It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Who won the Bloodborne Face Your Fear competition? Who won our two PlayStation 4 consoles? Find out inside!
Reminder: this was a super bumper competition. You may not have won a console, but you may have picked up a copy of the game itself when it’s released, and you may have won tickets to our exclusive Bloodborne launch party. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find out.
And The Winner Is…
swedishspecs
Sooo… Being the little miscreant I was in my early youth.
My brother and I thought it was a brilliant idea to hide inside a coffin while our parents were sorting out a coffin for our deceased grandfather.
As we laid inside the coffin giggling like a bunch of twats, waiting to scare any passer-by who would dare approach the coffin.
Little did we know, like the little miscreants we were. That the coffin we went in could only be opened from the outside and we thought we were doomed to be buried alive inside the coffin in a graveyard (How’d that happen from a coffin in a shop eludes me now but…). But as a child, your imagination runs wild (It doesn’t help when you watch MA15+ horror movies but hey, I’m sure we all didn’t give a damn about rules back then).
Though out parents were incredibly furious when they found us (More about us damaging property than our well-being.), we were gloriously saved by the shopkeeper opening up the casket. He was like Asian Jesus with a basket of puppies and kittens.
Till this day. Whenever I see coffins… Oh wait, I avoid those areas like the plague.
Swedishspecs wins the following:
— A Glacier White PlayStation 4 console plus Bloodborne Nightmare Edition
— We will be recording Swedishspecs facing his fear: being buried alive. Oh dear. This is going to be brutal.
— One double pass to Kotaku’s Bloodborne launch event in Sydney (travel costs not included).
2nd Prize
[clear]
weresmurf
My fear, my truest fear, was never doing anything in my life of any worth. Of never amounting to anything. Of never being of any impact on anyones life. Of my son growing up and saying, when I pass ‘Yeah, he was my Dad, but he was noone special.’ My fear, is to be forgotten with time by the ones I love like so many before me and so many after me will be. I don’t need to be remembered as a statue, I don’t need to be remembered in song, I just need to be remembered in the minds of those who love me, but at a certain point in my life, I was noone, I was a bad father, I had done nothing and my fear was as alive as it had ever been.
So I sought to conquer that fear and destroy it.
I looked at my fitness as a start, something I’ve always battled, I didn’t want to die by 40, I was obese. I was overweight, so I took control of my epilepsy medication, no longer letting it control me. I got off it and onto a different kind. I got energy back, slowly. I was sick for around 3 months. I was on the toilet regularly, I was barely eating. I went down from 150 to 130 just being sick all the time. If I wasn’t vomiting I was on the loo going out the other end. That was me, for three months. It was a nightmare. In that time, I was at Tafe full time as well, trying to take control of my mind. Trying to learn something.
After three months, I finally felt better, no longer a trainwreck. I suddenly had energy, so I started at a karate club. I was fitter, it was gruelling to begin with but it worked for me. I was dropping weight. My fear of being dead by 40 pushed that age back to 50. I wanted it to go further. So I pushed myself. By mid 2010 I was down to 120 kilos. I started fighting in tournaments. I won a few rounds, came 3rd, 2nd but never first. That didn’t matter. I had my eye on the end of the year, I wanted to go to Sydney, to compete in the Nationals, the NAS National All Styles in Sydney. I trained my ass off, suddenly I was getting a LOT fitter. My fears were pushed right back, I was where I wanted to be, my weight dropped right off. I was 110 and feeling awesome. Pilates 4 times a week, training twice. I wasn’t working but I was getting myself back into shape.
December came around, I was now working full time for a private school in IT, but I travelled to Sydney. My fears kicked in again. I had to fight infront of thousands of people. Thousands. Out on a mat, I fought in continuous fighting, I got beaten, infront of thousands, but the fear was gone. I did it. I conquered it. I came back the next day hungrier than anyone in that damn place to succeed… why? My girlfriend rang me at 7am that day, told me she was leaving me (no shit), told me were done.
