Original Character Tournament

An Original Character Tournament, often abbreviated OCT, is a type of competition that is popular on art websites like Deviant ART. Basically, it's just what it sounds like: A tournament between artists where they battle their completely original characters through artistic expression. Usually, this is through comics, but occasionally has included animation and literature.

The usual progression of events goes something like this... Somebody figures they have a great idea for a tournament, and they decide they're going to host one. They find other people willing to judge, create prizes (it helps to either have artistic talent or to have good friends who possess same), and hammer out the setting, the Story Arc, maybe an NPC or two. Either during and/or after this stage, they hold auditions. Auditioners are usually expected to create a character, a reference sheet for said character, and an audition to introduce the character and explain why they've become involved in the tournament. Once the judges have filled all slots in the tournament, auditions are closed, and the actual tournament begins. Characters are matched up against each other randomly, and the artists have until the first round deadline to create an entry for the first round. At the end of the round, the judges decide which artist continue to the next round. This process continues until only one artist is left. That last artist's plotline then become canon, and he or she is named the winner.

Entries are usually in comic style; there have been exceptions, but it's difficult to progress far using other mediums. There are several variations on the basic round that have been used to spice things up: themes for individual rounds, boss rounds, etc.

These tournaments, like everything else on the internet, may vary in quality, but some of the more notable ones have yielded stories one could indeed label awesome.

An attempt to collect all of the Deviant ART tournaments in one place can be found here.

Common tropes include:

 * Art Shift - between different artists interpretation of the characters.
 * Battle Royale With Cheese - very likely, since some finalists tend to gather a group of defeated contestants (known as tagalongs) during the course of the tournament.
 * Bonus Material - Usually in the form of Spectator or Special Entries that occur outside of the rounds.
 * Breakout Character - Most tournaments have at least one or two, and some have a fandom that even extend outside the OCT community.
 * Canon Dis Continuity - Although some eliminated artists try to finish their story or work their character into the overall tournament plot, many just let the story drop as soon as they lose.
 * Cooking Duel - Strictly speaking, an OCT needs not neccessarily be a fighting tournament. Also seen tournies that allow more creativity, where fighting is not neccessarily the only way to win. When done badly pretty much anything (up to and including "I sprayed mud on him while driving by" and similar nonsensical victories) can become a win. There are usually limitations in the rules to avoid this, eg. stating that the opponent must be incapacitated or otherwise unable to continue the battle.
 * Elseworld - Competitors often use characters that first appeared in their other works, so characters are adjusted to better fit the setting without compromising the main story. That's how you can have a street urchin from Victorian London fighting a futuristic bipolar cyborg in a crazy steampunk city.
 * Follow the Leader - There are exceptions, but about half the torunaments use this tried-and-true premise: you have your character transported to a strange and possibly supernatural realm where you fight each other to win some sort of wish. (Justified Trope in that this can fit pretty much any type of character: even those who aren't natural fighters can not leave until the tournament is finished.)
 * Loads and Loads of Characters...but There Can Be Only One
 * Schedule Slip - Though rounds have a set deadline, most tournament managers don't mind giving a little extra time when competitors run behind.
 * Sturgeons Law - OCTs that do not filter their auditioners usually end up with lots of subpar auditions full of mary sues and generally weaker art.
 * Story Arc - Each OCT either has one to start out or develops one during its run with rare exceptions.
 * Tournament Arc - Many of them are actual tournament settings.
 * Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny - Many OCTs fall into this, especially if its more of an Intercontinuity Crossover rather than a Elseworld.
 * Unnecessary Roughness - It's not uncommon for a friendly round of competition to end with a horrific death.


 * Artists At The Ready/The Real
 * Break
 * Battle Of Limbah
 * Blood OCT
 * The Book of Stories OCT
 * Burning Avalon
 * Channel Virus OCT
 * Chernobyl Curs
 * Civil War
 * The City OCT
 * Coloring Medium
 * The Colosseum
 * Cooking Wars
 * Corrupted Core
 * Childs Play
 * Chromatica OCT
 * The Cure
 * Desire The Writing OCT
 * Deadline OCT
 * Deviant Dead
 * Ebon Spire
 * Emotional Realm
 * Endzone
 * Enter Void
 * Escape From Nevara
 * The Exchange
 * The Farside of Atmos
 * Firewind
 * The Grand Battle
 * The Grand Circus
 * The Games
 * Hands of Chaos
 * Henshin Scramble
 * Hotel Haven
 * Housemates-OCT
 * Hunger Games OCT
 * Idrisfall OCT
 * Infractus Fatality
 * Ink-OCT
 * Inter-Dimensional Derby
 * Law of Talos
 * Lost and Found OCT
 * Manly Mens
 * Many Worlds
 * Masque
 * Network Jail
 * Oberons Garden
 * Olympia Lost
 * One True Pairing
 * Original Character Battle Zone
 * Panel Punk
 * Project Minotaur
 * Race of Aleria
 * Rise
 * Rock Hard Gladiators on Fluidanims
 * Rogue Skies
 * Roulette City OCT
 * S-OCT
 * Samurai Duelers League
 * Sanguine
 * The Silver Rose
 * Tapestry of Horror
 * Toxic OCT
 * Trinity Tourney OCT
 * Sovereign City
 * Sovereign States
 * Survivor Deviantart
 * Taking Utopia
 * The Tower Tournament
 * Vital Spark OCT
 * War For Arcadia
 * Willow Hill Asylum
 * Wisp OCT
 * Wonderlust
 * Working Mans OCT
 * Yeah Swing It