Sep2

Event Review League: Season 1

Review League: Season 1​

image ID: a gif of hapu riding a mudsdale while ash looks on

Welcome back to Review League, an ongoing event meant to encourage a lively community of writers and readers on the Bulbagarden Forums! For those who don't know, the Review League is a game where you can collect points for leaving reviews on fic in the Writers' Workshop. The basic guidelines are as follows:

1) Review any story posted in the Bulbagarden Library subforum of the Writers' Workshop. If you comment on multiple chapters in one review, please point out in the review exactly which chapters you comment on.
2) Post the link to your review in this thread to have it logged. You don't have to post immediately, though we'd prefer that you post no more than four at once; bear in mind that you may only claim seasonal points on reviews logged in the same season that they were posted in! Please use the following format for logging reviews (or include all of the information):
Link: [Link to Review, Fic Title]
Chapters: [disclose the number of chapters reviewed]
Bonuses: [list the bonuses you are claiming; refer to following post]
Words Written: [list the word count of your review]
Words Read: [list the cumulative word count of the fic you read]
3) Based on the guidelines below, calculate how many points you've earned with your review(s). It helps to say what criteria earned you the amount of points you calculated, but it's not required. If you're new and unsure how this works, please ask!
4) Exchange your points for cool prizes! Check out your points on the ladder here!

Every six months, the Review League will get a new facelift: this means new seasonal prizes, new ways to earn points, and new ways to spend points! The current Season is: Season 1, and will end on August 31 2026 at midnight.


How to Earn Points​

You can see how many points you have here! For the purposes of Review League, a review is defined as 100 or more words. You can determine how many points your reviews are worth using the following criteria:
Baseline Points
  • Every review logged nets you 1 point.
  • For each additional chapter discussed in a review after the first, you earn 1 additional point.
    • In order to receive this bonus, you must write an average of 100 words for each chapter that you are claiming, and the average wordcount of each chapter must exceed 1,000 words. You are free to review more chapters, but they will not receive bonus points.
  • For every 5,000 words read in the season, you receive 1 additional point. This is cumulative across all of your reading for the season.
  • For every 250 words of review you write in the season, you receive 1 additional point. This is cumulative across all of your reviews for the season.
    • If an author replies to your review and you continue to post and discuss their fic with them, you can add the discussion posts toward your word count. You would not get base points or any other additional points for replies, just word count points.
Bonus Points!
  • For reviews of fics submitted to select contests in the Writers' Workshop, you receive 1 additional point.
    • Current eligible contests: Spring 2025 Shipping
  • For first reviews of a chapter or oneshot, you receive 1 additional point.
  • For chapters or oneshots that are greater than 5,000 words in length, you receive 1 additional point.
  • Each Season will have a special way to earn points. This Season's theme is Stamina. For your first review in each month, you can claim an additional +2 points, for a total of an additional +12 points across the Season.
Comments!
Sometimes, a lengthy review just isn't in the cards! You can also write a comment, which is a post on a story that meets these criteria:
  • The post is less than 100 words.
  • The oneshot or chapter being commented on is less than 1,000 words.
  • The post is submitted as part of a beta reading for a oneshot or chapter.
    • Tag the author whose work you beta'd, and ask them to react to your post. You do not need to post additional proof, though this will be assessed on the honor system. You're also welcome to reformat your beta into a review and post/claim it as a review instead.
In the interest of keeping things fair to authors, comments must still discuss three specific things about the oneshot or chapter that you are commenting on. We reserve the right to reject comments that are too generic or do not engage with the story.

Comments will be rewarded as a flat +1 point, but are ineligible for additional bonuses.
Unsure of the math and don't want to figure it out? Just post your reviews using this template and we'll figure it out for you:
Link: [Link to Review, Fic Title]
Chapters: [disclose the number of chapters reviewed]
Bonuses: [list the bonuses you are claiming; refer to following post]
Words Written: [list the word count of your review]
Words Read: [list the cumulative word count of the fic you read]


Seasonal Points!! - Season 1, Mudsdale's Stamina​

RL1-B.png
RL1-A.png


For Season 1, our theme is Mudsdale's Stamina! Sometimes, you just gotta keep up the momentum with something.
  • This season will last 6 months. For your first review in each month, you can claim an additional +2 points, for a total of an additional +12 points across the Season.
    • Reviews are defined by their time of posting (i.e. if you post a review in July and log it in August, it will count for July).
    • The end of each month is calculated as GMT-8.
The Seasonal Shop will also have two exclusive badges, Ace Mudbray (5 Seasonal Points) and Elite Mudsdale (40 Seasonal Points), available for purchase until the end of the Season.


