Starting this season, the IceHL will experiment with a new judging format for design contests. Winners will no longer be decided by a simple popular vote. Instead, that vote will be only a part of the process.

Winners will be determined by the IceHL Design Council, comprised of six members:

• the Icethetics community, who will continue to vote in public polls;
• the IceHL Commissioner;
• and 4 independent judges, including at least one current IceHL GM and one person with design credentials who has no previous connection to the league.

Each member of the Design Council will cast one vote. To avoid ties, the community will get a second vote (for a grand total of seven votes on the council). Should the winner of the public poll receive less than 55%, the community's two votes will be split between the opponents.

Two of the independent judges will be selected by a popular vote. The other two will be selected by the commissioner. A judge will relinquish his vote to the community if his work is included in a given poll — which will give the community three votes. (In such a case, a design must exceed 70% of the public poll to earn all three votes, otherwise the will be split 2-1.)

Judges will be asked to publicly defend their decisions with a brief explanation of why they voted the way they did in each poll.

Want to be a judge on the IceHL Design Council?

To apply for one of the four judge positions, email icethetics@gmail.com by Sat., Oct. 25 with "IceHL Design Council" in the subject line and containing the following:

• Your first and last name
• In under 60 words, explain why you should be a judge
• An avatar (a photo of yourself or another image to represent you, 400x400 pixels)
• Optional: A campaign graphic (960x480 pixels or 2:1 aspect ratio) that demonstrates either your own design work or your favorite design styles so the community can get a feel for your personal preferences

The community will be given the information you provide and will then select two judges in a popular vote. The other two judges will be selected by the IceHL Commissioner.