I walked in furious. I had point sparring to go. I tore through every opponent like a hot knife through butter, my fear was replaced with rage. I got through everyone, 5 competitors, only to face off against a great friend from ATA Tae Kwon Do. My rage subsided. We faced off, two friends, I didn’t care if I won. I’d done it. From nothing, to national champion in one year. When it finished, 8 points to 11, he won. But I was now 2nd best in Australia in my division. I almost burst into tears at conquering everything I had that year.
Skip forward a year and a half. That gf and I had gotten back together only to split. I still feared not making my mark on the world in any noteable way. I feared not being good enough for my son. So I enrolled in the APT course at MSIT at Yeeronga. I cruised through my Year 12, when I was IN year 12, I got an OP of 25. After 9 months of attending every single week without fail, I walked out with an OP of 2. I was heading to Uni.
I don’t need to tell you, at 35 years of age, the prospect of Uni didn’t just inspire fear? It filled me with TERROR.
But I’ve done it. I sit here, in my third year, my Bachelor of Education. I’m heading into being an English and History teacher. I’m damn good too. Because every fear I have, I seek to conquer and kill, and I bloody well tell my students the same. Every year, I tell my prac students, FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real. This is something my Shihan told me, because when you put your mind to it, there’s nothing you can’t conquer.
Just an ammendment. I started having chest pains around December last year, I feared the worst being 37. I was worried it was the end for me, I had gotten huge. It mortified me I could leave this earth. Since I’d started Uni I’d gotten complacent, my training had dropped off and I’d gotten slack, putting weight back on. So I needed to face it. I hauled my ass to the doctors, I let him berate me for letting myself get this way (I needed to hear it, and he’s a friend) and I dedicated myself to getting better. So, I started changing my eating patterns. Soon after, I started walking. Since mid January, I’ve dropped around a fair bit, I want to keep that to myself but it’s a decent bit of weight (I’ve learnt the mistake of putting numbers out there, what it can do to demotivate me). Here’s a pic of my progress:
Also note how the jolly fat man gets unhappier as he’s losing weight 😛 lol And yeah, I know I’m ugly 😛
But seriously, I conquered that fear, through instilling the fear of leaving this earth, leaving my son and not being around to see him grow up. Seeing all the events in his life. Potentially a little selfish maybe, but I want to be there for him.
Right now, my mentors are proud of me, my parents, my instructor, my friends and everyone is proud of me… but most importantly, my son is proud of me. I’ll keep going and doing my best.
Because what I truly fear, is letting him down, and I can’t ever do it, because the day I truly do that, it’s all over. It ain’t funny, but it’s true.
Weresmurf wins the following:
— A Glacier White PlayStation 4 console plus Bloodborne Nightmare Edition
— One double pass to Kotaku’s Bloodborne launch event in Sydney (travel costs not included).
3rd Prize
DanMazkin
My fear, one I’ve had since I was 6, is of aliens. Not just any aliens, but the iconic tall, grey, big eyed aliens that abduct you and do strange things to your unmentionables. It’s a dumb, irrational fear of something totally made up, but it’s seriously something that haunted me for years. Even now if I wake up halfway through the night, and my brain decides to be a particular bastard at the time, then I’ll start having paranoid thoughts suspecting any tiny sound I hear of being an actual alien just standing in the corner of my room, waiting for me to turn around and spot it.
It’s been a long time, but I can remember the EXACT moment this fear was established. I was in a Village cinema with my parents around 1989, sitting through trailers and about to watch a movie. No idea what movie we were actually there to see but it didn’t matter in the end, because what came up during the trailer roll was a single still advertising the movie Communion (with Christopher Walken, holy shit!). It wasn’t even a trailer, it was just a single still of the film’s title, accompanied by an image of a terrifying, pale, big-eyed, tiny mouthed lump of pure nightmare fuel (by the way, I hope whoever queued that up before a kids film is getting a serious karma-kick to the balls right about now).
