Mod of the Year 2020 in Association with Corsair

Let’s be frank, 2020 has largely sucked. Aside from the global pandemic, social distancing, job insecurity etc. we’ve also had to deal with a bunch of the shoddiest PC component launches that I can remember. Still, here’s to hoping one can freely purchase a GPU at some point in 2021, Cyberpunk might be patched up enough by then too!

Despite a number of us being lumped with a bit more free time than we normally would have been asking for, modding itself had to take a back seat for many whilst they focused on staying safe and secure. In a related blow, raw material prices soared too as plastics such as acrylic and even 3D printer filaments were all dedicated to making masks, protective face shields and screens for shops. Acrylic in particular was hit very hard by this, many smaller distributors ended up implementing higher minimum order quantities, as well as the price of clear acrylic doubling in some instances.

Amazingly, despite all these challenges, a huge number of projects were still completed over on the forums. Not only that, but the standard was once again, truly astounding. There seemed to be a renewed focus on reusing old materials and parts, which was very refreshing to see in a market that’s largely dominated by showing off the new shinies. It was also fantastic seeing so many new faces grace the forums with their projects, I trend that I really hope continues!

Enough with the doom and gloom, however, it’s time to focus on Mod of the Year! Mod of the Year has always been rather special on bit-tech, it’s a no-holds barred contest that pits the best against the best. This isn’t a popularity contest, it’s a showdown where ultimately the qualities of ingenuity, craftsmanship and honest hard work combine to produce a jaw dropping lineup of mods. As with previous years, Corsair will be providing a host of prizes to the winners. However, first we need your help to draw up the shortlist!

When making your nominations, please consider the skill involved, the level of execution, the originality of the work, and the level of presentation. Additionally, how well documented was the project? Was there a good project log so that future readers can experience the journey from conception to reality?

We’ll be using the same format as we did last year: 12 Case Mods and 12 Scratch Builds will be included in the final shortlist. In our forums, the builds are labelled as one or the other in the flair so as to remove ambiguity. From these 24 projects, five titles will be decided: Case Mod of the Year (from the case mod category) along with a runner-up; Scratch Build of the Year (from the scratch-build category) and a runner-up; and Overall Mod of the Year. So as to ensure consistency and prevent vote manipulation from any tempted parties, all the categories shall be decided upon using a combination of user votes and an internal judging panel. In addition to the form vote on here, much like with Mod of the Month now, we shall also be holding a vote over on the bit-tech discord server.

How To Nominate Your Favourites

As with previous years, we’d rather you didn’t post your lists in the comments (email!), but do feel free to discuss individual nominations. We’ll then add up the nominations and enter projects based on the total number of votes.

Whilst it goes without saying that by far the best route to take is by digging through the forums, this can be a rather daunting task, not least because there are so many completed projects to choose from. To help you out, here are links to the Mod of the Month posts from this year. In there you’ll find a number of exceptional projects that we’ve celebrated over the course of 2020. Of course, if video is more your thing, we also have the coverage for you from YouTube below:

So, remember, email us – [email protected] – your favourite projects, linking to them in our forum, before December 31st January 11th. Thank you!