Competitions

The Origami-Dan server hosts one very large competition every year, named Death Battle. This is a high risk, high-stakes competition that runs for 5 to 6 months, and has a large monetary (and paper!) prize attached to it. 

Sign ups to this competition generally open around spring time on the Origami-Dan discord server. We encourage people to sign up for this competition only if they are ready and willing to make a long-term commitment, as the contest has many rounds and spans multiple months. Moreover, the absolute best of the best designers will be signing up for this contest - so competition is always fierce! 

To enter the competition, signees need to submit an entry model. From this very long list of sign-ups, the best designers are selected. Next, you will be paired up with your opponent and assigned a topic. The contestants are given a fixed time-frame in which they need to design, fold, shape, photograph, and submit their models after which a community vote will determine the winner. The winners move on to the next bracket, while losers are out of the race. This continues until we can crown one final winner! 

Death Battle always brings a lot of excitement to the server, and we can not wait to host it again this year for the 5th year in a row! 

In the related image, for example,  you can see a collage of all models that were submitted during Death Battle 2025!

The design contest that is hosted every month on Origami-Dan is the longest running competition, with the first edition starting in April 2019. Since then, we have hosted more than 80 iterations of this contest, where a theme is provided at the start of the month and users have to design a model that suits that theme. 

The themes and topics for the contest can be related to relevant holidays, times of year, objects, emotions, and so much more. We try our best to provide interesting topics, so that the participants always feel inspired to design something creative and new. 

In January and February of 2026, we have used this competition to encourage people to design a brand-new mascot for the Origami-Dan server. We encourage creativity, a clean and relatable final result that reflects our community of now close to 6000 members, and the final shaping and interpretation of the model. 

The attached image shows an example of the submissions that were made in April 2023, with the theme Dragons. 

At the end of each competition, the community gets to vote on which model is their favorite. After the voting period is over, the winner is granted a special role which is visible on their Discord profile, indicating they are a contest winner!

LOC x UTFOLD x UTSC Origami x UW Origami; Folded Fantasies
Submit your piece for the Folded Fantasies Origami Contest here!

CONTEST INFORMATION: 
Make an origami piece that speaks to the topic of "dreamy". It can be anything you want! 

Contest runs from Feb 15, 2026 - Feb 22, 2026

PRIZES
1st: $30 Indigo giftcard for you, $30 giftcard for the club
2nd: $20 Indigo giftcard for you, $20 giftcard for the club
3rd: $10 giftcard for you, $10 giftcard for the club

Folding/ Designing models

Folding

The OBB Competition unites folders and designers with a sustainable and rewarding framework.
Folders get a platform to challenge their skills peer-to-peer all while getting to show off their work to their favorite origami designers and competing for a valuable prize.
Designers get paid more per-diagram than publishing a book with the guarantee of hundreds folding their creation. They also get to network with other designers by working together as judges.

The nine competitions have given a platform for serious origami folders from countries around the world. By having a well defined rubric to choose the top submissions, the judges are able to then pick a unanimous winner. As one of the only Origami competitions with a paid entrance fee, the OBB Comp proved that collaboration with Origami brands is possible, partnering with Paper Tree and the Origami World Marathon to pay inject thousands of dollars into the origami ecosystem via the winners, judges, designers and diagrammers.

The current competition is active until April 30th and features viral sensation, Brandon Wong's "Plantcient Dragon" design.

Every month, we host a shaping contest on the Origami-Dan server. Around the beginning of the month a model with either public instructions or a crease pattern is selected, that we deem suitable for creative interpretation. These models are usually fairly simple, with flaps available to freely interpret the design. 

The contestants may participate and try to shape the finished base of the model into a more refined version of the final result, if the wish. However, we strongly encourage people to get very creative with their shaping! We have seen many instances of people taking the original design into a completely different direction. 

In the attached image is an example of a contest held in May of 2024, where the model was the Tree Frog by Robert J. Lang. 

Here, too, the community gets to decide which final fold is the winner after a community vote. When the winner is declared, they are granted a special Discord role indicating their expertise as well. 

The shaping contest was introduced after the design contest, as we wanted to encourage people to not only design, but to also express the true artistry that has become so inherent to origami. Up until now, we have been able to successfully run this competition for over 2 years

Folding/ Designing Models