

Normally, when the people holding a contest tell you picking a winner was really difficult, they're lying. We point that out only because, in this case, picking a winner was actually, honest-to-God really difficult.



We started with 320 videos. Seven days later, we'd narrowed it to three. Five days after that, we were down to two and feeling pretty good about ourselves. And that's when we hit a wall. Weeks passed, friendships ended, people were fired, and we were still no closer to choosing a winner.



We were stuck between two very different videos. One was a terrific retelling of the Ratman story. The other had nothing to do with Portal, Valve, The National, being exiled OR being vilified, but managed to beautifully capture the spirit of the song by starring the world's saddest sock puppet. Unfortunately, according to our own stupid contest rules and the number of guitars we have for prizes (one), only one video could win.



After a few more weeks of fruitless debate, we realized there was a group who could help us crack this seemingly intractable stalemate: The United Nations. When that didn't pan out, we turned to another group: The guys who'd made the song, The National. They managed to pick a slim favorite, but weren't comfortable leaving the #2 video in the dust. So after a few more days of hard words and hurt feelings, we finally decided to award a first place winner followed by a mathematically imperceptibly close 1.00000000001th place winner. Both will receive the same great prize package, the only difference being that place #1 will include a guitar and place #1.00000000001 will feature an Aperture Science messenger bag signed by the Portal 2 Team.



Normally, when the people holding a contest tell you picking a winner was really difficult, they're lying. We point that out only because, in this case, picking a winner was actually, honest-to-God really difficult.We started with 320 videos. Seven days later, we'd narrowed it to three. Five days after that, we were down to two and feeling pretty good about ourselves. And that's when we hit a wall. Weeks passed, friendships ended, people were fired, and we were still no closer to choosing a winner.We were stuck between two very different videos. One was a terrific retelling of the Ratman story. The other had nothing to do with Portal, Valve, The National, being exiled OR being vilified, but managed to beautifully capture the spirit of the song by starring the world's saddest sock puppet. Unfortunately, according to our own stupid contest rules and the number of guitars we have for prizes (one), only one video could win.After a few more weeks of fruitless debate, we realized there was a group who could help us crack this seemingly intractable stalemate: The United Nations. When that didn't pan out, we turned to another group: The guys who'd made the song, The National. They managed to pick a slim favorite, but weren't comfortable leaving the #2 video in the dust. So after a few more days of hard words and hurt feelings, we finally decided to award a first place winner followed by a mathematically imperceptibly close 1.00000000001th place winner. Both will receive the same great prize package, the only difference being that place #1 will include a guitar and place #1.00000000001 will feature an Aperture Science messenger bag signed by the Portal 2 Team. 1st Place Winner



1.00000000001th Place







Rounding out the winners is the second place winner.











Thanks to everyone who entered! There were too many great entries to mention all the standout ones, but here are a few highlights:



Best Use of Legos



Best Ratman Cosplay



Best Turret Story



Best Use of Green Screen



Best Caroline Story



Best "That Band is a Spy!"



Best Puppets, Non-Sock Category



Best Master Copy



Best Video Our Lawyers Won't Let Us Pick



Rounding out the winners is the second place winner.Thanks to everyone who entered! There were too many great entries to mention all the standout ones, but here are a few highlights:





That�s where you come in. �Exile, Vilify� doesn�t have a music video, and we�d like you to correct this horrendous oversight with the Portal 2 Music Video Contest. Make the winning video and you�ll receive



Direct your video vision with live action, game assets, shots of the band, sock puppets, whatever you want. Just make sure you get it submitted with the tag PORTAL2NATIONALEXILE to YouTube by July 15th.



For more information on The National visit their



For more information on Portal 2, here's a link back to the



But that�s not all! Are you a huge fan of long, tedious legalese explaining the minutiae of contest rules? Then your ship has come in, friend. Read on! Sharp-eared music fans will have already found the haunting track �Exile, Vilify� by The National in Portal 2. Clearly Rat Man is a big fan of of the song, based on some of the art decorating the walls of his dens. But as any museum fan can tell you, there�s nothing a fancypants painting can say that a YouTube video can�t say a hundred times better.That�s where you come in. �Exile, Vilify� doesn�t have a music video, and we�d like you to correct this horrendous oversight with the Portal 2 Music Video Contest. Make the winning video and you�ll receive an Eastwood guitar , signed by The National. You�ll also win the ultimate box of schwag from Valve, including shirts, posters, and other stuff we�ll be grabbing off co-workers desks when they�re not looking. Plus bonus shirts from Jinx Direct your video vision with live action, game assets, shots of the band, sock puppets, whatever you want. Just make sure you get it submitted with the tag PORTAL2NATIONALEXILE to YouTube by July 15th.For more information on The National visit their web site American Mary For more information on Portal 2, here's a link back to the official website But that�s not all! Are you a huge fan of long, tedious legalese explaining the minutiae of contest rules? Then your ship has come in, friend. Read on!