I missed it.  This is on me: I should've set an alarm for the published start and end dates.

I'm a scratching my head that I got email notifications for the opening and closing of round 2 and round 3 of voting on themes, but no such notifications for round 1.  Then I got a notification the event is over, but no notification the event started.  Again, I should've set my own alarm clock, but I wonder: were there other messages sent out about this event that I didn't get?

There were definitely automated emails for every stage of the event, check your spam folder, maybe they got sent there by mistake?

It really is a shame, there are some amazing creative games. If you already have a game ready, or an idea you can quickly implement, maybe ask Ian if you can submit your game anyway. Whether that's actually possible or against the rules, I wouldn't know, considering there was only a limited time to do it. 

Not in my spam folder, but I did check my server's logs and there was a message sent on October 5th that came from a mailgun.us and it was  blacklisted by spamcop.net.   *shrug* it happens sometimes when you buy a mailing-list service.

Again, I'm at fault for not setting my own alarm.

Sorry to hear that some of the notifications didn't make it your way! I've been using itch.io's email system (which allows you to contact everyone in the Jam).

As PSNick mentioned, there were other notifications that I sent out. I would maybe look at either taking the mail system itch.io uses off of your blacklist, or using an alternate email for your itch.io account.

Unfortunately, with entries now closed, you won't be able to submit an entry. Sorry again that things didn't line up!