Race to CORE First: Midnight Season 1 Token Contest

To celebrate Midnight Season 1 and the next Race to CORE First (RCF), we’re running a design contest to create the Discord tokens that will be used:

  • RCF Winner Token - for the first team to fully clear the tier
  • Ahead of the Curve (AOTC) Token - for everyone who participates and achieves AOTC

These tokens will live on Discord and will be used as recognition for the season. Clarity, style, and readability matters.

Design Requirements

All submissions must meet the following requirements:

  • Two variants are required.
    • One RCF Winner token.
    • One ATOC token.
  • Token designs should be perfectly circular. Designs will be placed inside of a standard token frame, which can be seen on all other current discord tokens.
  • Tokens should feel related, but do not need to be identical.
  • No text. No letters, numbers, words, or any readable glyphs of any kind.
  • The use of gold in the RCF token is encouraged, but not required.
  • Tokens must be immediately identifiable at small Discord icon sizes.
  • Entries may be submitted in any standard image format (i.e. png, jpg, webp, etc.)
  • The winning designer must provide a vectorized version in a standard format (i.e. svg, ai, etc.)
  • Original work only. Submissions must be human created and owned by you. AI Generated art and plagiarism will be disqualified.

Branding Considerations

A CORE branding guide can be found below. Use of brand colours is not required except in one specific scenario: when/if you choose to use gold, it should incorporate the CORE Gold colour (you can use a gradient to make it look like metal, but it must be the prominent gold colour).

CORE Guild's branding guidelines. Primary Purple #601298. Light Purple #d9acf1. Dark Purple #2a0a3a. Light Gold #bda74f. Gold #ac890c. Grey #706677. Heading text is Sadana Square. Body text is Montserrat.

Judging and Selection

The winning design will be chosen by CORE Officers and announced March 10th, 2026.

Judging will focus on:

  • Clarity at small size.
  • Visual identity & cohesion.
  • Fit within CORE and Midnight season themes.
  • Overall execution.

Design credit will be given in all discord posts involving the winning design, and in any media specifically featuring the design.

Submission Details

  • Submit individual entries to nick@coreguild.gg with "RCF Midnight S1 Contest Entry" in the subject line.
  • You may submit multiple concepts (each much be an individual entry).
  • Refinements should be submitted as a reply to your original email entry.
  • Submissions must contain both the RCF and ATOC tokens.
  • Submissions must be sent before 12:00AM March 1st, 2026 (Eastern time)

License Disclaimer

By submitting a design to this contest, you agree that your submission is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license.

This means:

  • CORE Guild may use, modify, and distribute submitted designs for guild-related purposes
  • Designers will be credited where reasonably possible
  • Any adaptations or derivative works will be shared under the same license

If you do not agree to these terms, please do not submit an entry.

Q&A

Questions and answers will be updated as they come in. If you have any questions about any aspect of this contest, feel free to email nick@coreguild.gg or message @Velmathis on discord!

A submission will be considered "AI generated" (and disqualified) if the vast majority of the submission is found to be created by any form of generative AI.

That being said, we are not blind to the fact that AI is being integrated into almost every aspect of our lives. If you used AI to generate a background texture or something, while the main subject of your submission is made by you that's fine.

Use your best judgement and be honest. We'll do the same in our evaluating.

The standard token frame is simply the gold ring around all of the discord tokens.

Examples of Previous Tokens

Here are examples of previous tokens. All from The War Within- Season 1, 2, 3, and 3 (AOTC) respectively.

The Race to CORE First: The War Within Season 1 token. A golden crown with a purple gem sits in the centre of a blue background. Six red, jewelled eyes are below the crown- depicting Queen Ansurek. The token is circled by a golden ring.
The Race to CORE First: The War Within Season 2 token. A red and purple hat with golden stars and buttons, depicting Gallywix's hat, sits on a green background. The token is circled in a ring of gold.
The Race to CORE First: The War Within Season 3 AOTC token. The token depicts an expand in space with gas clouds and stars in the background. In the foreground, golden debris floats around a blue supernova. The token is circled in a ring of gold
The Race to CORE First: The War Within Season 3 AOTC token. The token depicts an expand in space with gas clouds and stars in the background. In the foreground, purple debris floats around a blue supernova. The token is circled in a ring of gold