Vote for May's Golden Variants

Post for April: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-aprils-golden-variants

Scroll down to the bold text if you want to know how to vote without reading my entire message

Hello Custom Variants community, 

Since I wanted the voting period to be longer this time, I've decided to make this post early! 

The Golden Variant arenas have continued to garner a lot of players; only being passed in terms of popularity in recent weeks by the VCS tournament. Like I said in the last post, this is a good thing! It means that variants which may otherwise not get the attention they deserve will be introduced to more and more players as these arenas are continued. 

Villagers Chess and Mini Forest have continued to have upwards of up to 50 games played per day, which is pretty decent; Minihouse and Amazon Jungle (which were voted for last time) have not had their Golden Variant arenas yet at the time I'm posting this, but have over 100 active players each, and sometimes 100+ games in a single day. 

After April, we will be at Week 11 of the Golden Variants series in 2024. These are the variants that have been played thus far:

• Week 1 (2/24): Cross Derby  
• Week 2 (3/1): Rookmate  
• Week 3 (3/8): Behind the Mirror  
• Week 4 (3/15): Villagers Chess  
• Week 5 (3/22): Blackletter Chess  
• Week 6 (3/29): Mini Forest 
• Week 7 (4/5): Ashtandrez 
• Week 8 (4/12): Caught in a Snag  
• Week 9 (4/19): Minihouse  
• Week 10 (4/26): Amazon Jungle 

This time, we're changing the format up a bit. Read below for the changes:

• Arenas will now be 72 hours long normally. 
• The first week will be the newest accepted NCV (Warui-shogi), and will be an all week (168 hour) arena.
• The second week will be the other newest accepted NCV, if applicable (e.g., if another NCV is accepted between the creation of this post and the finalization of the vote). If not, then the slot will go to the third place winner of the main vote. The arena will only be an all week arena if the former scenario occurs.
• The third week will be the first place winner of the main vote.
• The fourth week will be the second place winner of the main vote.
• The fifth week will be one of the variants featured in the last 10 weeks of the Golden Variant arenas (listed above), and will be decided by a separate vote. The arena for this variant will be called "Platinum Variant".

The vote will last for 14 days. The exact time left can viewed by entering the poll screens!

Main Vote: https://strawpoll.com/B2ZBEL2aBgJ

Platinum Variant Vote: https://strawpoll.com/wAg3ArzMWy8

The guidelines are as follows for the Main vote:

1. The variants voted for cannot be in the Most Popular or Common section, but may come from the Featured or Extra section (exceptions: Checky Spell Chess and Racing Kings also cannot be chosen).
2. Warui-shogi, Enchanted Woodland, and the 10 variants in previous editions of the Golden Variant arena cannot be voted for.
3. The variants must be 2 Player NCVs or 2 Player Historical Variants. We will allow 4 Player variants in the June vote and give them greater emphasis at that time.

The guidelines are as follows for the Platinum Variant vote:

1. The variants voted for must be one of the variants from the previous 10 editions of the Golden Variant arena.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this! Please leave any feedback and questions in the comments below!

Please read the guidelines; they will be allowed in June, although I think a lot of people missed that. I usually just edit their votes to not include the 4P variants, but I'll allow Tag Team though.

VOTE ROOKMATE FOR PLATINUM! I MADE IT!!!!!

Since we just accepted Enchanted Forest, it'll be in Week 2 of May! I've already scheduled Week 11 and Week 12 now that both of them have been confirmed.

Final Standings (Main Vote)

(Variants with less than 2 votes are omitted)

1. Thermopylae (4)
2. Infiltration Danger (3)
3. Sergeant's Checkers (2)
4. Trapped Queens (2)
5. Tag Team (2)

Final Standings (Platinum Variant Vote)

1. Minihouse (8)
2. Behind the Mirror (7)
3. Villagers Chess (5)
4. Cross Derby (3)
5. Rookmate (3)
6. Mini Forest (3)
7. Amazon Jungle (1)
8. Caught in a Snag (1)

Thanks to everyone for voting!