Howdy, my fellow people of culture.

In the same vein as r/polandball's Lesser-known September, we'd like to encourage y'all to create content that would otherwise be rare in this subreddit. Or even against the rules!

Yes, that's right, we listened to your demands to allow for non-North American subdivisions, and will temporarily be allowing them to be depicted on Stateball for contest entries this month only.

Without further ado, this month we challenge you to...

Make a comic about foreign cultures!

The United States has a great history with many ethnic backgrounds immigrating into the US from around the world, and with influencing and being influenced by other cultures - so make that culture a part of your comic!

Specific Contest Rules

• SPECIAL CONTEST EXCEPTION!!!! The main characters of your comic can be non-US countries, first-level subdivisions, and - unlike r/polandball - cities/second-level subdivisions. You must follow the official Polandball Tutorial for any non-US entities you depict.
• The above exception applies ONLY to contest entries, which must also follow the other contest rules below. Non-contest comics must follow our regular rules!
• The general plot of the comic must include some aspect of foreign culture
• The main characters should be first and second level subdivisions, not countries. Countries are allowed, just as the US, Canada, Mexico, etc. have always been allowed. But this is Stateball, so subdivisions should be the main focus.
• Although the main characters don't have to be American, the plot still has to be related to the US, and understandable to an American reader. Don't make an obscure joke that only a non-American would get. This is still Stateball. The contest is about foreign cultures AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH AMERICA.
• Make sure the comic isn't flat out racist or otherwise genuinely disrespectful. And don't fight the mods if they tell you your comic is inappropriate.
• You may include countries and subdivisions banned for Lesser-known September on r/polandball in this r/stateball contest.

You may also wish to check out this similar contest from a year ago for inspiration.

But note that the current contest allows for much more involvement of non-US characters, so get creative! Direct all your pent-up energy from being unable to post 'murica comics on r/polandball here!

General Contest Rules

• You must follow the official Stateball Tutorial.
• You must follow the official Constitution of Stateball.
• The comic must have a minimum of 3 panels and a maximum of 8 panels.
• The comic must have been written and drawn entirely by yourself.
• No animated GIFs accepted.
• No photorealism.
• Post your comic to the subreddit with the blue "Contest Entry" flair.
• You may post more than one entry, but only the highest performing of your comics will be able to qualify for a gun award. For example, if you post two contest entries and they get 1st and 3rd, you do not get two sets of different guns; you would only get the Golden Guns award.
• The deadline for submitting your entry is [October 4th at 20:00 GMT](timee.io/20221004T2000?tl=stateball)

Choosing the winner

After all of the entries have been submitted and the deadline has passed, the moderators will take a private vote to decide the first, second and third places. All entries will be ranked from 1 to 10, with the final score being the average of all votes. The winner of last month's contest will also be allowed to vote on this month's entries.

Once all of our votes are tallied, the full list of results will be posted in an Awards Ceremony thread. The artist who receives the highest score will be awarded the Golden Guns, which they will keep next to their username for one month until the end of the next contest. The Golden Gun recipient will also be able to vote with the mods on the entries for the next contest.

The artists with the second and third highest scores will receive the Silver and Bronze Gun Awards, respectively, which will act in a similar manner.

Good luck! We hope to see comics as diverse as America itself!