Rings of Power: The 2022 Middle Earth LEGO Olympics
/You may have noticed a lot of impressive Middle Earth MOCs showing up in your social media feed lately—this was no coincidence—and it is not because of the new Rings of Power show but because of the rings of another sort. LOTRLUG and I recently hosted a contest called the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics (or MELO for short). Overall, the contest was a blast!
It was my first time running a contest, and I learned a lot through this process. I was also amazed at some of the incredible builds the contestants managed to churn out, and I thoroughly enjoyed poring over them all. As such, I thought it would be worth writing an article to document some of the behind-the-scenes processes and highlight some of the fantastic creations built for the contest.
Some Things That Should Not Have Been Forgotten Were Lost
Our story actually starts a decade ago, back in 2012, when LEGO first launched the Lord of the Rings theme. The release of these sets inspired the creation of a new contest—the original Middle Earth LEGO Olympics. If I’m being honest, I don’t know a whole lot about the original MELO. I wasn’t a part of the online community back then, and since MOCPages, the site that hosted the original MELO, was deleted a couple of years ago, it’s hard to find much information on it now.
an advertisement for melo 2017
As such, I’m not exactly sure how it started or who was involved with its inception, but it was a Middle Earth-based, tournament-style contest that ran annually from 2012 to 2017. I don’t know a ton of specifics beyond that, but it was a pretty big hit and I’ve heard a lot of fond reminiscing about it. However, all good things must come to an end, and eventually MELO stopped being held and passed out of all LEGO knowledge.
The Forging of a Fellowship
While the time of MELO may have been over, there were still plenty of LEGO LOTR fans out there. Several years ago, my friend LegoLamb brought together several of these enthusiasts and started LOTRLUG. He invited me to join the LUG shortly before he announced it to the public, and being a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, I happily obliged. Since then, the LUG has flourished, attracting plenty of big castle builders and leading to several impressive Middle Earth-based collaborations.
The first post from LOTRLUG’s Instagram page
One thing that the group talked about several times was the idea of hosting a contest through the LUG, but for a long time, nothing actually came to fruition. I’d wanted to host a contest for a while, so I finally decided to take the initiative and volunteer to lead something. In one of our earlier LUG calls when we were talking about the concept of hosting a contest, the idea of rebooting MELO came up—I don’t remember whose idea it was, so unfortunately I can’t credit them. However, that idea stuck around in the back of my head, and I decided to roll with it. Now that I knew what I wanted to do, I just had to figure out how to do it!
After coming up with a rough plan, I presented my idea to the LOTRLUG leadership and asked if they were interested in hosting the contest. Once they’d approved the idea, I set to work on finalizing my plans. Figuring out the exact dates and schedule was the first step, along with deciding on the themes, determining the rules and guidelines, putting together prizes, and recruiting judges. I also had to get the word out and attract attention, so I threw together several teasers to post on social media promoting the contest.
At last, the contest was ready to begin! However, because MELO 2022 was a tournament contest, it posed a unique challenge in that it required constant work throughout the contest’s two-month span, and I was continually preparing for future rounds. Every week I had to repeat writing up announcements, updating the bracket, uploading all of the entries to be judged, communicating with participants, and a variety of other tasks. Luckily, I had some great help from the LUG leadership and judges, but it was still a lot of work!
The first round of the contest kicked off on July 1, and the contest officially came to a close on August 31, lasting two months in total. It followed the setup of the original MELO pretty closely, consisting of a tournament format with five rounds. each round had its own unique prompt that the builders were required to follow (I’ll go into each of the specific themes later on in this article). The first round was free for anyone to enter with the top 16 entrants proceeding to the second round. The contestants were then split into pairings and pitted against each other in one-on-one duels, with the highest-scoring of the two contestants proceeding to the next round. In this manner they were slowly whittled down until only one remained.
We’re Going on An Adventure!
Of course, I had to get in on the fun and build some Middle Earth myself. I also happened to need some prizes for the contest. So, I took a page from Summer Joust’s book (actually, I stole a lot of pages from their book throughout the contest) and decided to make some custom MOC prizes for the contest. I settled on building microscale models of Bag End and Barad-Dur, two of the most iconic locations from Middle Earth. In addition to these MOCs, the first and second-place winners also received some castle-themed parts packs that I put together.
The first round was a free round so there was no specific theme—if it was related to Middle Earth then it was fair game! We ended up receiving impressive 24 entries, and while I enjoyed each and every one of them, you can see a few of my personal favorites below.
Some Good In the World Worth Fighting For
For the second round, we whittled it down to 16 contestants and tasked them with building a 1v1 duel. While Middle Earth is full of impressive large-scale battles, it was neat to see people’s interpretations of some of the smaller fights present in Tolkien’s work. Again, I’ve selected some of my favorite entries from this round for your viewing pleasure.
From the Ashes a Fire Shall Be Woken
For the third round, the contestants had to build something related to fire. We saw balrogs, burning trees, flaming swords, and more!
The Most Unlikely Creature Imaginable
For round four, the remaining competitors were tasked with building either 1) a creature or beast, or 2) a scene that is centered around a creature or beast. Once again, I was blown away by what the builders came up with!
One Build To Rule Them All
Finally, after four grueling rounds of high-speed building, it came down to just two competitors—Gus (Faebricks) and Josiah Durant (Josdu). To prove that they were worthy of being the MELO 2022 champion, they were tasked with building a location fit for a king. Gus built Thranduil’s majestic throne while Josdu recreated the dynamic Fall of Gondolin.
Both builds were fantastic finales to phenomenal showings from both builders, but in the end, Josdu came away with the title of MELO 2022 champion!
Overall, the contest was a huge success! A lot of credit is due to a lot of people; in particular, I’d like to thank all the contestants for really bringing the contest to life, as well as the LOTRLUG leadership for helping with the behind-the-scenes details. Finally, a special thanks to all the judges: Cody Purviance, Jako of Nerogue, Markus Rollbühler, Raphael, Roanoke Handybuck, and Timothy S!
The Road Goes Ever On and On
Did you miss out on the building fun this year? Don’t worry, the plan is for MELO to be an annual event so keep your eyes peeled for the contest’s return next summer! Until then, farewell, and may the blessings of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces!
What was your favorite moment of the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics? Let us know in the comments below.
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