The thing is, at the time I had absolutely no reaction to the image. I just stared at it silently, letting it seep into my subconscious until it was gone, and we went on the watch the movie. It was only later that night that I was finally in bed that it came back to me. A nightmare that still remains so vivid to me today where there was absolutely nothing, pure blackness, a void. Then out of the void, a face appeared. THAT FACE. It was all I could see, silently staring at me, almost smirking. It didn’t move, it didn’t do or say anything, but something about it felt so unnatural and sinister that I was paralysed with terror. As expected I woke up, lost my shit and ran to my parents. That nightmare ended then, but ever since it’s been a true mission to stop myself from cautiously looking down dark alleys, into shadowed corners and dark rooms with a cold sweat, half expecting that bastard face to be in the darkness, silently looking back at me.
RedSaber
I have the strangest fear which is really embarrassing, so much so that few people (luckily) know it. My greatest fear is snails. I don’t know what it is about them but the thought of making contact with a snail makes my body tense up. I hate going to the mailbox, because on a few occasions I have picked up a letter, turned it over, only to find a snail about a millimeter away from my finger. It isn’t really inhibiting my way of living, but I fear one day one of my mates will learn of my fear and continue to fuck with me for the foreseeable future.
I’m not really too sure what started my fear of snails, but back when I was very young, I lived in a house that had an outhouse. I remember the backyard crawling with the monsters and being too scared to use the toilet. More recently I read the manga ‘Uzumaki’ which had some people turn into snails. The notion of this still haunts me today, and every time I see a snail in the backyard or mailbox, I am reminded of the manga and am almost paralyzed with fear.
In order to overcome the fear I think I would have to make some intentional contact with snails, but really… I’d be happy to settle for second place.
wezanator
My fear is (I kid you not): airplane toilets !!!!
It all started in my younger rebellious years. I used to travel overseas frequently back when I was living in China in the South East Asian regions. Nature called during my the flight to Singapore, so I triumphantly ran to the onboard toilets, dodging flight attendants and other passengers (by the way it was my first time I went to the toilets alone). So I did my business and pressed the button that flushed the toilet. I expected a normal low to mid-volume “Phlushhhh” sound, like how it sounds at home” but instead a monstrous high pitched PHLUSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! came out of the urine and feces transporter. It sounded like a dam exploded and as if it was trying to suck the whole airplane into its tiny blackhole. Even when I put the toilet cover down it sounds the same but a bit muffled but still menacing.
I want to overcome because I can’t hold it in for an 4 hour flight (if I do my bladder will burst like Abe Simpsons’). I also don’t want to make a scene by running out screaming from the airplane toilets on my next flight. I also don’t want to let it mellow if its yellow – especially not on an airplane toilet.
So please Kotaku and Mark Serrels pimp my fear!
All three receive the following:
— Bloodborne Standard Edition.
— One double pass to Kotaku’s Bloodborne launch event in Sydney (travel costs not included).
The remaining 15 double passes go to…
dnr
Sciencejayz
Alex Without His Pants
Yumpy
sunsoar
bctalk
circusgypsy
nexis01
Gorath44000
bodmaniac
Simeon
TranqWill
cookienut
skeelsyshoota
mrshipwreck
Thanks to every one who took the time to enter! We’ll be in contact with the winners soon to sort out your prizes!
I can’t wait to bury someone alive!
Comments
28 responses to “Bloodborne: Face Your Fear Competition — The Winners!”
Congrats to the winners!
Weresmurf should have won.
I understand why he got second. The whole idea of the first place was to have to face your fear. His fear is letting down his son. That’s a hard one to do (unlike being buried alive, swimming with sharks etc etc…).
He did win. Got the same prize as the ‘winner’ minus having to do the scary thing.
