OK, since I made a lot of awards and wanted to give my input with some ideas for the sprite contest, but arrived too late and it was already decided that only one award was allowed, I'm dumping the sprites here!
Here are the awards. Only the Golden Bat is on the contest:
Here is the rationale I used to create them (plus some other sprites to accompany the suggestions I had in mind):
The first three awards follow a Castlevania Enemy Hierarchy: Golden Vampire Bat (Dracula) for the 1st place, the Silver Reaper Scythe (Death) for the 2nd place, and lastly the Bronze Medusa Head (Annoying/Hard enemy) for the 3th place.
Then I made special awards, too, based on the discussion I read at the thread and some of Uzo's quips:
-The Alloy Vampire Killer was a special award for the Honorable Mentions contestant. Sometimes we want to give the 1st place for two people, or they come to a Draw but one of them is too good to be 2nd, but not as good to be 1st. So they get an Alloy Vampire Killer. Meant to represent the Belmont's stuggle to defeat Dracula (symbolized by the 1st place winner trophy).
-The Alloy Pot Roast was a special award for artworks that are very original, but lack pixel skill. Different from the honorable mention above, though, this one doesn't look good enough to deserve one of the main three, but you wish it did, as the concept is too good to overlook, and the artist only needs more skill. (Meant to represent a player that tries with all his soul to beat Castlevania, but can't. He does, however, get to find a Pot Roast, and finding a Pot Roast is always welcome, but it doesn't help him beat the game, yet. It does makes him confident in trying again, though).
-The Heart Brooch was for people who took part on the contest, but won nothing. It's a "Participation Prize" and denotes a spriting devotee who is still too rough to truly compete. It serves as a spur to keep the artist spriting! (Meant to represent the commonplace-ness of the Heart. Everyone can get a Heart, but not everyone can beat the game)
-The last one, hoo boy... The Graveyard Duck prize would be awarded to those artworks edging on trollish. It's so bad it's good. Being bad at spriting, though, is not reason to win it. You would've to be so bad and the art must have such a sarcastic theme to it, that it wraps around and becomes actually good. Would be a very rare trophy to win. (Meant to represent that famed translation, that's so freakishly bad and out of place, that it's actually iconic and funny, deserving it's own place on the Castlevania lore).