Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor Contest
01/17/2010
It all came down to this...
In the end, MVC Jessica took the 2009 prize as the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor. It was a battle, but when the smoke cleared (after 2 weeks to determine the final winner) and 10,000 votes were calculated, over 60% of the voters said Jessica was their MVC of choice for this season.
Nikki may be the runner-up, but her fans put her at the top week in and week out. I honestly thought that she would win when the midway point came in the contest because she dominated so many weeks right up until the last few when Jessica seemed to come out of nowhere. We all hope to see her bright and smiling face on the Vikings sidelines again next year.
We love you Nikki.
Jessica's plaque is on the way to her.
As I get photos from the presentation, I will post them here for
everyone to enjoy. The award presentation is my favorite time because I
know that each lady who has received it appreciates it and what it stands
for. It also means the end to another contest year of Vikings fans showing
their support and appreciation to the best group of cheerleaders in the NFL!
How the MVC Survivor Contest Originated...
In 2004, I was made aware of a contest that ESPN.com held that put cheerleaders from each NFL squad head-to-head in a contest to pick everyone's favorite NFL cheerleader from the group they had selected.
In 2005, I decided to take that idea and apply it to the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders.
What came about was a special contest where fans vote for their favorite lady in purple. Friends, family, fans, and casual voters got in the mix and assisted me in creating the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor Contest.
In 2005 I hand-counted each vote as it came through my email box. That tedious project led me to 2006, where I called upon my friends at www.purplepride.org to help me calculate the votes through an online tally system. In 2007, we added a poll to vikingsfanatic69.com to give voters a second vote each day and to be used in the event of a tie from the main votes at www.purplepride.org.
This contest is a blast. The fans, the families of these young ladies, and the Cheerleaders themselves look forward to the contest each year. My goal with this contest is to have the fans of the Vikings really appreciate all the time, pride, effort, and talent that goes into being a MVC. These young ladies are talented and help us cheer on our Vikings each and every week. Win or lose, they cheer their hearts out...even when we have "thrown in the towel".
The MVC Survivor Award
The key to any good contest is the award. It had to be more than to just acknowledge the winner online or get them some cheesy little trophy. The one who was voted on as the fans' favorite cheerleader needed something she could cherish forever. I looked around and found a very unique award that would do just fine. With some graphic art supplied by a friend of mine, we created the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor Award.
The graphic design:
A friend of mine, BJ Millican, designed the logo we use. He put the first design together you see above using PhotoShop. He is a very creative person and does excellent work.
The laser-engraving on black marble:
The laser engraving is done by a company in Alabama called Laser Works of Alabama. Richard and his crew do a great job.
WOW!
The award is laser-processed onto the marble by a great company here in Alabama called Laser Works of Alabama. Not only do Richard and his crew supply us with the technology to make this very beautiful and unique award, but they also proudly display a copy of each year's plaque in their store front. They are a wonderful partner in the success of the MVC Survivor Contest. You can check them out here:
THE MVC SURVIVORS
MVC Survivor - 2009
The year started like many others...issues with what voting style we would use to collect votes. What sites would host the voting? The usual stuff you run into hosting a contest that now has it's 5th winner. It was already a few weeks into the season when we ironed out the wrinkles and the 2009 MVC Survivor Contest was underway. We said good bye to many ladies in our first few weeks to get us caught up and down to a solid top 10 for voters to vote on. The fans jumped right on board from week one as we easily had over 100,000 votes in 2009. The final 2 weeks had over 10,000 each. As the season started, the one MVC that was always safe by a rather large margin was Nikki. The fans literally loved her every single week and I thought by week 8 we had our winner all sewn up. Then the field got smaller and smaller and my only question was, "Who will be the runner up?" Well, into week 14 Nikki was only getting the win by a few votes and heading into the finals she was edged by her "competition"...MVC Jessica. Jessica received over 60% of the votes in the finals. Congratulations to both ladies. We love you and hope to see you cheering on the Vikings sidelines again next year.
Again, we have to thank the Minnesota Vikings organization and especially Tami Krause for all their support. They could easily make us shut it all down with one phone call or letter and yet they support us each and every year. Thanks also to Webby at purplepride.org for dealing with me and the polling issues and to Steven Griffith who provided photos to assist with the award plaque. His photos from the sidelines really do make for a very special and personal award no one else could provide.