The reason he came second was because @serrels would have had to fight in a National tournament and also go back to uni and become a history teacher…. I’m betting on that.
Believe me, I’m not worried at all. Thank you @Neo_kaiser, I’m blown away by this I truly am. I’m just absolutely blown away. My god. This made me happier than ever. My kids going to be over the moon. Even better, my friend who can’t afford a PS4, is getting my old one now, so this has helped someone else 🙂
Thank you so much Kotaku!!!! Thank you everyone!
Well done, mate. Your story was very inspiring 🙂
Very well deserved win!
You bloody deserve it.
You forgot “Imma let you finish” 😛
Whew! Didn’t win.
Sorry @f4ction, didn’t win a copy of the game either.
Congrats winners!
Congratulations and commiserations to swedishspecs, and just congratulations to the rest of the winners. 😛
So glad I didn’t have to judge this. Congrats to all of the winners.
Congratulations folks! Well done!
Great entries guys!
Congrats legends!
Particularly weresmurf. Super confronting but ultimately uplifting post. Well deserved!
– Mark Serrels, 2015
I choose to take that completely out of context.
I’d like to offer my Bloodborne pass to someone who is either in Sydney or can get to Sydney please @dannyallen? My University schedule plus travel situation doesn’t allow me to get there and the ps4 + Bloodborne is going to be way more than enough for me. This is amazing. So is there anyone out there dying to go to this event?
Shotgun!
Id love to be able to go, ive been keeping tabs on every single update on Bloodborne. Id kill to be able to go to that event.
I have a list of runner-up runner-ups, so I’ll go down that list when I get round to emailing everyone about prizes. (prob tomorrow!)
Just the pass!!!! I still want the ps4 and game! lol
Just wondering when will we be contacted ?
No problems, thanks heaps for letting us know. @markserrels will update our list.
Well done winners – VICTORY ACHIEVED!
And errr *ahem* if any of the double pass winners can’t make it to Sydney that night, I’ll take a bullet and take your place. Jolly co-op and all that jazz?
Snap! Thanks Mark (and Kotaku)! Pretty glad that I get a copy of Bloodborne without needing to be anally probed in the process! It’s a win/win!
I call shenanigans, my fear was having my testicles cut off after having a spa with a russian model, and it happened to someone. That bastard stole my fear prize
I am disappointed. There were many great entries in the 14 pages of comments but you managed to make some odd choices.
“In the comments below: explain what your fear is, how it came about and why you want to face it. Remember: We have up to $3000 put aside to help the major winner face their fear, but keep it achievable and realistic. And keep Bloodborne in mind. Think battling giant spiders. Think challenging your claustrophobia. Think demon body parts (like eating haggis). The most creative and appropriate fear, as judged by Mark Serrels, that’s well written, funny and descriptive will win. Comment up-votes and permalink shares will also be considered by Mark.”
The winner got 0 upvotes. Runner up got 2. So those factors are out.
Did they keep Bloodborne in mind? Runner up certainly didn’t. Well written? Funny?! Neither. Descriptive? Overly.
Must be pretty exciting for you to win a prize, but I greatly disagree over the top choices. I know I’m not Mark Serrels, but for all the people out there that really tried to stick to the competition rules, unlucky. And to the others. Lucky.
I won something?! Woo!
@DisappointedJo
Interesting! Almost the same competition just started in New Zealand and I gave it a crack, go ahead and have a read if you are interested. I really tried to be creative with my entry and added bits of D. souls/Bloodborne reference into it. Also has a hidden message 😀 ! here’s the link and wish me luck!
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/threads/497741-Face-your-fear-and-win-a-PS4-with-Bloodborne?p=10514393#post10514393
Great heads up for everyone. Very appreciated. Only open to NZ residents so I can not enter, but I wish you the best of luck indeed.
yay! Thanks Kotaku :). I also won’t be able to attend the Bloodborne event in Sydney as well. I’m willing to give just the double pass to the event away.