It's labor day weekend here in the United States, and what does that mean? Well naturally, the unofficial end of summer. So in honor of that inevitable end, and the upcoming equinox, this week's contest will be the swimsuit edition! This week, only official Soul Calibur characters will be accepted.

Last week's submissions have been gathered up; a lot of people submitted a large number of entries. I took what I considered the 2 best from each submission and added it to the list. Some people also submitted customization of existing Soul Calibur characters; I have decided not to include those submissions and instead that will be a topic of a future week.

Summer is coming to an end, and there are now a whole bunch of tournaments for Soul Calibur in the next few months, starting with the Tokyo Game Show 2011 during the weekend of September 15! While there is no confirmed tournament, it has been confirmed that SC5 will be playable on the show floor!

Next, we have T12 - Toronto's 12th Annual Fighting Game Championships on September 24 and 25. T12 is a major event just for fighting games, so if you're in the area, you should check it out. A few weeks later on October 7 to 9, in Phoenix, we have DEVASTATION 2011. This is the 7th annual event, and you can even get a discount off your registration fees using the promo code located within the thread.

Finally, on December 3 and 4, we have North East Championships XII; this is the biggest tournament we have on the east coast, and if the turnout from Summer Jam is any indicator, then expect this tournament to be our largest event till SC5. In the meantime, videos from Summer Jam are now available in a convenient playlist...

Namco graciously invited Kayane to come to GamesCom to try out the build of Soul Calibur 5 that they brought with them, but was unable to share her impressions of the game until August 30th because of a media embargo that was in place. Now that the embargo is over, Kayane stayed up until 6AM her local time in France just to share with the community her impressions of the game.

Check Kayane's blog for the full details, and leave a comment with any questions that you may have for her.

Summer Jam 2011 is now over! Woahhzz from Philadelphia takes the singles event in a stunning runback against Mick in Grand Finals! Team "Nothing-Common", aka "Team lolo and 2 scrubs) takes the teams event. This was a huge tournament with a great turn out, and we're hoping that North East Championship 2011 can be even bigger on December 4/5!

Videos will be uploaded throughout the week.

The hypest and most competitive Soul Calibur tournament in over a year has begun and its streaming live, directly to you! Throughout the day, as well as tomorrow, we will be running several tournaments, including: SC4 Singles, SC4 Teams, Old School VS New School Exhibition, as well as Soul Calibur 2 and various money matches and challenges.

*UPDATE*
Summer Jam 2011 is now over! Woahhzz from Philadelphia takes the singles event in a stunning runback! Full events are in the tournament aftermath thread. Videos will be uploaded throughout the week.

So last week was our first Fanart Friday; and I didn't explain the rules too well... my fault. Last week was supposed to be an emphasis on custom weapons; but a lot of people sent in create-a-soul characters instead. So I will only be posting entries which show a higher emphasis on the character's weapons themselves and this week will be all about Create-a-Soul characters...

If you send in a create-a-soul last week, resend your entry this week. Multiple entries will be permitted, however if we get too many entries, I will have to limit the number of entries per person and select the ones I think are the best. Also, try to include all your entries in a single submission. Remember, submit your entries using the "Contact Us" form; do not post your entries as a comment. Also, while the Soul Calibur series is rated "mature" with "sexual situations", we can not accept any entries with blatant nudity.

Moving on, I have selected 30 of the best entries from the past week... There is also a poll where users can vote on their favorites; the winner receives a limited Project Soul T-Shirt! Images embedded after the break.

Didn't get a chance to make it out to Comic-Con/EVO2K this year? Then chances are you didn't get your hands on Namco-Bandai's official Soul Calibur V t-shirt. But that's okay, you get another chance! Namco-Bandai Games is teaming up with 8WayRun.Com to run a series of weekly fanart contests!

So here's what we're gonna do... Every Friday, we will be announcing a new "fanart theme", and participants will have the week to mail in. The next week, we will announce a new theme, and also put up the previous entries in a vote. The winners each week will recieve an official Soul Calibur V t-shirt; and possibly whatever odds-and-ends surprises we decide to throw in.

This week's theme? Custom Weapons! You have a new weapon idea? Draw something and send it in... Entries will be voted on by the community; so you don't necessarily have to be a great artist, just be creative! When submitting your entries, DO NOT attach them as a comment; instead...