Print Your Own World Series Trophy: 3Diligent Announces a Contest to Honor World Champion Kansas City Royals

I don’t know what a championship is like, since no sports team has won a championship in my city in my lifetime. I imagine it’s nice, though. I was living overseas the last time my Cleveland Indians made it to the playoffs (and lost), and it was maddening. After failing to get any of my Irish friends to care, I racked up a pretty hefty phone bill calling my family at home just so I could talk to someone about the monumental thing that was happening in my hometown.

So I can sympathize with the Kansas City natives working at the California-based 3Diligent, including several of their founders. When their Royals won the World Series after a 30-year drought, they naturally wanted to share their joy with the entire world. Unlike my foreign friends, their employers were willing to help them celebrate. 3Diligent has just announced that, to honor the new World Series champions, they are challenging all interested parties to create a 3D printed championship trophy, the winner which will be presented to the team.

3Diligent, which describes itself as a “hybrid of Amazon.com and eBay,” separates itself from other online 3D printing services with its unique bidding system that allows customers to choose from a number of potential vendors to print their designs. They’ve also recently joined America Makes as well as the ASTM’s F42 Committee. Now, the company will be the one doing the choosing.

The official rules of the contest will be posted on the company’s website on Monday, November 16th, which will be the first day that submissions are accepted. The submission window will be closed on Monday November 23, at 9am Pacific Time, at which point the company will choose several semifinalists. The final winner will be chosen by 3Diligent’s Facebook fan base.

3Diligent offers a bit of criteria for its potential semifinalists to start with:

• Uniquely 3D Printable – designs that take advantage of 3D Printing’s capabilities (e.g., high complexity, lattice structures, parts with subassemblies that that work as-printed, otherwise impossible parts)
• Viably 3D Printable – design files that don’t have errors, can be built without excessive support removal, and will fit inside a 10-inch cubed build tray
• Awesomeness – a design that is befitting of a world champion

The company will look especially favorably on designs that are catered towards the heavy-duty, industrial grade 3D printers that its platform offers, as their machines offer more material options and higher detail than desktop printers. So, designers, the sky is the limit when it comes to materials. The winning design will be printed and given to the Royals themselves, and will maybe even earn a place of honor alongside the official sterling silver trophy presented to the team on November 2 after their 7-2 Game 5 win over the Mets.

The grand prize winner will also receive $500 cash and $1,000 credit to be used for their next 3Diligent project. All semifinalists will receive $100 cash and $250 platform credit.

The Royals, to add to their recent championship, are also in the running for Sports Illustrated‘s Sportsman of the Year Award, so whoever designs the winning trophy may have to fight for shelf space. Meanwhile, I’ve already decided that when my Indians win the World Series next year, I’m going to buy a brand new 3D printer just to print my own trophy.

Are you a Royals fan?  Let’s hear your thoughts on this Trophy in the 3D Printed World Series Trophy forum thread on 3DPB.com.