Simplify. One contest for everyone, total freedom, 20 days, one points system.
Let the best be the best, and we below to have something to catch. You can't be the best basketball player by winning 7 YO kids. You have to fight, grow skills, and win MJ.

Yup, make the competitions fair for everyone, use some imagination with the bases, and offcourse ban those who vote for the stance chops :p

Oh Zyko, so Bart should ban half of the forum.

Oh Zyko, so Bart should ban half of the forum.

In my opinion theme based competitions are the way to go. For instance, themes can be varied from doing a drifting scene, DTM style and stuff like that with a base provided by the admins.

This, I believe, will make sure everybody does the similar stuff, so comparing and giving points would be easy. On the other hand, it will also help in developing skills by getting to do different styles, understanding them and this in turn would immensely help in developing the chopping scene further.

Otherwise, most new artists (I am guilty of this too a bit) do only the style they find comfortable which mostly is stance.

I was joking, but I think we allready lost at least half the forum in the 'cheatchop' confusions...
Sadly, the number of stance chops seem to reflect the popularity of destroying cars in stead of actually modifying them, since the art of actually modifying cars (compared to just buying big wheels and a camers) properly is dying, and everyone is on instagram desperate for attention instead of out there driving these things...

Spot on Zyko.
That is why themed competitions would be far better idea.

We have tried themed competitions, and people don't read the rules when chopping, and they don't read the rules when voting, so you can still have a Mercedes S-class win a minivan competition, and a Ferrari FF win a SUV competition...
The only thing we can do to 'control' the comp is with the bases, or by disqualifying certain entries, which we hope we wont have to.

The best way I see moving forward for comps is;

Everyone together: There aren't unfortunately that many active elite members so if you split the competition you could end up with only a few entries for that level. The other advantage is that challenges novices to beat pros and pros to beat elites. That isn't to say acknowledgment of the different levels should be ignored, maybe come the end of the year a chopping award for highest placed novice/pro/elite could be given for example.

Type of competition: I think it should be a mix of theme and open. A themed chop pushes people to chop out of their comfort zone which is great as it increases creativity and skill. Chopping is done for enjoyment though and I think if a theme is set every single time it could stagnate the competition, every now and then I think it should be open so that people can do the style of chop they prefer and really enjoy doing. Regarding the questionable chops when chopping a theme, I don't see the problem with disqualifying someone who hasn't read the rules or hasn't made a chop to the theme.

Bases: A base or bases should always be provided. It limits creativity slightly but it allows much easier comparisons between chops as you can compare like for like.