Discussion Main / OriginalCharacterTournament

An original character battle/tournament. Also commonly known as an OCT, this refers to any sort of competition where artists come together for a bit a good-natured competition that pits one artist's original character against others, tournament style in either an Intercontinuity Crossover or Elseworld. This is mostly done through comics, but tournaments have been known to include animation and literature (including some literature-specific tournaments). Usually has some sort of audition process to pick participants.

Tournaments range from completely obscure to high-stakes popularity mills and all the drama that comes with it and everything in between. These are extremely popular on Deviant Art - most of them draw their talent and audience and even are hosted on there, so there you go.

How these characters actually fight each other can vary from contest to contest. Sometimes they depict their characters in an out and out brawl (hence the "battle" part of the name). Other times there's a plotline and it's all about who has the most compelling overarching story. Occasionally, it can be both. In any case, the entries for each round are given to a judge or panel of judges to choose which is better. The winner continues on and their entry becomes official Canon; the loser gets knocked out. Occasionally, the contest-runners also allow some sort of non-judged side entry (aka an SE) that can be used as Bonus Material. The overall winner typically gets some sort of prize - commissions from an artist, Deviant Art subscriptions, fame, fortune, power, etc.

A variation is the League format, which keeps the entries and judging part and does away with the tournament structure.

Please note that on Deviant Art and in the OCBT scene, an Original Character refers to a character that is PURELY original. Fan characters are usually not allowed.