Habbox Competitions

Habbox's Competitions department organises competitions in a monthly cycle with a whole multitude of different challenges and brainteasers for Habbox users to enter, currently managed by .Cymru. and Intersocial. The department offers a wide range of competitions, including but not limited to: graphics styled briefs, quick quizzes and story writing competitions written by, normally, a team of 6 to 8 staff. A few minutes of your time can reward you with winning Habbox Forum VIP and some Forum Reputation available as prizes as well as some coins on the Habbo.com client. If you want to enter the competitions, click here.

History

The Habbox Competitions Department was launched in 2004, first managed by MissAlice, and has ever since played a part in making Habbox users enjoy themselves and be rewarded with prizes. The department for many years provided 2 or 3 weekly competitions for prizes which were handed out to members who won the respective competition. For many years (2004 until 2008), the department was made up of a Competitions Manager, an Assistant Manager, occasionally a Senior Competitions Staff and the rest of the department being regular staff. This was late changed in 2008 where instead of an Assistant Manager, there was either one or two Senior Competitions Staff who would help out the Competitions Manager with admin. On the 20th May 2010, the role of Competitions Staff was officially defunct and was replaced once again with the Assistant Manager role. These two roles were completely identical however the Assistant Manager role meant that the person in question could be given more responsibility in the near future, should they need it.

After some time, Habbox users found the competitions to be too long and dull so the department was overhauled at the end of 2009, when Inseriousity. was Competitions Manager. This change meant that the competitions were shorter and quicker to read, as well as the Terms and Conditions being in a single thread in the Competitions forum. Since this point, over 40 competitions are produced monthly by the department alone, ensuring that many entrants get a chance of winning a prize. Therefore this department is very grateful for any donations they get given because the prizes are funded solely by donations from other members. Also, these competitions were far more simplistic than competitions before 2010 and competitions with a fixed answer were introduced as well.

This change also meant that more people were allowed to enter Habbox Competitions. Before 2010, Habbox Staff were only allowed to enter competitions for staff only, often monthly, and competitions during seasonal events such as Habbox Summer Spectacular. As of January 2010, the changes meant that the rules were lifted slightly and Habbox staff were then allowed to enter Habbox competitions. In a similar manner, until 2009 there were competitions specifically for VIP members however these were removed due to the lack of interest they were given.

Generally speaking, prior to 2010 the Competitions Department offered the prizes of Club Sofas (and between 2004-2008, other Club Shop furniture) and Forum VIP for winners. However, at the beginning of 2010, the department began to offer Forum Reputation for winners as well, purely cosmetically, and in November 2010, after the depletion of value of the Club Sofa, the department began to offer Credits instead in order to cater for a greater proportion of Habbox.

During the 2010 Staff Awards, the Competitions department was nominated by Habbox Staff as "Department of the Year" - an award for the department which staff felt had performed and progressed the most during that year, and went on to win the award. The Competitions department continues to cater for a large part of the Habbox user-base and it only takes a few minutes to enter competitions, on the most part. That year many of the Habbox users at the time complimented the revamp in the Competitions department and the idea of the Habbox World Cup, with almost 30 teams of 3 participating along with other members who did not join a team.

Events and Quests

Over the past few years, this department have offered a variety of larger scale events every few months in the form of quests and hunts which run for both short and long periods.

2013

Name	Date	Organiser(s) of Event	Description
From Habbox With Love	September 2013	.Cymru.; Intersocial	A forum based competition consisting of several interconnected plots with clues leading towards the identity of an unknown killer. Mini-competitions were released alongside plots and winners gained 2 points in the Hx24 competition. The winners of the main competition were - 1st Smurfed-, 2nd oli and 3rd !x!dude!x!2.
Treasure Island	August 2013	.Cymru.; Intersocial	An interactive in-client quest in which users had to navigate through various rooms in order to obtain a keyword at the very end of the maze. A screenshot then needed to be submitted to management and 3 users won HxSS points alongside various other prizes. The winners of this competition were - 1st HaylaShayla, 2nd !x!dude!x!2 and 3rd Zitrone.
Stolen Artwork	August 2013	.Cymru.; Intersocial	A collaboration between the Competitions department and the Graphics department for HxSS (Habbox Summer Spectacular). Participants had to match pieces of artwork to the correct person based on 7 mini biographies given beforehand. The winners of this competition were - 1st Ekelektra, 2nd !x!dude!x!2 and 3rd Subo.
The Shining	July 2013	.Cymru.; Intersocial	Users had to figure out answers to individual rooms (competitions) in order to help characters escape a hotel. All participants were awarded a forum award and the players that had the most correct answers won additional prizes.
Four Weddings	February 2013	Umbrella-; runeaddict99	Pairs of people applied to become couples, four of which were wed on Habbo. The people then decided which wedding was the best, based on dress, the ceremony, the after-party and the overall experience.

