Five more days to get your entry in, and tweak your character choices, play style and strategy.

The #poecomp tag is ticking along nicely, with 13 entries and a whole heap of glorious deaths posted by @holoz0r.

@alannapendragon - Path of Exile Account
@beercake - Path of Exile Account
@buggedout - Path of Exile Account
@cipriang - Path of Exile Account
@cryptosenpai - Path of Exile Account
@enjar - Path of Exile Account
@gamingchimp - Path of Exile Account
@holoz0r - Path of Exile Account
@jimmybreeze - Path of Exile Account
@moon32walker - Path of Exile Account
@o07life - Path of Exile Account
@ratticus - Path of Exile Account
@samueldouglas - Path of Exile Account

Our 13 contestants are now locked in, and racing hard.

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Source
These new boots look divine, but they give me terrible pins and needles

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Countdown to kickoff and free game download (pay for cosmetic enhancements only) - Here.

Original post explaining the competition - Here.

On top of the 50, 30 and 20 steem first second and third prizes, @buggedout has sweetened the pot with another 10 SBD for best ranger to outrank him at the end of the comp, so there are going to be a lot of arrows fired between the 2nd and the 9th of March.
Prizes are awarded to characters, not accounts; so one person could theoretically win everything.

Official countdown to the end of the competition - Here

This game is huge, and the level of customisation is mind-boggling.
For example, here are the passive skill tree selections of a level 56 character belonging to @ratticus

As part of the full skill tree here.

You can see he started from the Ranger starting position at 4 o'clock, and has mostly worked his way out with a focus on archery.
Any character can get to any node; it's just a question of planning and priorities.
The possibilities for hybrid builds are huge.

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I'm currently rocking a level 47 Templar, who specialises in traps, totems and necromancy.
He can't deal direct damage personally (having given that up to raise two simultaneous totems), but he takes an entourage of five zombies, six skeletons, a ghost who gets hand-me-down weapons and armour, and a stone golem, into battle with him.

The skeletons don't dish out much damage, but I'll walk in and raise a few just behind the biggest guy in the room.
As he turns around to smash them to bits, my other guys rush him.
It's not Queensberry, but it gets the job done.
Edit: The skeletons now explode when killed, which is very helpful. (Another node on the skill tree)

Having a small army has kept me alive so far, but there's still a lot more game ahead of me than behind me.
It'll be interesting to see if any competitors lean toward summoning.
('Animate Guardian' is great if you can find it)

I'll be doing regular leaderboard posts, and also drilling down into different, notable strategies and expanding on skills I see being creatively customised.

Throw your hat in the ring by writing a post, including your account name (make sure it's set to public) and using #poecomp as your first tag.
Characters need to be Hardcore in the Bestiary League, and their name has to start with 'SHR_'
Even if you suck; as long as you suck with good grace and humour; you're going to get noticed and make some friends.
If you're really shy, maybe play along quietly this time.
New Leagues are launched every 3 months or so, so if we have fun with it I'll probably make it a regular thing.

Clock's ticking, so get your skates on.