Sit down and chat with Marcus Lefevre-Enimo from Miss SL Organization When did you start the Miss SL Organization and what was your goal when starting your company? I did start the MISS SL Organization end of November 2014 and there was no other goal for me but to preserve standards for the modeling and pageant community, in a time when it seems that no one else would hold up at least some standards. What standards do you want to uphold and preserve? Foremost, reliability. I think it’s important that models, or pageant candidates, know how an organization works and that these processes do not change dramatically over night... of course there are always things to tweak within an organization but generally, things have to be recognizable... it’s why there are repeating patterns for everything we do... always the same show times, rehearsal times are always the same, the way rehearsals are conducted, feedback etc. etc... even with the music I play at shows, there are certain pieces I play to certain occasions, as it makes an event recognizable, memorable. When things constantly change it’s confusing the team, models, candidates, and audience too... and that’s how it appears messy, unorganized. What is the most exciting/rewarding thing about running your company? It’s clearly seeing the models and candidates evolving over the years... I’m conscious that their participation in our competitions is part of their evolution... during a competition I can see a model grow from the audition until the Grand Finale, and it moves me that much that I’ve a few times cried already when I saw MY finalists in their final outfits, having worked so hard for weeks and months, to then finally bring their very best onto our runway... keeping in mind “their very best” is just a snapshot of that very time... they will move on from there and evolve even further and I have the privilege to watch them as they go on. It’s also very reassuring that former finalists again and again return to our competitions, there are some who have been with us 3, 4, 5 or 6 times already... all this is my reward really and excites me, it cannot be paid with money.
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So, what does it take to be apart of the competitions? Oh, it does not take much, at least not what someone from the outside would expect. I.e., I don’t care about academy diplomas or something like that. What you need to bring is the willingness to commit the proposed time, to want to learn and the ability to listen and see what you can take from what you were told for yourself. It’s not like we’d be expecting you to be a 100% super top model right away... there’s none in Second Life anyway, it’s nonsense. Everyone who is willing to learn can be part of the competition just by applying. If your new, do you offer help and guidance for newcomers? Of course, a lot. First, we offer a basic workshop at the begin of the competition, where I guide the new candidates through a very few standards they need to know about for their participation. Then, I offer after every audition, challenge and even after the Grand Finale optional feedback to the candidates, where we can see about details in the outfits and posing performance... my opinion there is never imperative and every candidate can take it, or not. Also, the candidates can message the team and me about everything to any time really. As team we’re limited in helping candidates of course, but at least we can point directions. Finally, I’m rolling out a mentor program with the MR SL 2022 competition where candidates can opt to get guidance by a former MISS SL, MR SL or AVISTAR finalist during their participation in the running competition. the first half of a year that we do MISS SL and the second half of the year, roughly, that we do MR SL. The AVISTARS were originally the YoungStars... my idea was to have a competition between the two big ones, for those we normally don’t see on runways... often times I’d go to places and see very creative styled avatars and think they’d look great on our runway too... and when talking to the one or other, I usually get told that they don’t think they are up to the “modeling standards” which is another nonsense particularly for Second Life modeling. My focus on YoungStars was on.
What made you come up with your 3 competitions (Miss SL Mr. SL and Avi Stars) and would you be open to more in the future? Bahahaha, no. I’m overloaded with events already... I do approximately 30 - 35 shows per year, counting the MISS SL Agency shows too... with 52 weeks a year there’s not much room left to do anything else really. At the begin we only thought about the MISS SL pageant as competition, but MR SL just was a logical consequence that had to follow... so it’s younger appearing avatars, but MR SL YoungStars ‘18, Xuro asked me if we can think about transforming it into a more inclusive competition. So now everyone can join it, all ages, genders, shapes, new and experienced... it’s split in three age categories now, the AVISTARS are the adults, the YOUNGSTARS are younger appearing, say 12 - 18 and the TWEENSTARS are at the apparent age of 8-12 years old. That’s how that came together and there’s really no room for anything more, lol. People think that these competitions are rigged. How do you combat this? I cannot combat it... it’s a natural reaction for those who do not win, to speculate about the win of others. I do know though that I’m very particular about the scoring process, having experienced rigged competitions to which I was invited as a judge. It’s extremely frustrating and a waste of time in my understanding. Over the years I’ve developed a security system with which I make sure that we only get the scores from the judges who are supposed to judge, and it all goes real time into a sheet I maintain, and my team has “view”-access to, too. I try to minimize the human error with that. At the begin we had to tally the points still from notecards, which was very tiring but also comes with mistakes every of us would do. The candidates can see their scores after a competition too. After the Grand Finale I meet them or send them per mail a graphic overview, generated by my sheet, in which they can see all points that were given to them. There’s nothing more I could offer about it, it’s transparent as possible, by also protecting the involved individuals’ interests... i.e. I’d never publish scores on social networks or on our website, as that could damage a model’s reputation. So, we keep it behind closed doors and yet transparent as possible. In the end, I’ve no illusions though, some always will say this and that is rigged and I’m ok with that if I can investigate my very own mirror and know I’m doing the right thing.
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