2012

Name	Date	Organiser of Event	Description
Eavesdropping Elves	December 2012	Umbrella-; runeaddict99	Each day for four days clues were posted in order to find an elf. This was no ordinary elf, but an elf that had overheard reindeers planning to kidnap rudolph! They had to get a secret word from the elf each day in order to find and free rudolph and send them to HabboxComps via PM.
Habboxween 2012	October 2012	Umbrella-; Biscuitss	At the bottom of four Halloween related competitions were clues of a famous or fictional character related to Halloween where the answer had to be sent to the Competitions department's official account: HabboxComps through PM.
The Seven Seas	August 2012	Biscuitss; 1umbrella1	A variety of clues had to be found by solving other clues through both the Habbo client and Habbox Forum, making up the continents of the world.
Sticks and Stones	January 2012	Alex3213	A forum scavenger hunt where you had to use the "search function" on the forum in order to find the subsequent clues in order to build a shelter in preparation for the apocalypse.

2011

Name	Date	Organiser of Event	Description
Return of the Witch	November 2011	Mr-Trainor	A Habbo maze which involved the participant completing puzzles in the room to advance to the next until reaching the end of the line where the magic word could stop the witch from attacking once again.
Boils and Trouble	July 2011	Inseriousity.	xxMATTGxx was covered in boils because of an evil witch and Habbox Forum members had to solve a series of puzzles in order to get him back to his normal self.
Monopoly	May 2011	Inseriousity.; -fire-girl-	After entering 2 competitions, in May 2012, that user had to PM HabboxComps and they were rewarded with a Habbox related Monopoly card. Getting a coloured set rewarded them with a prize, the prize differing dependent on rarity.
S.A.D	February 2011	Inseriousity.	A small competition which involved users being paired up with another user after filling in a survey on Valentine's Day. A competition purely for fun where Inseriousity. became Habbox Cupid for a day.
Shaken not Stirred	January 2011	Inseriousity.; Alex3213	Inseriousity. was kidnapped by Seriousity, for a month and only sent messages through Habbo videos. Seriousity, became Competitions Manager and Habbox Forum had to stop him from taking over all of Habbox and becoming the new General Manager.

2010

Name	Date	Organiser of Event	Description
Suitcase Stress	August 2010	Inseriousity.; Alex3213	xxMATTGxx lost all of his clothes after having a holiday so Habbox users so Habbox users had to search the forum to find his items.
World Cup	June 2010	Inseriousity.; Alex3213	Members entered the World Cup in teams of 3 and for each competition, along with additional prizes, first place got 3 footballs for their team, second place got 2 and third place got 1. The members of the team with the most footballs got an overall prize each.
Winter Olympics	January 2010	Inseriousity.; Alex3213	Themed competitions based on Winter Olympic sports in relation to Habbox's Winter Olympics.
Lost Managers	January 2010	Inseriousity.; Alex3213	A Habbo styled quest where Habbox had lost 5 of their managers after a New Year's Eve Party and could be found by searching the rooms in Roxy916's house for clues.

