It's more than that. No hate on Sophism. She's been in the game for more than 2 years and been consistent with her updates. Her art improved tremendously.
Her composition and storytelling are good. The story seem basic but her execution is great. All and all, she pretty much hit all of Webtoons' checklist.
Call me crazy, I just find it REALLY unsettling that she somehow copied quimchee's style.
I mostly checked the most epic category, and my bet is Masked Caravan.
Chrysopoeia seems pretty nice, too! But then again, I spent most of my time drawing, not reading all the other webtoons 
It may be someone less popular, too. I would think the more original ideas may have more of a chance - something that isn't too similar to what has already been featured. Although... well, who knows 
I really hope they choose more original ideas than things we've seen on Featured. Then, again, who knows? :)))
Purple Hyacinth is definitely up there for winner considering how much it was pushed. It feels like this contest was decided on pretty much from the beginning which made it hard to compete.
Not to mention all the junk comics that were just Google images and stolen art pushing down legitimate entries because they had good engagement even if that was only, "boo! This has stolen art lol!"
But it did spur other creators to start their projects and I've found new favourites which might not have even seen the light of day had they not been encouraged by the contest. So if only for that I'm glad we had the platform.
I actually still strongly believe there will be at least one "underdog" type comic that places. As in a comic that didn't gain much traction by their "popularity" standards, or may not have even gotten promoted by them, but I guess we'll have to wait and see!
the last contest the most popular entry was Unordinary but she didn't even win. Instead some no name comic that I still don't even know the name of won.
Also a part of me feels they'll do it just to avoid the accusations of "You promoted all these people to victory", "this contest was decided from the start" "you didn't even read all the entries" If they have atleats one little guy they can be like- "See we looked at all entries"
My guess is also that all the winners, maybe not even the most of them will be the obvious choices, most popular ones. The popularity only makes 40% and I read in their rules that they would take in account how long the comic has been there. Several of the most popular ones are comics that have been only reposted or are from already popular authors, so I think the judges will take that into account. Also it was never written that the popularity scale is how they are going to judge the audience engagement. They are going to look at comments and likes for example as they wrote it. Which may mean whatever. Ultimately I think they will pick titles they themselves find the best or most fitting the category and other set criteria and the smaller part will be about how the audience reacted to them. My guess. It can then be even a less popular comic, that wins. So I agree with beta 1042
I mean they get at least 8 winners, which means although the majority should definitely be comics they see as safe money makers, it gives them the leniency to one or 2 "gambles". y'know high risks can yield high rewards.
I just don't think people should give up hope until it's over.
@beta1042 I see, so a kind alleviation-of-accusations pick? In a sense a pick like that is both patronizing and samaritan, I guess.
It's interesting to try and pick apart their criteria; they've made it vague enough that they have enough wiggle room, but not too vague where all you're grasping is straws.
But wow, 6887 comics (last I checked) ... good luck to the judges. They can't possibly look through each and every one though, right? Even if we're generous and say only half actually made the requirements...wow.
I imagine they have a computer program than can weed out obvious comics that don't qualify tho. Like atleast something basic like -removed all comics that don't have the min number of updates. A lot of those comics really don't qualify so I'm sure that helps XD But yeah it's a lot.
These are my thoughts and guesses too, given the heavy promotion all these have had at some point, and mostly Purple Hyacinth was the one who received 3 months nonstop promotion whether in plain sight or hiding in the personal recommendation of readers for who knows how many months now, sure its popularity is probably the highest at the maximun for the 40% readers engagement. then what about the comics that has around 15-20k? Their popularity must be around 5% seeing they have set the bar so high with purple hyacinth'having 40% max and being so high at about 180k subs. These is just an estimation. Bottom line: no one can compete with Purple Hyacinth. it's the obvious winner and it has been so since June. There was never a competition.
I really wish audience participation wasn't part of the score! I understand why it was included, but it is really tough for the underdogs who have a limited following to get any traction, and it gives already successful artists an unfair advantage.
I tried to not let the numbers get me down since they were out of my control and just focus on creating quality episodes and tried to engage with my audience the best that I could!
I agree. Purple hyacinth will definitely be in the top 8 no doubt. With how heavily they promoted the series (5 or 6 times? I lost count but it was a lot. The most I've ever seen), and the amount of subscribers it garnered as well as likes, views and comments, it definitely set the bar high for popularity. I don't think webtoons will risk not having Purple Hyacinth win after investing in it through promotion and with that many subscribers. Plus, Sophism has a huge following on Instagram now (10k+ followers) and made an ost for the comic. So I think that is pretty much set in stone.
As for the other categories, I believe Lalin's curse has a high chance in "most gripping" due to the promotion once again (I think it got promoted 3-4 times). Fantasy might be a toss up as I didn't really notice a consistent promotion of any series and same with comedy. But in the end I think they'll choose 1 "obvious" winner for each category and then one "not obvious" winner in conjunction so it will seem Webtoons is judging fairly somewhat. But that's just my theory
I agree with you Zushi, they might throw in 1 or 2 more average comics to hide their dirty cheating ways and make it look like they were fair.
Even without all the promotion Lalin's curse deserve to get in the top 8. If Lalin's curse doesn't get into the top 8 I'll be really pissed.
If I remember correctly, The Badguys won the superhero contest.
Superhero contest result was:
1 The Badguys
2 Supersonic Girl
Unordinary and idk what the other one is
3 of those aren't Manhwa/Manga style and was quite an underdog back then? So Don't give up
Edit wait. I confused the 2nd sci-fi contest winner with the superhero one lol Also the past contests always had underdogs in the prizes.
