discrepancies, but the burden of proof here and the threshold that I will have will be much more strict than GGG's. If I have any inkling that somebody is cheating or trying to work around these rules, I will immediately disqualify that person. Number six, the item must be owned and verifiable at each stage of the competition. Participants may be contacted at any time to confirm that they are in possession of the item in question. Failure to link the item in question when contacted may result in disqualification. This is a measure to prevent anyone from buying a cool item, submitting it, and then just relisting and selling it immediately. Similarly, it'll prevent people from submitting multiple items by just

temporarily loaning it to their friends uh to be listed from their respective accounts. And the last rule is that any item May to be submitted uh this includes uniques corrupted items Legacy items alt Arts Etc so long that it is an original item and you own it uh the crafter's cup is somewhat of a misnomer in that respect as not any every item will necessarily need to be crafted in the conventional sense at least for this iteration of the inaugural attempt. All right let's go over some additional details and some final points of note uh any player may enter the competition there is no cost in game or outside of the game to participate and there never will be. Submitted items can be from any League standard hardcore solo sbound whatever there is no minimum requirement for entry with respect to item value and or strength the strongest items are not necessarily the best items every item has a story and every player has a personal best and a criteria for what constitutes a sick item do not be discouraged from submitting an item that

you cherish because it is not a perfect mirror craft. Sometimes a good story beats a good item. Voters will decide who moves on each round to maintain objectivity, neutrality, and be fair and balance in the application of the rules of the competition. I will not be participating or submitting any items. This is about showcasing your guys' efforts, creativity, and successes, not mine. And while why I'm kind of doing this is that it's a universal player experience in Poe to want to link an insane item to a friend, Guild, Global Channel, streamer, Reddit, or community at large. The moment you get or you make one, sharing that excitement is at the core of what makes multiplayer online games fun, at least for me. And it is in that spirit this competition exists. The reward is in place to encourage participation in thoughtful submissions. However, it's simply a means to larger aspirations, I suppose, and goals. Some of those being that I want to be able to share a passion with a group of like-minded individuals. I want to

encourage the adoption understanding and appreciation of crafting item creation and itemization uh and any Ingenuity or creativity therein as meaningful and core Pursuits of the game not some weird Fringe thing that people look at as being like a a weird way of playing uh I also want to provide a vehicle for people to share the fruits of their labor showcase their creativity and address that Universal player uh po Poe player experience pardon me uh that we mentioned a minute ago uh doing so in a form that is both receptive and wanting to sharing that excitement you had in that moment nothing nothing sucks more than having something really cool that you're really excited about and then like linking it to somebody who just doesn't give a [ __ ] and they kind of blow it off um in this situation obviously everyone will be here for the same purpose and I think that would create a positive environment for it and again I want to create a and uh create and Foster a competitive element in part of the game that has forever lacked such

a system, the reward system, will automatically pay out to scale, which again can also kind of encourage organic growth for the competition in a way that can benefit all parties involved equally. I hope to achieve this by having no barriers to entry, a low input time to commit to participate, so it shouldn't take more than five minutes for you guys to fill out the applications there, and a structured submission template that deeply personalizes the item but can also serve as a learning tool for people who read on. There's a section about how did you make the item, it can serve as a way to help teach people as well, and again the cash reward, whose recipient is decided upon openly by the people, not by myself and not by some opaque back room group of people, so keep things open and objective, and new participants can have an incentive to join in the form of a prize, and pre-existing participants have an incentive to individually act as agents for growth, encouraging other people to participate as it means a

larger prize pool. The more abstract and ideological goals I mentioned above are served by all actors, even if their motivations are inwardly focused or selfish, how you might call it. The group will still benefit. So, I'm really excited to announce this. I hope you guys participate. I hope you like the idea. Again, as I showed earlier, this is something I've been planning or wanting to do for such a long time, and the other day I finally, you know, had the mental Eureka moment where I was able to piece it all together. Everything that I mentioned in today's video will be written in the thread that I'm going to link again below in the description and in the pinned comments. So, if anything I said here was too abstract, just go over to the thread, and you can read it again to get some clarification or of course ask any comments below. Again, appreciate it, guys, if you throw a like on this video, subscribe to the channel if you're new, and share it to some friends if you

think they'd like to participate. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys have. All the best and I'll see you next time. Peace. Hello viewers, welcome to the credits. Here you can see three options above me: a video I think that you would like, if you enjoyed this in the middle, subscribe to the boy, come on, and over here on the right, a playlist of some of my best videos to check out if you're new. Uh, if you want to get better at crafting, trading, etc., those are some of the things I think that are the best that I've produced over the past several years, and a good place to start. Thanks guys, see you.

[PoE] The Crafters Cup | CASH PRIZE Community Competition | Showcase Your Items | Open to ALL

[PoE] The Crafters Cup | CASH PRIZE Community Competition | Showcase Your Items | Open to ALL