You: Is he making this thread because he lost?
Me: Yes and no.
First of all, let me congrats the winner of this year's contest. =o
Second of all, let me scold whoever reviewed this year's contest. (WreX, if it's you, *censored*)
What in the world do you see? I see bad hats that aren't well shaded, confusing, and unappealing.
Soul, I love you man, but your current hat doesn't deserve first place. If anything, I think your red hat deserved first. Honestly Soul, what the heck is that blue crystal unappealing 'copy-n-paste-one-sprite' hat? Who is reviewing these hats?
Mel, you did fine, but you sure didn't deserve any spots in the top 3, your hat lacks shading, has an incredibly weird looking back sprite, and bland coloring. Oh there's cute little floating things? Yeah, I don't care, quality is poor nonetheless.
Momma Player, you deserve 1st place, hell your mask is incredibly well shaded, great simple coloring, and an amazing outline - perfection, but if anything, it's a generic Christmas idea. A reindeer that is a gas mask.
Kaitou K., what the hell is that? There's no sort of outline for the white fur, god it looks ugly. Man, did you even add any sort of outline? It's so ridged. What's up with the shading? Poor lighting. How irrelevant is the back sprite too. I'm surprised you won.
Blue, Kelsi, Uzi, you did well. Good job. (Not top 3s though. Too generic and lacks creativity.)
WreX, ReBorn, Olirus, whoever the hell is reviewing these works, focus on them. Don't simply go for the 'o it looks cute lol' and pass it. That's stupid. Surely Soul had very complex shading which made the hat look better in texture-wise, but it doesn't deserve first just because of that.
Texture, Shading, Outline, AA, Lighting, Creativity, Logical, and Not Repetitive
is what matters, keep that in consideration.
Jeesh, this year sucked. Few of the hats in gifts were awful.