2009

Name	Date	Organiser of Event	Description
And... FREEZE!	December 2009	Alex3213	A Habbo based event based on scenes from A Christmas Carol, where the Grinch stole all apart from 6 scenes, where users answered questions about the classic in order to generate a key word which brought back the play to life.
The Grinch	December 2009	Inseriousity.	The competitions in December 2009 were based on the Grinch stealing Christmas characters, so each competition was themed to a different Christmas related film.
Funfair	November 2009	Inseriousity.	All of the competitions in November 2009 had a Funfair/Circus orientation to them. This month also brought back the Free Habbox Lottery for a month, under the name of Grab a Duck.
Habbox Virus	September 2009	Inseriousity.	A nasty (fictional) virus hit Habbox and in order to make sure that everyone would stay safe, users had to use the search function in order to find specific numbered posts and their contents, containing a number and a new clue. At the end of the trail of clues, Inseriousity. had to be sent a PM with all the numbers put combined.

2006

Name	Date	Organiser of Event	Description
Rare Rampage	March 2006	-Dannie	Using your brain and solving clues, entrants had to find the location of the Blue Amber Lamp and the Red Amber Lamp, as well as the secret word at the end of the trail.
Valentines Forum Quest	February 2006	Acquae	All the questions being to do with Valentines' Day, the participants had to use the forum to search for the clues in the form of a scavenger hunt, in order to unlock the secret Valentines' Forum.

2005

Name	Date	Organiser of Event	Description
Help Find Rudolph	December 2005	Acquae	A Habbo quest where you had to solve the questions in order to find Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Staff Puzzle	June 2005	Janeh	A Habbo quest where the answers were themed on the Habbox staff at the time.
Safety Quiz	April 2005	Janeh	A Habbo quest based on safety questions, where you had to reach the last room.
Cluebox	March 2005	Kroziun	A murder mystery competition where you had to find clues on the client to work out who murdered the victim and how they did it. A sub-quest, Secret Sticky, was introduced when the quest proved to be too challenging.
The Name Game	February 2005	Janeh	A quest where you had to unscramble the name of famous Hobbas on Habbo UK.
The Forum Quest	January 2005	Janeh	A Habbo quest based on the Habbox Forum, similar to other quests.

2004

Name	Date	Organiser of Event	Description
Christmas Quest	December 2004	Janeh	A quest on the client where you had to answer one of the two Christmas questions in a room, where one was correct and the other was a fake, until you reached the final room.
Habbox Quest 3	November 2004	Janeh	A Habbo quest where you had to guide yourself through a set of rooms and your answer was the piece of furniture in the final room.
Habbox Quest 2	October 2004	MissAlice	A Habbo quest where you had to guide yourself through a set of rooms and your answer was the piece of furniture in the final room.
HxHD Quest	September 2004	MissAlice	A quest which involved answering several safety questions to get to the final room on the Habbo client.
Habbox Quest	August 2004	MissAlice	A Habbo quest where you had to guide yourself through a set of rooms and your answer was the piece of furniture in the final room.

Recurring Competitions

Also, in the past, there have been recurring Habbox competitions; competitions which occur on a frequent basis with a similar objective:

• Caption Phrase (Unknown - present): A competition on a monthly basis where participants have to write a funny caption based on the image posted.
• Room With a View (31st May 2009 - 1st September 2009, 26th June 2004 - 30th November 2005): A monthly competition in which entrants had to build a room based on a given brief.
• Mission Impossible (4th January 2005 - 25th May 2005) - A competition which happened once in a while where users had to post their Habbo motto and whoever's was the funniest won. It made its reappearance in 2006 and early 2008.
• Mystery Star Guest (17th March 2005 - 15th October 2005) - A competition where MissAlice described a member of either Habbox or Habbo and users had to guess who the user was. The competition made a small reappearance in August 2010.
• Your Words (Once on 31st December 2010, recurrent since 10th August 2013) - A competition in which Yupt provides users with members they must include in their competition alongside various items (e.g. miniature golf) and their task is to formulate the most creative story.

The Free Weekly Habbox Lottery

The Free Weekly Habbox Lottery was a competition which ran between 6th May 2006 and 18th April 2009 on a recurring basis. Any entrants had to choose a 3 digit number, where each of the digits were between 1 and 6 and on the draw date, normally Tuesday, whoever's number was rolled would win the prize. The prize varied over the years, but a Gold Cup Trophy (from the catalogue) , Club Sofas and Credits were the different types of prizes available, dependent on the Competitions Manager at the time. In 2009, there was a rollover system in the sense that if no-one's number was rolled, the prize would rollover to next week.

