McLeodGaming 2010 Orchestration Contest

The McLeodGaming 2010 Orchestration Contest was an orchestration and composition competition held by McLeodGaming, starting on February 1, 2010. Contestants were tasked with taking a provided music sample and orchestrating their own themes around it.

Rules
For this competition, Gregory McLeod provided a short piano melody as a base, and contestants were tasked to expand upon this melody in their own original pieces. Specifically, a piece would need to include the melody in its entirety at least once and at any location. Additionally, while users were allowed to modify the melody, the piece would still need to include it with all of its original rhythm, notes, and key at least once.

Pieces entered were to be judged based on originality, technique, listening experience, and the overall amount of creativity around the given theme. Anything else about the piece, including its genre, chord progressions, percussion loops, or tempo, was up for the contestant to decide, as long as the piece did not sample from other people's work and did not last any longer than five minutes. Contestants were also allowed to use whatever music software was desired, and they could even record themselves playing an acoustic instrument.

From the starting date, entries were to be submitted by February 28, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. (GMT-5). Entries were to be sent as MP3 files to Gregory McLeod through either email or private message, or they could be posted on the McLeodGaming Forums. Only one piece could be submitted per person.

Prizes
The contestant placing in 1st would receive a $100 gift card to the McLeodGaming Zazzle Store, and Gregory McLeod would personally remaster the winning piece himself. Additionally, the 2nd place winner would receive a $50 gift card to the store, and the 3rd place winner would receive a $25 gift card to the store.

Results
Ultimately, twelve contestants entered and judging began on March 1, 2010, with Gregory McLeod and several of his friends acting as the judges. The winners were announced on March 28, 2010, with only the top five placements being specifically listed; the remaining seven contestants were listed as placing "6th+", and their exact placements were only privately disclosed with the contestants. The 1st place winner, alecrgmills, had his piece remastered by Gregory McLeod on August 28, 2010, with the remastered track being titled Battle of the Pirates.

Below is a list of the contestants and their placements, as well as the pieces they submitted.

Trivia

 * This contest is the first official contest that McLeodGaming would hold, as well as the first orchestration contest they would hold.
 * Although it was dubbed the "first ever McLeodGaming Orchestration Contest" in its announcement, McLeodGaming is yet to announce another orchestration contest.
 * The premise of the contest might be based on a similar contest held by Nathan Pinard on Newgrounds in 2009, which Gregory McLeod entered under his Newgrounds account Cleod-9. His entry, titled The Perfect Battle, placed in 10th, with the winner being a user known as Robomanus.