How to Spend Points​

You can see how many points you can spend here! There are two points shops: the Seasonal Points Shop and the Lifetime Points Shop. You can accumulate Seasonal Points during a given Season; at the end of each Season, all unspent Seasonal Points are converted to Lifetime Points, so keep an eye out! You can also choose to convert you Seasonal Points to Lifetime Points at any time, if you so desire.

Badges
This Season's has two available badges:
RL1-B.png
- 5 pts
RL1-A.png
- 40 pts

Additionally, you can spend as many points as you want to vote for next Season's Mascot Pokemon. The Pokemon with the most points at the end of the Season will be used! If you were the sole contributor for a the current Season's Pokemon, you cannot vote for the next Season's Pokemon.

Reviews
You can exchange your Seasonal Points for reviews, provided by our friendly Workshop staff! These reviews can be on your story or another story (if you have the author's permission). The wordcount of the work you are requesting reviews for will determine how many points it costs to review that work: for each 1,000 words in the fic you want reviewed, you will need 2 points. Please reach out to staff if you're unsure how the math on your points works!

Art
Art's back on the menu again, with thanks to our lovely friends over in the Artist Gallery! Do note that you will only be able to claim a certain amount of Art prizes per Season using your Seasonal Points (though you can always convert your Seasonal Points to Lifetime Points, and claim at the Lifetime Shop instead, which does not have this restriction).

Sketch - 10 Seasonal Points (Limit: 2 per season)
Sketches will usually have rougher linework or blockier colors. A sketch contains no more than 2 characters (including Pokemon), and will typically have a simplistic background.
Sketch ID: Blue at the Nugget Bridge w/ Rattata ready to fight you.
Sketch ID: Leaf at Vermillon City Port on a bench with a sleeping Clefairy. The S.S. Anne is sailing in the background.
Sketch ID: A Mega Lucario gjinka cups an aura sphere while standing on tiptoe.
Sketch ID: an absol looks down from atop a tall cliff in front of a cloudy background. A shaft of sunlight cuts through the clouds, illuminating the absol.
sketch id: the bug wants uppies
nye1-shielded-robust-png.225117

Spot Art - 40 Seasonal Points (Limit: 2 per season)
Spot Art will have some combination of finalized linework, detailed shading/colors, or a complex background, but typically no more than two of these. Spot Art contains no more than 3 characters (including Pokemon).
Spot Art ID: Blue, Daisy and Professor Oak in a family portrait together.
Spot Art ID: Rei with Crobat and Porygon high atop the mountains in the Alabaster Icelands.
Spot Art ID: A sableye clad in a red monk habit faces the camera, with its claws clasped tightly around an orb-topped staff. A mega stone necklace hangs from the golden chains draped around its neck.
Spot Art ID: A forlorn keldeo wearing a brown traveling cloak and a necklace shaped like Arceus's wheel looks nervously into a forest full of orange trees.
spot art id: the bug wants uppies
chibiervi-png.225115
dream_tiger-png.225116

Page Art - 100 Seasonal Points (Limit: 1 per season)
Page art will usually contain an ensemble collection of characters, fully rendered colors, and/or complex backgrounds.
Page Art ID: Red, Blue, Silver and Ethan in the various different seasons of the year. Red is high atop Mt. Silver with Pikachu watching diamond dust snowfall in winter, Blue is outside the Viridian City Gym in the spring as Eevee attempts to catch a cherry blossom petal. Silver is on Five Island paying his respects to Tectonix with a Lemonade at the Memorial Pillar with Sneasel during the summer and finally Ethan is running outside the Bell Tower with Togepi during the autumn.
Page Art ID: Paxton and Harmony walking beside Tepid, Chikorita and Totodile as Lumiose City hangs in the background above them, Prism Tower standing tall during the day time.
Page Art ID: Meloetta, in pirouette form, looks down. At her back, Meloetta in Aria forme looks up.
A durant, a trainer in a purple sweater and scarf, and a ralts enjoy a wintery day.
Page Art ID: a boy riding a bicycle, accompanied by a pidgey, surveys the sunset across a field of flowers as its faded into a seaside city. A dragonite crosses the sun.
1756787725811-png.225010
Art is a little harder to quantify, so in some cases we may adjust points costs based on the request--for example, a piece done in a style like a Sketch with 3 characters would be possible, but would just cost slightly more. If you're unsure, please feel free to reach out!

