Eorzea's Next Top Model Cycle 4 - FINAL ROUND!

[Maleha]

This has been a very short, but sweet Cycle. We have seen a lot of new faces and old. And while I am sad my prediction did not come true, you three have all done great work. You 3 finalists have shown amazing growth and each of you was placed nr 1 or 2 at least once in my critiques. Here is my appraisal of your final submissions:

1) Nozomi Kei – This is something I have come accustomed to expect in ENTM. A picture that tells a story, in this case even without the blurb. It’s framed nicely with this over the shoulder view from the Roegadyn, though – and I hate to sound like our favourite Lala – I wish you were not centered. A bit further to the right maybe, because even though you are an Elezen you feel much dwarfed. Still, this is a great picture and my favourite of the Final Round.
2) Sunny Day – This reminds me a bit of Epsil’s shot from Round 1. Some improvement in the lighting and if we could see a bit more of your face and it’d be perfect. As it is still one hell of a picture. The downside however, while it is a great action shot… I cannot make out enough to really identify anything that makes this a fate and not a simple battle shot.
3) Stephen Fairbrook - Aww. You have done great shots, but this isn’t one of them. The framing is nice enough but it’s really just you next to a Kedtrap. It feels non interactive, a very simple posing shot. Compared to Nozomi and Sunny where they have either a story or some action, this is a bit of a let-down.

Now, since I need to give a final answer based on the entire portfolio, I decided to stay true to my decisions of past rounds because that always was written after careful deliberation and I will use those as measurements. I wrote myself a list where I wrote down your rankings per round and assigned 3, 2 or 1 points depending on who placed above the other two, in the middle and last.
I got the following results after tallying up 5 rounds:
Stephen Fairbrook 11
Sunny Day 8
Nozomi Kei 11
Really close there! With the Final Round added, my final ranking of you is thusly:

3rd Place: Sunny Day with 10 points
2nd Place: Stephen Fairbrook with 12 points
1st Place: Nozomi Kei with 14 points

As many have commented, you three were incredibly well matched and it was a close race. You all deserve praise! You came up with great ideas and compositions and I really only chose this system to determine my winner because I would not know how to otherwise. That’s how close this call is.
Nozomi, I hope you win, you deserve it. My favourite picture in your portfolio is still the Cosplay one. The beauty in its simplicity still blows me away. I hope you choose that one as your “Winner’s Picture” to be displayed if you win. :3

[Mugiawara]

Stephen.
Nozomi.
Sunny.

[EorzeasNTM]

Congratulations to our Top 3!
You should all be very proud of yourselves.
You took out 4 past cycle models, the creator himself, and, as its been said, are the first Top 3 to be all males.

It is going to be super difficult to rank you guys...but i'll give it a shot!

3rd Place: Sunny. You are the only one in the top 3 to have scored 1st place in previous rounds, true...But looking at past rankings, you've been hit or miss. The hits were amazing, no doubt, and props for shooting up from 7th to 2nd in the Second Round. After that, you struggled in the middle before finally hitting first. Polarizing is great, and its earned you a spot in the top 3.

2nd Place: Stephen. This is the hardest choice. You and Nozomi both have grown so much! But you stumbled the greatest at the very beginning of the competition, which is why I am ranking you second. After an initial 5th place ranking, you fell 3 ranks to 8th. From then on you were Top 3 every round, and it was very much deserved! I think many of us were very shocked to see you not place first in Round 5. Your portfolio is very strong, and I wont be disappointed if you are crowned ENTM. Rankings are the name of the game though, so please accept this 2nd Place Ranking and an apology. ^^;;;;;

1st Place: Nozomi. I went back and forth on this decision for a while, but looking at your history through the cycle, I think you are most deserving of Top Model. You started in 8th, then rose to 5th, and finished out the rest of the cycle in Top 3. That is some MAJOR growth, and I am so proud of you! You fell just one rank, from second to third, in Round 5, which is why I am ranking you First. Your growth has been exciting to watch, and I would be happy to see you crowned the winner.

No matter who wins, we are all winners for simply having the guts to participate in this competition. I hope you've all made some friends this Cycle, and continue to be a part of the ENTM Community in some way.

Don't forget! The winner of this Cycle will join the ENTM Youtube Edition Opening Sequence starting in Episode 2.

And to make things easier on Tyriont:
1. Nozomi
2. Stephen
3. Sunny

[Bramble]

/Gulp. /Deepbreath...

1. Stephen
2. Nozomi
3. Sunny

You're all winners in my eyes! <333

[Oce]

I love all of you. Just the bare bones voting this time, taking into account the entire portfolios. Gorgeous work as always. :>

Stephen Fairbrook
Sunny Day
Nozomi Kei

[Pooky_Bear]

Will not stay on page 3!
~Bump~

[Pooky_Bear]

Omg page 3 again!
What? No more votes for the final round?!

C'mon! These beautiful people need to be seen! ^^

[Ganglyzilla]

It's already the end?! It came so fast :O Congratulations to the remaining models for making it into the top three!

1. Nozomi Kei
2. Stephen Fairbrook
3. Sunny Day

[Argonar]

1. Stephen Fairbrook
2. Nozomi Kei
3. Sunny Day

Good luck!

[Hivernica]

1. Sunny Day
2. Nozomi Kei
3. Stephen Fairbrook