Quiver by Kelvin Chow
RD360 by Henry Harrius
KeyMaster Chrome by Craig Petty

Quiver by Kelvin Chow

Inject 2.0 would win hands down if a self appointed panel of judges hadn’t decided to disqualify it. Whoever wins will need to accept they really came 2nd due to some political agenda.

If inject 2.0 cant be voted for then KeyMaster Chrome by Craig Petty would also fit that bill

And Quiver and The Gift. They are both utility props, rather than tricks in their own right. Similar to Inject 2.0 people should only be allowed to vote for specific tricks that can be performed with them. Otherwise this year's competition becomes a farce.

Quiver by kelvin chow

Rd360 by henry harrius

Just thought I would chip in here. The Gift is sold with the routine in the video. You are not just given an empty box for you to do what you want with. You are supplied a deck to do the trick in the video. The trick is you predict a chosen card at number and that's what you get. It's the whole trick you are buying not just an empty box. Any trick could be considered a utility device because you can do other routines with it. Venom for example can do so many things. Should that be disqualified by your way of thinking too?

Thank you kindly to everyone who has voted so far. I am greatly touched and thankful!

Inject 2.0 was supplied with new tricks included too. So by that reckoning Inject 2.0 should have been allowed in.

Do you mean they were also released in 2016? "Cause I think that was the only reason you can't vote for Inject 2.0.

I don't think you can eliminate a trick because it's a utility item. SvenPads won a couple years back and it is definitely a utility item so that has been established by precedence.
The other issue with Inject 2.0 was that the original was released prior to 2017, so are updates going to be allowed? How much does the update have to add? Could Inject 3.0 theoretically win again in 2018?

The other gray area is can something be on preorder and still win? As an example, Rubik 360 was on pre-order at the tail end of 2017 but did not ship until 2018, and yet it has received some votes. Reminds me of how some movies have a very limited release before the cut-off date in order to qualify for that years Academy Awards.

These are all legitimate questions and there is probably no solution that everyone will agree to, so there will always be a certain amount of controversy surrounding this award. Makes me miss the early days of this award when people didn't take it so seriously. But now it's reached a point where phrases such as "political agenda" are being tossed around.

The fact is that any trick that receives a substantial number of votes is very likely going to receive a sales boost whether they are the winner or not. So mostly we are playing for bragging rights for the ultimate "winner". I would hate to see this thread discontinued because it stirs up the pot too much and becomes too heated. But the good news is that this year it seems to me to be more civil than the past couple years so maybe things are going in the right direction. Hope so because I always enjoy seeing the list of the final tally of votes. Thanks again Jamie!

X2.

Your statement this whole thing is a farce sounds a bit denigrating to me. I think you should at least respect the fact people put in the time and effort to think this through and vote for things they love. And the man who counts all the votes and has to deal with all these people pulling him in different directions has a tough job, IMO. But I hope next year we'll do it all over again.

I say let those be serious who want to be serious and let those have fun who want to have fun. Jamie had those he entrusted make the call to not allow updated effects. For those makers/producers of effects and props that hope to apply the contest outcome to increase their sales or just (for the love of it) enjoy the awareness of their item, they may also tout such a phrase as applicable as, "Received 15 nominations for The Magic Café's Trick of the Year". Cheers!

1 Ox Bender by Menny Lindenfeld
2 Perfect Square by JB Dumas and Michael Lam
3 The Gift by Angelo Carbone

TA Mark Traversoni

Fairly certain Voting is done on this.

This is meant to be a fun thing, let's not forget that.

Quiver by Kelvin Chow
Ox Bender by Menny Lindenfeld
The Gift by Angelo Carbone

Thurston Award: Michael Murray.

The anticipation....

Houdin:

1 Cbring Thumb Writer by Andreas Sebring
2 iThump by Ian Pigeon
3 The Gift- Carbone

Thurston:

Andreas Sebring

The Thurston award is my favourite – especially when others give reasons for their nominations – it’s good to hear who the good guys are…

It was tough for me as I had a few contenders [as many creators have a marvellous attitude and the patience to help]

A very close runner up for me was Angelo Carbone – he went above and beyond – he helped me out [when clearly was busy – maybe Blackpool last year] – and he helped me out even though I didn’t buy The Gift directly from him. So thanks

Others have been great too…

But Carbone would have got my vote, if it hadn’t been for Sebring, bringing it home – both in helping far more than he needed [far more] and in general attitude. I believe his response to Miranda and Sereno’s release Mental Pen spoke volumes. I did buy two copies of Mental Pen though – yikes sorry Andreas

Houdin:

1. Rubik's Dream by Henry Harrius
2. The Gift by Angelo Carbone
3. Caught Red-Handed by Michael Mode & Arthur Ottney

Already have voted for the Thurston in a prior post

Houdin:

1. Twin Quarters by Michael Lair
2. The Gift by Angelo Carbone
3. Proteus by Phedon Bilek