Other

Conlang - 40 Seasonal Points
Resident conlang nerd @Welkamo will make you a constructed language, including the phonology (sounds or other equivalent for cases like sign language), grammar, writing system, a short dictionary of words, and means of creating new words with the Zompist Word Generator. You can provide specifics of what you want, or just let him go wild based on who's speaking the language!

Interested in a prize, or interested in offering a prize? Reach out to @kintsugi or the rest of the Workshop staff and let's chat!

Badges
Bulba_Bookworm_Badge.png
- 150 points (Season 0/Review League 2)

Reviews
You can exchange your Lifetime Points for reviews, provided by our friendly Workshop staff! These reviews can be on your story or another story (if you have the author's permission). Reviews can be purchased at a rate of 6 lifetime points per 1k words of review requested. Please note that you can only use Lifetime Points to request up to 50k words of review at a time (300 Lifetime Points), though we may make some exceptions in the case of longer than expected turnaround, or to review a longfic in its entirety.

Art
Art's back on the menu again, with thanks to our lovely friends over in the Artist Gallery! Please note that you can only request one art piece using Lifetime Points at a time, though we may make some exceptions in the case of longer than expected artist turnaround.

Sketch - 40 Lifetime Points
Sketches will usually have rougher linework or blockier colors. A sketch contains no more than 2 characters (including Pokemon), and will typically have a simplistic background.
Sketch ID: Blue at the Nugget Bridge w/ Rattata ready to fight you.
Sketch ID: Leaf at Vermillon City Port on a bench with a sleeping Clefairy. The S.S. Anne is sailing in the background.
Sketch ID: A Mega Lucario gjinka cups an aura sphere while standing on tiptoe.
Sketch ID: an absol looks down from atop a tall cliff in front of a cloudy background. A shaft of sunlight cuts through the clouds, illuminating the absol.
sketch id: the bug wants uppies

Spot Art - 120 Lifetime Points
Spot Art will have some combination of finalized linework, detailed shading/colors, or a complex background, but typically no more than two of these. Spot Art contains no more than 3 characters (including Pokemon).
Spot Art ID: Blue, Daisy and Professor Oak in a family portrait together.
Spot Art ID: Rei with Crobat and Porygon high atop the mountains in the Alabaster Icelands.
Spot Art ID: A sableye clad in a red monk habit faces the camera, with its claws clasped tightly around an orb-topped staff. A mega stone necklace hangs from the golden chains draped around its neck.
Spot Art ID: A forlorn keldeo wearing a brown traveling cloak and a necklace shaped like Arceus's wheel looks nervously into a forest full of orange trees.
spot art id: the bug wants uppies

Page Art - 200 Lifetime Points
Page art will usually contain an ensemble collection of characters, fully rendered colors, and/or complex backgrounds.
Page Art ID: Red, Blue, Silver and Ethan in the various different seasons of the year. Red is high atop Mt. Silver with Pikachu watching diamond dust snowfall in winter, Blue is outside the Viridian City Gym in the spring as Eevee attempts to catch a cherry blossom petal. Silver is on Five Island paying his respects to Tectonix with a Lemonade at the Memorial Pillar with Sneasel during the summer and finally Ethan is running outside the Bell Tower with Togepi during the autumn.
Page Art ID: Paxton and Harmony walking beside Tepid, Chikorita and Totodile as Lumiose City hangs in the background above them, Prism Tower standing tall during the day time.
Page Art ID: Meloetta, in pirouette form, looks down. At her back, Meloetta in Aria forme looks up.
A durant, a trainer in a purple sweater and scarf, and a ralts enjoy a wintery day.
Page Art ID: a boy riding a bicycle, accompanied by a pidgey, surveys the sunset across a field of flowers as its faded into a seaside city. A dragonite crosses the sun.
1756787725811-png.225010
Art is a little harder to quantify, so in some cases we may adjust points costs based on the request--for example, a piece done in a style like a Sketch with 3 characters would be possible, but would just cost slightly more. If you're unsure, please feel free to reach out!

Conlang - 120 Lifetime Points
Resident conlang nerd @Welkamo will make you a constructed language, including the phonology (sounds or other equivalent for cases like sign language), grammar, writing system, a short dictionary of words, and means of creating new words with the Zompist Word Generator. You can provide specifics of what you want, or just let him go wild based on who's speaking the language!

Interested in a prize, or interested in offering a prize? Reach out to @kintsugi or the rest of the Workshop staff and let's chat!
Written by kintsugi