AntonioMontana walks to his soapbox made of white powder and begins to speak...

My friends, like all of you, I am extremely excited to hear of the competition that's taking place on the streets.  I wanna be among the first to thank Lincoln_Lawyer for making his "dream" a reality.  Even if it fails, he's taken a shot at fulfilling a long-held ambition, and we shouldn't denigrate a man for that.

But I have some concerns, which I will now detail:

"Our current judges are: Dagda, Sonic, AmeliaGato and Dr_Satan"

Nothing for nothing, but is this really a diverse judging panel?  They're all leaders.  High-achievers.  Will they really have the requisite empathy to judge a piece from an up-and-comer?  And what if we have a hugely talented writer that has managed to piss off every single judge?  What then?  

It seems to me that those entering the competition should be able to suggest their own judging arrangements, particularly if they can prove they're likely to be the victim of prejudice.  

"In the event that Lincoln (as the host), decides to lose his mind and go rogue in an attempt to scam everybody and run off with the prizes for himself, I will honour the full prize pool. In addition, I will also give compensation to the children of the fallen."

Again, and I don't mean no disrespect, how do we know that Lincoln_Lawyer isn't going to play SatoruGojo for a fool and steal all the loot and leave others to pay the winners?  I mean, I've been listening to stories, and I've heard that Lincoln once upon a time was involved in another contest that left the winner unrewarded because the winning prizes were sold by Lincoln and handed to someone who hadn't even entered the contest.  I appreciate that SJ is gonna foot the bill for Lincoln's skulduggery, but without a really robust oversight, we might end up with a situation where the winners are a bit, well, overly represented from the sole donator of the prizes, know what I mean?

Also:

"A small query for you ( PauliePoorAnalogy ), given that I ensured that first and second place received a prize for their entry, despite the Kuku bloodline and its cronies doing their best to ensure that only they themselves benefited, will you be covering the prizes for this competition if I and Sonic decided to run away with the credits?"

What gives here?  He's trying to rope in one of the entrants into footing the bill for a scam he's theoretically considering with Sonic.  I mean, why is this important?

"Another quick update, we have a special guest judge offer his services to the competition. I've known this man for quite some time, and have always found his intregrity beyong reproach. May I introduce our special guest Judge, @Toby."

Lincoln keeps talking up how friendly he is with the judges, and their "integrity" - where is the diversity?  How do we know that people will win based on merit?  If I add a few of my own judges, it's more likely that my friends would win (if I were a liar and a cheat), so why does Lincoln get to keep adding judges and talking smack about who's going to cover for him when, sorry,  IF, he rogues? 

It seems to me that the Overton window has already been reached with this contest.  Too much talkin about cheating and compensation.

And not one word about the casualties associated with competitions.  Who's looking after that?  

Amelia was walking home after a very long day of bothering people and whatever else it was she did in her free time. She had stopped to adjust the buckle on her shoe, as it was rubbing against her ankle in a very painful way, when a man started talking. At first she was willing to ignore him, but then her name was said so she started half listening. By the time the man had finished, she had sorted her shoe and stood up. "Well the simple fact is if you're not confident in the process, its best you don't compete." Amelia said before giving a shrug of her shoulders. She was bored, the whole thing had bored her over the weekend, and now here she was being bored even further by the same drivel and claptrap that had forced her into a comatose state the last few days. Amelia looked down to the buckle of her shoe, wiggling her foot a bit to ensure it wasn't going to resume being a painful annoyance, resumed her journey to her ultimate destination, anywhere where contests were not being discussed. 

I wish your feet every comfort, AmeliaGato

But we must remain steadfast and aloof from personal gripes when dealing with something as important as regulation.  Without rules, we would have mayhem.  I don't think you want mayhem any more than I do, so it is important that we reach an agreed approach.

The stakes are much, much higher in this competition than in any one previous.  The calibre (in terms of rank, not in terms of quality) of the judging panel (as it stands just now, we are expecting more to be added "willy nilly") is such that an aspiring writer who is rubbished by a literal WHO's WHO of this thing of ours in the judging remarks could be forever dispirited.

Is that what you want?

I want writers to be free, compensated, protected and applauded.  What this competition does is force them in front of a bunch of "big shots" and made to sing for their supper.

What if all of the entrants are from Lincoln's crew?  He's already shown a degree of favouritism towards them.

So what do we do?  

As Amelia said, don't enter Antonio if you don't think the game isn't righed in your favour, sorry, that the judging panel isn't to your liking. No one is being forced to do anything after all.

Well, Lincoln_Lawyer - I have already entered, and I believe mine to be a fine piece.

Time will tell if I am judged fairly. 

I guess the 'peon masses' finally see you for the 2 bit confidence trick spinning flim-flam men that you and your cronies are.

Mikazuki walked into the streets and spotted a junior member of his making accusations towards respected members of the community. This was not appropriate, however he chose not to intervene. As he continued to watch the young man was beginning to be ignored by the masses. At the sight of being ignored, he began to profess, even beg other passersby to pay money to listen to him. This was not the proper image to be displayed by a member of Tekkadan. With no further hesitation Mika pulled his pistol from his jacket, fired one round into the man's head and simply walked away. On to his next task for the day.

Oaky had been aware of these competitions for quite some time now and watched it from time to time, not because he wanted to join, but because he was trying to understand what was going on. He would rather be dealing drugs, committing crimes with crewmates and as well as hanging out.
Seeing his newer crewmate standing up and voice his thoughts and concern was interesting but Oaky was also too tired and dozing off a bit to listen to every word.
Oaky woke up when his crewmate started persuading people for tips for worrying about them. Oaky was ready to leave When suddenly a gunshot was heard and his crewmate fell on the ground! With eyes wide open, Okay searched for who dared to do such a thing, and saw it was his their own Boss. A mental OH SHIT! was not heard from Oaky's mind, but his facial expression could tell everything. Oaky left the scenario.