Here at Popular Mechanics, the only thing we love more than making a huge mess is making a huge competition out of making a huge mess -- a good, old fashioned, place-your-bets, manly men competition, where only the strong survive. And Halloween provided the perfect stage for our kind of competition -- and our kind of huge mess, too: The first annual Popular Mechanics Pumpkin Carve-Off. But it's just any carve-off, it's the most extreme carve-off EVER (fact-check THAT!). We asked each competitor to pick out a carving (read: maiming) tool of his or her choice, then pitted them against each other in the categories of speed, technical skill, creativity, aesthetics, PM factor, gee whiz factor and fright factor, all of which (er) factor into the overall prize for Complete and Total Pumpkin Carve Domination, which is just slightly less coveted than the Nobel Prize (fact). Let the pumpkin slaughter begin! Less