First of all, I want to apologise for taking so long to choose the winners of my contest.
I had planned to get it done last week and then 'stuff' happened. Well, in other words: Christmas coming up, lots of work to do for DaVinci and I had a child in the hospital for a week (nothing serious, no worries). So other priorities.
Aside from that, it was IMMENSELY difficult to make any choices.
But I did it, or we did it, because I asked 
How the choices were made
First I looked at the contestants' posts. Did they do what I asked? I'm happy to say they all did. Some posts were more elaborate than others, but that doesn't matter. They all followed the rules.
Then I looked at the entries' posts. Were they put together well, did we really get to know a little bit about these people?
I discovered that we did. All posts were very well made and all of them gave us a good look at who we had in front of us.
This made it harder for me, because there were no eliminations there.
So I had to make a choice to make sure the right people were left. I remembered what this contest was all about in the first place: to get new Steemians in the spotlight for a bit and of course, to get them to engage with whomever entered them and a few more people who were drawn to their post due to the contest.
Unfortunately, I found that out of all 11 entries, (12 in total, because one person introduced 2 people) there were a couple who had neither posted anything after their introduction post, nor engaged with others. A thank you to the people who went out of their way to search for the perfect introduction post would also be nice. Not all people did this, and call me old-fashioned: but it's just common courtesy if you ask me.
This left me with 6 entries. Partly a shame, because it would have been nice to see all these people thrive.
But I had to be as honest as possible and with that, I asked myself the following question: Which of these people will most likely still be here one year from now? And who will be creating content or at least engage in other people's work?
To be honest, I don't think 6 out of 12 is too bad. I think it's pretty good actually.
So, I put the six people that were left in front of
I already had my three favourites in mind, or actually four, and funny enough, her three top choices were the same as mine! With one slight difference...the order.
OK, here we go. I will no longer keep the suspense going.
I did however change things a bit, because I just didn't want to leave any of my favourites out. I therefore chose to have two shared third places...With the same winnings.
ALL entries were awesome, and I want to thank everyone for participating!
Shared third place goes to:
They each won 5 Steem.
Why? I REALLY REALLY REALLY liked both entries. I shared both entrants' enthusiasm about these people. Both posts were amazing.
As for 
I really liked your spirit and also your honesty about yourself. I liked the introduction post you made: what you see is what you get and I think you fit in here quite well. (I guess now you won something huh? 😉)
The second place goes to:
I loved 
The FIRST place goes to:
He told me that he thought they could be great friends and from their interactions I've seen that this is quite true.
Great pick!
Ever since you joined the platform, you've been posting on a regular basis, you're commenting and engaging. I LOVED your introduction post and I really hope to see you grow on the platform.
To all the winners: Congratulations!
Check your accounts, the winnings are there.
Proof that I transferred the Steem to each winner:
Thank you for reading!
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