Pumpkin Carving Contest 2025
Pumpkin Carving Contest 2025
It’s that time again when pirates swap plunder for pumpkins and mischief for masterpieces! Light the candles, sharpen yer blades, and let the carving chaos begin!
🎃 Deadline: October 31, 2025, 11:59 PM game time
Late entries will not be accepted, so make sure to post before the deadline!
Winners Announced!
Thank you to everyone who joined this year. The turnout was great and the pumpkins were full of spirit and creativity. It was a joy to look through every entry. Judging these pumpkins was trickier than sailing through a storm.
Without further ado, here are the results:
- 1st Place: Krios – Choice of an orange/black parrot, orange octopus, or orange monkey familiar
- 2nd Place: Kynesas – Choice of sleeping pet: pig, piglet, tortoise or turtle
- 3rd Place: Greylady – Orange and black Owl-Eyed Pumpkinseed sloop
Top 3 will also receive an inscribed Punkin' soup trinket.
Honorable Mentions
- (Receive a Skelly Sword Rack, a Jack o' Lantern and an inscribed Pumpkin Pie trinket)
Thank you again to everyone who carved, lit, and shared their creations. We loved seeing all the ideas you brought to life!
Prizes
- 1st: Orange/black parrot, orange octopus, or orange monkey.
- 2nd: Choice of standard sleeping pet (Pig, Piglet, Tortoise or Turtle).
- 3rd: Orange and black Pumpkinseed sloop.
Honorable mentions will receive prizes such as orange or black trinkets, clothes, or furniture. Additional prizes may be added depending on participation. In addition to the main judging, it has become traditional for OMs to look through the thread and award eggs or dolls to entries that particularly please them.
What to do
Get ready for a creative adventure!
- Obtain a real pumpkin. If pumpkins are not available where you live, you can use any type of gourd, squash, melon, watermelon, or any pumpkin-like fruit or vegetable.
- Create a Puzzle Pirates design for your pumpkin or pumpkin-like base.
- Create a card or slip of paper (handwritten, typed, or printed) that includes your pirate name, ocean, and the year (2025).
Carve and Photograph:
- Carve the design onto your selected pumpkin or pumpkin-like base.
- Take at least two photos during the carving process to showcase your work. Include the identification card in each photo to confirm it's your original creation (no photoshopping).
- Capture at least one lit and one unlit photo of your finished creation. Again, include your pirate's name and ocean on a card in the photo.
- Host your images on any account-free image hosting platform.
Participate!
- Submit your entry in the entry thread with a minimum of four photos per entry (two of the creation process, one lit, and one unlit). Make sure they include the card with your pirate name, ocean, and year.
- Note that only the lit image needs to be shown in the submission thread; any others can be provided as links.
- You may upload or show more images, but only the first lit image you submit will be judged, so make sure it's your best!
- Double-check your entry to ensure you have working links to each entry, following the template below.
Judging Criteria
Judging will be based on the creativity and cleverness of design, the quality and detail of carving, and the overall effect of the lit pumpkin. Take care of shadows, flashes, focus, and detail.
🎃 Remember, the LIT pumpkin is the photo being used for judging.
Other rules
- Limit to one entry per player, and each entry must feature a single carved pumpkin.
- Carvings must be original and your own, and may not be designs submitted to other contests.
- Avoid excessive decorations—there’s no extra credit for dressing up your pumpkin beyond the carving itself, and it might even cost you points!
- Feel free to use or modify commercial patterns, but you are unlikely to score highly on creativity if you do so!
Questions about the event? Join us on Discord here!
So, what arrr ye waitin' fer? Get carvin'!
