VERSUS Finals : Winner & Voting Result

Our VERSUS head-to-head tournament Finals has been voted upon by a selected panel of judges. It's time to announce the winner and conclude the tournament. Congratulations to our finalists, Joel Domingo and Brian Santos, for making it this far. It has been a long process that you both went through. Your effort was evident and clearly it has paid off for you. In the end, there could only be one winner.

In previous rounds, we invited guest judges (Focus outsiders) to determine the matchup winners. For the Finals, there was a special twist : the winner shall be decided by a panel of judges made up of Focus members - the Top 10 of the 2014 Photographer Of The Year competition plus the winners of individual Focus contests this year. They were asked to vote individually (via private message), with the entry/contestant gathering the majority of the votes to be deemed the winner.

Our panel of judges include :

Photographer Of The Year 2014 Top Ten : Jay Salvador, Chi Lopez, Noel Crisostomo, Lheo Halili, Amen Alcoriza, Alih Viaje, Julius Calzo, Mhoie Mendoza, Red Bautista, and Marlo Bien

Individual PhotoContest Winners of 2015 : Bobby Jo, Sherwin Tomas, Manuel Joson, Nico San Pedro, Erick Austria, Ian Earl Calalang, and Jan Kevin Angeles

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THEME FOR THE FINALS : OLD AND NEW... STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA
(No processing allowed at all. The finalists were asked to submit RAW and unprocessed JPEG files of their entry for verification.)

These were the entries from our two finalists (you may click on the photos to view them bigger) :

ENTRY 1

ENTRY 2

This was how the judges voted :
Jay Salvador - Entry 1
Chi Lopez - Entry 1
Noel Crisostomo - Entry 1
Lheo Halili - Entry 2
Amen Alcoriza - Entry 1
Alih Viaje - Entry 1
Julius Calzo - Entry 1
Mhoie Mendoza - Entry 1
Marlo Bien - Entry 1
Bobby Jo - Entry 2
Sherwin Tomas - Entry 2
Manuel Joson - Entry 1
Nico San Pedro - Entry 1
Erick Austria - Entry 2
Ian Earl Calalang - Entry 2
Jan Kevin Angeles - Entry 1
Red Bautista - failed to vote

Final Tally : 11 votes for Entry 1, 5 votes for Entry 2

The owner of Entry 1 and our winner of the VERSUS Head-To-Head Tournament is...

You are the champion of the VERSUS tournament, Joel Domingo! As prize, you get a slot at the premier landscape workshop in the Philippines, CHASING LIGHT, courtesy of Focus Bulacan. You may claim your slot at your preferred workshop schedule. You also get 40 bonus points for the Photographer Of The Year competition, while VERSUS runner-up Brian Santos gets 30 points.

Here again is the breakdown of bonus POTY points for Versus participants (based on the round they reach) :
1st Round : 3 points
2nd Round : 7 points
3rd Round : 12 points
Quarterfinals : 18 points
Semifinals : 24 points
Finals : 30 points
Champion : 40 points
(Please note that VERSUS and Photographer Of The Year are different competitions. VERSUS is just part of the POTY competition.)

Our thanks to the participants who took up the VERSUS challenge, and also the guest judges who helped us determine the winners. To see the final tournament bracket, go to http://challonge.com/focusversus.

64 participants. 7 rounds. 1 winner : Joel Domingo. Congratulations.

The tournament is hereby over.