TopGeek 2.0
Australia’s second largest DSL broadband provider, iiNet, has announced the return of the TopGeek competition. I entered the iiNet TopGeek competition last year and after several rigorous geeky challenges, where I invented an iPhone app and turned my friends into zombies, I leveled up and made it into the top ten before I took an arrow in the knee, resulting in game over. In the end there could only be one Top Geek, that honour went to Cassandra James, a talented comic book artist from Tasmania.
TopGeek 2.0 follows last year’s highly successful inaugural contest, and will once again see geeks of all types show off their geeky prowess in an attempt to take out the title of Australia’s next TopGeek. The winner will also score an all-expenses paid trip to attend one of four geeky events – including ComicCon, Consumer Electronic Show, South by Southwest or Penny Arcade Expo. Last year’s winner will head to San Diego in July for ComicCon 2012. She’ll report back to TopGeek HQ with all the comic news and make you wish you were there, and you could be, if you enter TopGeek!
I won’t be entering the TopGeek 2.0 competition this year, instead, I shall be judging it along with last years finalists, Andy Wells, Jason Cartwright, Jess Watson and Cassandra James.
This year the competition encourages everyone to discover their inner geek and embrace it, as geeks come in all varieties. The iiNet crew behind TopGeek has introduced multiple categories – including art, tech, fandom, gamer and internet – bigger and better challenges, TopGeek TV and runner-up prizes. I’m looking forward to TopGeek TV, a fortnightly series hosted by award-winning comedian and self-proclaimed geek, Lawrence Leung. The series will take a closer look at the nerdy stories behind the competition and the geeky finalists.
As a Fandom category judge, I’m looking forward to seeing the creative and geeky entries. I’ll be picking contestants to go through to the next round, show off their unique geeky talents, and compete in knockout challenges before battling it out during an epic final event on May 10th, 2012. The last geek standing will be crowned Australia’s ultimate TopGeek and winner. I’m looking for something that sets the contestants apart from the cookie-cutter-hipster-geek-is-cool-now type of geek – contributing to an open source project, running a meet-up or group, designing or developing a website from scratch, building your own robot butler, learning for fun not profit, amassing thousands of online followers, designing you own costumes, changing the world and thinking outside of the box. Pro tip: You don’t just watch/play/read/collect [insert whatever geeky interest here] you live and breathe it, you’re THE BIGGEST FAN and have amassed your own army of fans for your aforementioned fandom. Your profile should describe your geeky attributes and make me want to see more of you. Last years top twenty set the bar pretty high.
The search to find the Australia’s most talented geek is currently taking submissions. If you’re a geek (or you know a worthy geeky) head the the iiNet TopGeek 2.0 website. Good luck, geeks!
Nikita is a 30-something year old geeky girl that resides in Perth, Western Australia studies event management, works at events and runs EnjoyPerth. She is a self confessed high heel worshipper that suffers from multipletabitis. Kitta spends her spare time blogging sporadically, volunteering, gaming and likes taking photos of the contents of the universe.
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