It's been a long journey, a seemingly endless adventure between funny, complex and memorable WADS. But here it is, the end of the road. Hellectric boogaloo proved to be quite the gargantuan task to get through, over 300 wads were played on stream and I never expected to get that many levels submitted to a small DOOM competition. I'm very happy and fortunate to have engaged new and veteran level creators alike to enter in with their time and talent. Like last year, we had no theme, anything goes with DOOM. What I look for is something memorable, something that's fun and overall a level that makes you remember why a game that's 20 years old can still hold up and have a community keeping it alive. Picking a winner proved to be a more difficult task than last year, as you can see with the youtube VOD uploads, there's 3x the amount of content to sort through. I couldn't have done it without the help and support of my mods. Adamantarchvile and Jimmy from Doomworld have gone out of their way to also help out, I wouldn't have been able to do this without everybody's help. Whilst I may be the one streaming the levels, I am a small part in this contest, the level creators are the real stars here, and I am so happy to be given the opportunity to showcase so many great levels. Narrowing 300 Wads down to three winners wasn't easy. I wish I could reward everyone for entering into this competition, even the newbies deserve a big thank you. But competition is competition and three levels reign supreme for Hellectric Boogaloo. Seeing as there's so much variety and flavors between these levels, I've decided to elaborate and expand on having more winners, there's still the main three that will receive prizes, but there's now honorable mentions (seen below) that deserve extra credit for their efforts. Without further ado, let me introduce the winners.

Winners

3rd Spot Spooky Castle - Toxicoow Fun, Memorable and a with a healthy splash of humor, Toxicoow brought something that was a blast not only to play but also to stream in front of an audience. With something new at every corner, this WAD will have you exploring as much as possible. Spooky Castle mixes classic DOOM gameplay and architectural design and ideas with a fresh exotic arrangement, the custom stuff never feels too exceptional, it simply seamlessly combines it into a kooky thrillride. Toxicoow's Spooky Castle level is a total blast to play, combining just the right amount of classic DOOM gameplay with a jolt of custom content when its appropriate. A killer level that I couldn't wait to try again time after time. Slight bonus points for combining F-ZERO and DOOM as well. 2nd Spot Pizza Quest 2 - mynameiszz Something really detached from what DOOM is but at the same time something that's DOOM to the core, making the game your own. Whilst custom content doesn't always make a better WAD, Mynameizz decided to shift gears completely and turn DOOM into his own unique character-driven semi-RPG full of humor, absurdity and also actively engages the player to check every nook and cranny for secrets and alternate endings. Whilst some of the humor can be lost on some due to the inside-jokey nature in the WAD. It still stands out as something completely unique and genre-bending. Sporting an abrasively different art-style and unique approach to DOOM's gameplay, Pizza Quest is full of surprises and alternate routes. Pizza Quest 2 invites the player on a nonsensical adventure that is a reminder just how versatile DOOM's engine and gameplay can be. Highly recommended. 1st Spot Soundless Mound II - magusmarisa If Toxicoow and Mynameiszz molded their levels into something unique, Magusmarisa's takes that mindset and plugs it into overdrive. A completely unique approach to DOOM, Soundless Mound is a horror tribute to Silent Hill and overall horror games à la 1999 on the PlayStation. If you're a fan of gritty rusty polygon warping demakes and horror games rooted not in cheap jump scares but rather in the white noise whispering mist, you have to play Soundless Mound. Drenched in atmosphere and masterfully executed, Magusmarisa's WAD feels like a game on its own, whilst taking inspiration from Konami, Soundless Mound never feels like a cheap copy nor does it try to hide its DOOM base. Steeped in tiny details like the weight of the weapons, to the way the custom gritty graphics distort into the unseen darkness. Soundless Mound will have you on your seat until the very end.

A perfect blend of puzzles, sounds, graphics, and gameplay. Old aesthetics are reborn into newfangled horror. A poetic joining between 1993 FPS and 1999 survival horror, Soundless Mound is not only a great WAD, but it also succeeds in a different way, its legitimately a frightening experience, something I don't get to experience too often. Bravo.

HONORABLE MENTIONS - THE BONUS WINNERS

Oldschool Marble Award: Conundrum - hcmazu When it comes to kickass vanilla DOOM experiences, hcmazu's Conundrum delivers big time. Whilst retaining an oldschool feel, Conundrum also offers different paths in how the level plays out with a slight gameshow theme giving the player different choices throughout the map. Over an hour long, but when its this great you'll be reminded why DOOM is still the king. Comedy Award: Joel Vs The World - zeroxdiamond Pizza quest contains a lot of inside-humor, but it wasn't as self referencial as Joel VS The World. This WAD won't make any sense if you're unfamiliar with the streams. But for what it is, it fully goes for it 110% procent. Name another WAD that lets you nuke Norway, I'll wait. Gorgeous Award: Order Of The Odonata - dragonflyos There was a lot of fantastic looking WADs submitted to this contest, including champ1822's Dark New Babylon, Mekaddonn's Gossamer and jaxxoonr's bandbdmd to name a few. Dragonflyo's level really blows you away. With custom stuff I didn't even know was possible in modern DOOM ports, this really shows what's possible to do with DOOM. The visuals will stick with you for a long while. The ending battle is something else. New Gameplay/Idea Award: DoomDungeonCrawler - jabronielrobinson There was a lot of good ideas for this contest, like Superstarnugget's KDOOMACY Katamari inspired level. But what really blew me away in terms of potential was Jabroniel's level. A Zelda top down view where you move with WASD and shoot with the Arrow keys is a really cool idea. Unfortunately slightly buggy whilst streamed, the idea is still grounds for a ton of fun. Boner Award: Revenant - Aphtonites You're in a cavernous maze. You have no weapons. You're only equipped with a flashlight. You have to find the exit. There's revenants everywhere. Shit. Archvile Award: KrazyKasino - darsycho Since the first competition, the dreaded archvile has become quite the character on the streams. For the second contest, the arch-vile has fully been embraced into a joker that loves to cause mischief during the streams. There was a ton of maps with funny placements and surprises much to my chagrin. But my favorite this competition was Darsycho's KrazyKasino level. Three slots, three archviles. Three hundred ways to scream in resurrecting pyromancy. Bloodroom Award: letters of doom - kazeb123 No comment.
DOWNLOAD LINK TO EVERY WAD SUBMITTED/PLAYED