ETF2L Mapping contest

[Chubbsterinho]

Hello, below is a link to a thread on ETF2L talking about a mapping contest.

If you don't know this is the biggest European TF2 league around, with all the best teams playing in it.

Click me (http://etf2l.org/forum/league/topic-1669/?recent=18180)

I don't know if anyone would be interested, but it would be a great opportunity to get some good publicity for the mapper and site alike. The only thing that I would mention, is that this map would be for competitive play first and foremost, so it may change the way you do things. :ohmy:

Thanks for reading and hopefully we'll see some top maps :)

[Armadillo of Doom]

Very interesting. Thanks for the link m8, I'll definitely be following this :)

[Cerious]

Well, if the maps the people will submit are for competitive play, the most common map type in competitive play is 3-point A/D (like Gravelpit and Junction), 5-point symmetrical cp (Granary, Fastlane, Redstone, etc.), or ctf (like 2fort and Turbine). Large maps are rarely played due to how long they can take, and poorly optimized maps are usually rejected by the community.

[Randdalf]

ETF2L Mapping Contest
To help promote awareness in our community for competitive maps, and to increase interest in mapping, ETF2L are announcing their first Mapping Competition!

Rules
It must be a 5 control point map
It must contain rotational symmetry
Submissions must contain brief documentation discussing likely tactics that the attackers/defenders can use for each area
Submissions must contain a suggestion of how an attacking or defending team might use an alternative class effectively on this map (spy, heavy, pyro, engineer)
All submissions must be based off of your own work (no re-hashes of existing maps may be entered)
Map must follow valve like conventions to support good navigation (red: wood, hay blu: steel, concrete)
Submissions must be entered in by 8th March
All maps must be made with competitive play as a priority. Intelligent design of the areas, item placement, spawn locations/times and capture point times are all crucial.

System
After the 8th all submissions will be judged by a player panel including various high level players. The maps will be judged on: potential gameplay, unique area design, navigation. Note that at this time aesthetics are not priority and will be weighted very low on judging, that said, appropriate placeholders for future updates and appropriate textures to make the map playable are required.

After this judging period the top 4 maps will go to a selected 8 team round robin league. Where each team plays one map versus each team. This ensures a lot of official play testing is performed. After the league has finished all teams are able to score each map: 4 points, 3 points, 2 points or 1 point. A community vote will also go out via a poll on ETF2L to garner the community the possibility to allocate points to each map, with the majority vote getting 4 points, then working its way down.

The map with the highest score will then have a 1 day cup hosted for it in the following week which will have media coverage. However all four maps will be considered as a possibility to be in the map pool for ETF2L season 5. Any candidate maps for this will have their authors requested to continue development of the map for rigorous play testing and finalizing aesthetics.

The rules. I've put a WIP for drylands on their TF2 forums.

[umbratile]

Submissions must be entered in by 8th March

What.

You know that's just one month, right? Our payload contest went on for four months, and by the end we had 9 of about 30 entries ready. As the rules state, aestethics aren't important, but you'd better increase the time limit if you want anything but dev textured maps ("orange maps").

[MangyCarface]

5 pt cp is kinda restricting... I wish I could work with the competitive community in a non-contest setting, getting them to playtest and provide feedback on my ctf map-which I'm designing specifically for teamplay :S

[ikem]

i think i am going to enter... not much time though

[uma plata]

5 pt cp is kinda restricting... I wish I could work with the competitive community in a non-contest setting, getting them to playtest and provide feedback on my ctf map-which I'm designing specifically for teamplay :S

You could post it at the GotFrag forums

Or TF2F

Lot of competitive players in both those communities

[Randdalf]

Mangy post your map in the ETF2L forums, they're an understanding lot from what I've seen and you'll get good feedback from them.

[Akill]

Thanks for the early posting Chubbsterinho :)

Hey guys, im the one trying to spearhead this competition for ETF2L. Obviously most of our community is inaware of the requirements to make maps equal to that of the brilliant standard that comes out of TF2maps.net's community.

