Hi all,
As many of you know, I've run an annual music competition on this site - the Newgrounds Underdogs' Audio Contest or NGUAC - for 12 years now. I LOVE running this competition. It's always a big highlight of my summer, a great way of supporting and discovering new artists, staying engaged with the NGAP community, and helping people improve their music.
But, unfortunately, I just don't have the capacity to host it this year. I got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve as the chair of a statewide ballot committee in Massachusetts that will keep me more than busy this summer, on top of my full-time day job and another volunteer position.
This site deserves the best, most engaged and passionate contest hosts it can get. That's why I'm enlisting @ADR3-N to host the NGUAC in my absence. In case you didn't know, ADR3-N is awesome. A veteran mod, sample making extraordinaire, giver of amazing feedback, and all around kind and caring person. The NGUAC will thrive with ADR3-N as a host, just like it has thrived with her as a judge for many of the past 12 years.
The ballot campaign I'm running will be over by November. I fully hope and expect to return to hosting the NGUAC in 2027, but it's hard to anticipate where the future will take me at this point. In the meantime, I'll be happy to contribute to the UAC '26 prize pool and otherwise lend a helping hand where I can, but my capacity for Newgrounds stuff in general is severely limited.
This is bittersweet for me - I'm not used to having to say "no" to things I really want to do. But that just makes me realize how lucky I've been to be able to host the NGUAC the past 12 years. I truly hope there will be many more of those years to come. Until then, I leave the competition in @ADR3-N's good hands.
See you next year, Newgrounds.
~TL
![Benji-G & X3ll3n - Beyond The Horizon [NGUAC 2025 Finals]](https://aicon.ngfiles.com/1461/1461545.webp?f1755216455)
