Sprite Competitions
A Sprite Competition is an event staged with delays ranging from a week to a month, where sprites, not drawing, are submitted by various artists and compared by the general public. The best five are voted on, and of those five another vote is taken to award the First Place, Runner-Up (Second Place), and Top Five badges.
The winner of the competition begins the next one, and selects a subject. If they are not available, or if they choose to do so, they can allow the runner-up to do so.
Unfortunately, a lot of sprite competitions lately are created by people who want to do something different, due to a lot of members complaining that "it's been done before" if a sprite competition is created with a previously attempted idea, such as "Mario" or "Yoshi". These competitions are either focused around an enemy that is difficult to draw (such as Culex), or are too broad to be considered fair (such as any enemy from SM64). However, most members wouldn't mind actually doing a competition again if it has been done before, it's up to members to think a little more carefully.
Rules
Although the interpretation of the rules are a controversy, here are some concrete guidelines:
1. Each member may submit however number of entries they wish - but they can only choose one for the Top 5.
2. Only pure pixel-art is allowed. Each pixel must be placed specifically and intentionally with no computer aid, including brushes.