MVC Survivor - 2008
How do you top having a rookie cheerleader win the MVC Survivor Contest in 2007? Have the closest run race in MVC Survivor's short history. Bring on a new partner to help tabulate over 250,000 votes. Have 16 weeks of the toughest competition this contest has seen yet. In the end, MVC Amanda took the prize with 54% of the vote. Her friends and family really kept her alive each week to get her to the finals and the next thing we knew she was declared the winner. We (purplepride.org and vikingsfanatic69.com) did add ePlay.com as a helpful host to set up some very nice looking voting booths for people to use to place their votes. As usual, the first few weeks we had to eliminate 4-5 ladies at a time. There was no telling who was going to fall by the wayside during those weeks to get to our top 10. We saw some veterans who ran close last year fall early. When the dust settled, Amanda was still going strong and we could see our two finalists emerging from the group by the top 5.
We were able to enlist the help of our great photographer again this year. We made sure Steven Griffith got the mention on the plaque for his great action shots this year. He gets great shots during the home games and he helps us round out the plaque in a very unique and personal way for the lucky winner. If you want to see all of his work at the games (and don't mind some watermarks) then go to his spot on smugmug.com (just type in his name in the search engine there) or check him out under member name scatterbrain at www.wearevikingsfans.com.
I am also thanking Ms. Tami Krause, yet again, for her support and help during the contest. She truly steps up at the end of the season to help make getting the plaque to our winner special. As Coach of the MVC, she has limited time and for her to take her time to help us out means the world. Thanks Tami!
MVC Survivor - 2007
2007 was a very exciting year for the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor Contest. As most years begin, we see groups of ladies move on from week to week that we assume will be close to the finals just based on past experience and fan recognition. As the weeks went on, we realized that 2007 was going to be much different than years past. When we got closer and closer to the final week, we saw that the first-year ladies were truly dominating the field. The 2007 MVCs had quite a few new faces, but we never expected them o be THE fan favorites for our contest. As we got down to the top 3, it was going to be an all rookie showdown to determine the winner. The two ladies who ended up in the finals (AJ and Krisandra) had literally traded off each week who was the top vote-getter, so it was only fitting that one of them would be crowned as The 2007 Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader Survivor. We can only have one winner, and with the voting so close, we decided to add a secondary site at right here at vikingsfanatic69.com for fans to vote once more per day for their favorite MVC. We never needed to use the secondary voting site to determine a tie, but as the votes were tallied on both purplepride.org and vikingsfanatic69.com...it was Krisandra who won the hearts of the purple faithful in 2007.
2007 also saw some new faces in assisting with the promotion of the MVC Survivor Contest. A great photographer who takes wonderful shots of the ladies at home games shared a few of his pictures for the MVC Survivor Contest this year. The two action shots I implemented on the award for 2007 came from his generosity. In fact, he even put a few slide shows (some even with music) together on his web page at smugmug.com. Check the links below to see his work for the 2007 MVC Survivor Contest:
Photos of the TOP 4! MVC Survivor Candidates for 2007. Thanks Steve!
Video slideshows of the top 8 MVCs in the 2007 MVC Survivor Contest. Thanks Steve.
I am also thanking:
- The people at addpoll.com for what they do to allow us to add the additional polling on vikingsfanatic69.com. It was easy and FREE!
- Those at www.kansasviking.com. Vikings fans span the globe, and KansasViking helps us each year in promoting the contest and taking some nice MVC pictures for us to enjoy.
- Tami Krause. She is an excellent leader and organizer for our favorite cheerleaders. She has also been supportive of our contest by agreeing to assist us in getting the award to the winner each year. She works hard, and for her to take time to acknowledge us and our contest is wonderful.
MVC Survivor - 2006
The next year saw the updating of the voting go to an online poll version hosted by www.purplepride.org. The challenge here began to come to the front when so many voters would hit the site to vote and it would bog down the servers. When more space was acquired, the contest went into high gear and saw some pretty intense weeks of voting. The rookie, Katie M., who had come in 2nd in 2005 would come around again and take the Contest. She had some tough weeks, but her fans stayed true to the end and by the last week it was all but over.
Congratulations to Katie M. who won the MVC Survivor Contest in 2006 (Should she start packing for Hawaii?).
MVC Survivor - 2005
The "rookie" year for this contest saw it's fair share of challenges. This contest had to be something special. The idea stalled when I asked for help in promoting it, but once it was underway people hopped on to help support this contest. I did not have an online poll to set up, so I took all votes by hand each week. The vote came down to one veteran and one rookie. The veteran took the contest by the end, but the rookie had staked her claim as a fan favorite. My only hope was that she would be on the squad the following year to see if she could finish what she started.
Our lovely MVC red-headed Stephanie won the first Survivor Contest (In 2006 she was elected to the Pro Bowl to represent the Minnesota Vikings).
