Awarding the game’s winners
As Valery explained when we spoke about a week after the competition ended, his decision was based on his conviction that "striving for victory is already a victory". The winner’s wishes are binding on the organizer, so I ask all the users mentioned to send me a private message specifying their chosen purchase from the "Ozon" online store and their postal address so I can arrange delivery.
User Olegan was very keen to see an image with the character fully revealed. Unfortunately, I cannot provide one, as I did not prepare it in advance, for several reasons. First, I am not proficient enough with a graphics editor to create such an image quickly and easily, so drawing 36 files showing the character covered by 36 squares did not seem a productive use of my time, and ultimately it was not. Second, I had no doubt that many users could demonstrate a high level of character knowledge, so I did not draw all 36 images. I therefore simply do not have a picture showing the fully revealed character (and am posting the image that reveals it most fully).
Those who enjoyed the game, please be patient: a new character puzzle will appear very soon.