The Rumbles The Rumbles was the fourth competition to exist and started many trends that you see around web competitions today. Founded: The Rumbles was founded in November of 1998. Founded by: Sara MacDonald - originally named Lady Sparklez, but over the years also adopted the names 'Lady Discoz' and 'Mystical Grrl'. The Rumbles is one of the few 'true' NVE comps running. Opening Date: January 4, 1999 Reason Opened: Sara was also a competitor at The Site Fights, but left when the owners of The Web Brawls left. She was going to join The Web Brawls, but wanted to do something a little differently. As there were no other major web comps around at the time, she decided to start her own based on the themes of No Vote Exchange, and being able to compete in all competitions that you wished too. VE or NVE: Originally No Vote Exchange - over time they adopted VE & NVE, and in 2006 went back to completely no vote exchange. November, 2006 the competition reverted back to having VE & NVE as Mystical Grrl was running the competition again. Slogan: Where the True Champions Compete Original Ideas: The Rumbles was the first competition to not allow vote exchanging at all - they believed that with vote exchange only the person with the most time to vote each day would win. They were also the first comp to allow sites to compete at whichever competitions they liked with no restrictions. The Rumbles was the first comp to start things like Bingo, Quilts, Blinkie Racks, etc. - things that you can see all over at website competitions now. They also were the first and only to this date to have Occasions Graphics, or to start things like the Most Unfair Comp, The Surfers Group and The Kids Rumbles - a website competition specifically and only for kids. The Rumbles is known for its original ideas and its openeness to any new ideas that may not have come before. The owner of the Rumbles also founded WCOTY. Almost forgot *grin* but The Rumbles also started the idea that to win you do not have to win consecutively - most comps are 3X wins in a row in order to retire and be entered into the championship of the year - The Rumbles is four wins, but you can have those wins anytime in the year, they do not have to be consecutively. Also, The Rumbles was the first to offer sites to be able to use spirit points in order to stay on an upper level once they'd lost it and also the first to offer an award that you didn't have to compete for. History: When The Rumbles began the comp started off very small, but within six months The Rumbles had 24 teams of 30 sites each (or more!) and were considering adding in 6 new teams to cover all of the sites that were joining. At that time there were about 50 new signups each week - it was crazy! At the end of the year though several team leaders and other staff decided to form their own competition taking a lot of the fighters with them, and generally ending things very badly. The staff that left formed the website competition 'The Digital Delilahs'. The Rumbles regrouped, and kept on going, but Lady Sparklez at that time was running into difficulties in her personal life, so handed the comp over to someone else. That person handed the comp over to another leader in The Rumbles, and eventually The Rumbles was handed back to Lady Sparklez for management in May, 2001. Unfortunately this came at another bad time in Lady Sparklez' life, and she eventually had to shut down The Rumbles for a few months until she had more time to run it. Since that time, The Rumbles has been shut down at various times, however the last re-opening date was in September of 2005. In January of 2006, Mystical Grrl (Lady Sparklez) decided she needed more time to spend with her family, so she discussed merging with Sirkissa's Magick Karnival. Unfortunately, that didn't go through, but at the same time, she had asked one of her assistant managers, Angelstorm, to take over the NVE side of the competition, just making it a bit smaller than it was at that time. Angelstorm accepted, and now runs The Rumbles NVE comp completely, though Mystical Grrl can still be found at The Rumbles helping out. Towards the middle of October, 2006, Angelstorm decided that she could no longer run The Rumbles. There was some talk about shutting down the competition all together, but in the end Mystical Grrl decided to step back in and manage it. The Rumbles has now gone back to having both a VE & NVE side, and re-opened for competition in November, 2006. In early 2008 The Rumbles swapped from having a huge competition to just having a mini-comp. This was to have more time to focus on making friends and having fun while being able to maintain an outside life :) Still Running?: Yes, The Rumbles is currently in operation. Visit The Rumbles Copyright Sara MacDonald, 2006-2008 Webset by Country Colors