This lottery then became a show ran by the Competitions Manager, once again, normally on a Tuesday. When Dudedanny123 hosted the Habbox Lottery, there was often a puzzle or a quiz at the beginning of the show and the winner of that would then get a prize. This was later adapted to a "lucky spin" approach where the winner could risk their for a spin on the wheel and if the colour they chose was highlighted, they would win a more expensive prize. At the end of the show, the numbers were rolled and the winner would claim the prize highlighted in the thread.

In April 2009, the free lottery was closed in order to make way for the lottery where you had to pay a Club Sofa to enter. The Free Weekly Habbox Lottery made a three week reappearance in November 2009, under the name of Grab a Duck, in line with the Funfair theme of that month.

Treasure Chest

In 2013 whilst the department was run by .Cymru. and Intersocial, Habbox Competitions brought out a new scheme for those who entered competitions on a regular basis to win an award each month. All entrants' names would be added to a list and the more competitions they entered, the more times they would appear on the list. Once the month ended a random number generator would determine the winner and they'd win a Forum Award, 50 reputation points and 1 months VIP on the forum.

Month of Winning	Winner
August 2013	Dilusionate
September 2013	Inseriousity.
October 2013	rihanna-cool

Seasonal Competitions

The Competitions department have been known to collaborate with other departments when it comes to Habbox doing large events. Some of these include Habbox Summer Spectacular, Back 2 School, Habboxween, Habbox Christmas, Habbox Valentines and Easter Eggstravaganza which happen annually and other one-off events such as the Winter Olympics.

Controversy

For the whole of 2010, the Competitions department offered Forum Reputation as an additional prize. This reputation could also be converted into credits. In 2011, however, Hecktix introduced a reputation quota, only allowing a certain amount of reputation points to be given out by each department. The Competitions Manager at the time, Inseriousity., was against this strongly and argued against it saying that it was "pointless". After several months of arguments, it was removed at the end of June 2011.

Management

Like all departments on Habbox, the department has to be ran by someone in order to ensure that the department is producing a suitable quality of work.

Competitions Management

Name	Date	End
.Cymru.	08/06/2013	Present
runeaddict99	15/02/2013	08/06/2013
Umbrella-	18/09/2012	15/02/2013
Biscuitss	19/04/2012	18/09/2012
Inseriousity.	01/04/2012	19/04/2012
Alex3213	10/12/2011	01/04/2012
Mr-Trainor	17/10/2011	10/12/2011
Inseriousity.	16/08/2009	17/10/2011
dudedanny123	03/02/2009	15/08/2009
H0BJ0B	24/03/2008	02/02/2009
Professor-Alex	24/02/2008	12/03/2008
JoeyK.	21/08/2007	24/02/2008
2hd.	26/02/2006	19/08/2007
Aquae	01/11/2005	26/02/2006
MissAlice	27/06/2004	01/11/2005

Assistant Competitions Management

Name	Date
Intersocial	21/07/2013
.Cymru.	13/03/2013
runeaddict99	08/11/2012
Biscuitss	18/09/2012
1umbrella1	31/05/2012
Elegance	21/01/2012
-fire-girl-	16/04/2011
Alex3213	20/05/2010
Orangeesh	24/06/2008
Professor-Alex	14/09/2007
micky.blue.eyes	01/01/2007
Aquae	07/09/2006
.Lynn	14/03/2006
2hd.	24/12/2006
Cypher-	09/10/2005
Spectate	14/02/2005

Trivia

• Inseriousity. is currently the longest standing Competitions Manager at Habbox.
• In the Habbox Virus quest, when it was planned, nvrspk4 thought that Inseriousity. had really been hacked and nearly banned the Competitions Manager at the time.
• The numbers joined together at the end of the Habbox Virus quest spelled out the word Inseriousity using the A=1, B=2... system.
• Inseriousity. and Alex3213's era of management were well known for shamelessly advertising competitions on Habbo.