It was a tight race and a hard choice with so many talented entries in this year's Pumpkin Carving Contest Top 25 finalists! 362 votes were cast before the poll deadline, leaving us with four clear winners!

In the end, the Tonberry was able to deal a deadly Throat Stab to the infamous Shantotto, stealing victory right from under the rhyming wizardess's nose! Congratulations to Efiel of Bahamut for snagging the grand prize of a Shadow Lord statue and to Lahurah of Seraph for coming in a close second!

The stunning pumpkin, Tales from the Cryptaru, which used a combination of shading, etching, and carving, came in third place. Congratulations to Serileth of Sylph on a job and pumpkin well done! A complicated etching of the epic scene from the Kingdom of San d'Oria in the past came in 4th place. Congratulations to Alobont of Quetzalcoatl for a great entry! Read on for more details!

Discuss this on the ZAM forums!

Votes Cast: 362

Tonberry: 117
Shantotto: 97
Tales from the Cryptaru: 28
Ode to the Past: 20
Chocobo Chick #3: 14
Promathia: 13
Goblin #2: 9
Mithra Red Mage: 7
Halloween Parade: 6
Ninja Fomor: 5
Total Loser: 5
Trick or Treat: 5
A Moogle Kupo d'Etat: 4
Mandragora #9: 4
Shantotto #2: 4
Chocobo Family: 3
Odin: 3
Ranger: 3
Sprite: 3
Ark Angel TT: 2
Imp: 2
Moogle Henchman #2: 2
Robel-Akbel: 2
Sahagin: 2
Tarutaru Witch: 2

Late Votes: 48

Overall, the most common comment that we got in submissions was that the contest was a lot of fun, which makes this contest a roaring success in our eyes. We're happy that so many of you enjoyed something Final Fantasy XI-related out of game with such a fun activity. We hope to see even more participation in next year's contest!

The team at ZAM would like to thank the following people for making this contest possible:

- Square Enix for sponsoring the prizes and assisting in the promotion of the contest.
- The Final Fantasy XI design team for the awesome in-game prizes.
- The Japan OCR team and Creator's Voice Z for their contest promotion and carving video.
- Dengeki for their contest promotion article and participation.
- Ikkian for the French translation.
- Ainiwaffles and Pissflitsche for the German translation.