Im here to explain a little, to help both our communities thrive together, and to gain a little understanding. Originally i though a month would be enough for a map based around gameplay. However some people here have mentioned otherwise. Would 2 months be an acceptable timeline? i could try to arrange to push the date back if 1 month is too restricting.

On another note, this competition is to firstly promote awareness in the mapping community for 6v6 tf2, and for 6v6 tf2 to have awareness of the mapping community! :) we hope to have a successful first competition based on 5cp maps, and in the future a competition for another map type would be likely based on this competitions success.

If people would like to get their map play tested by 6v6 teams, and are interested in constructive feedback/ suggestions as to what makes a good 6v6 map, i can arrange for days and game/voice servers to be used to play test the maps by our community. Catch me on irc://irc.quakenet.org channel #etf2l (my username is Akill or Akill_ )

I also run a weekly radioshow for our TF2 community, as such there is a huge possibility to arrange a 6v6-community wide gathering to supply your mapping-community with an endless WAVE of playtesters.

Im glad with the quick initial responce to this competition, and i will give any mappers the necessary resources they require to help them develop their maps, so definately drop me a line.

Idle in: #etf2l
Steam account: Akill_

[Akill]

It has begun :)

http://etf2l.org/forum/general/topic-1974/?recent=23000

[trainRiderJ]

Our payload contest went on for four months, and by the end we had 9 of about 30 entries ready.

In regards to a month being too short, the above statement is an actual fact, and not exaggeration.

It might be best to have the contest in a series of phases, first focused purely on gameplay and later taking aesthetics into consideration. A 4-month time frame for the entire thing would be appropriate if you intend for these maps to be good enough to make it into league rotations.

Certainly some people will finish their maps early, but not everyone has 20+ hours a week to devote to their map.

If you have a main contest page up I'll link it in a variety of NA TF2 sites.

[Akill]

thx trainrider, here is a link

http://etf2l.org/forum/general/topic-1978/

[Armadillo of Doom]

This is a good thing you guys are doing :) There has been a great deal of interest amongst the community here about what our next major contest will be. Doing something for small-team competitions is worth considering.

[Akill]

Ive setup a thread on the ETF2L forums for mappers/teams to collaberate on getting some play testing done

http://etf2l.org/forum/general/topic-1974/?recent=23000

Mappers can always add me on steam: Akill_ to request servers for use or to find teams to playtest

[Akill]

Due to request and consideration for the map authors, and fitting in appropriately timelines for the competitive community, we have pushed the deadline for this contest back

new final submission date is on the 29th MARCH

Also we have a new method for gaining HUGE amounts of playtesting, authors should study this post:

http://etf2l.org/forum/mapcomp/topic-2116/?recent=25603

Its advised that if you wish to recieve up front playtesting feedback that you join
irc://irc.quakenet.org

and join #tf2.playtest.pickup

[Icarus]

http://etf2l.org/forum/mapcomp/topic-3340/?recent=48292

Finalists have been announced. 5 maps have been selected by a panel of judges.

Yukon
Waste
Afterdusk
Gullywash
Outlaw

The next step is to eliminate either outlaw or afterdusk. Then we will assemble four div1/top div2 teams that will spend an evening playing the top4 maps. And the active playtest pickup players will also have a say. When the winner is announced ETF2L will host a 1-day cup for the map. The map will also make it into the maplist of the pickup channels I manage, and hopefully it will also be put in the secondary map pool.

http://etf2l.org/forum/mapcomp/topic-3340/?recent=48292

[HeaH]

I thought this competition was dead

[umbratile]

I haven't even heard about Gullywash, Afterdusk or Outlaw! I'll have to check them out when I have time.

Awesome to see Yukon and Waste in there, by the way.

[Icarus]

Lots of maps changed their names

Gullywash=Worselands

[uma plata]

Wow, I thought Follower would be top 5 for sure

Anyhoo, congrats to all the finalists!

[Icarus]

It's been a while, but the polls have finally opened for the public vote.
http://etf2l.org/nations/polls/
Ends Sunday, 30th August, 23:59 CEST, where they will trim the finalists to the top 3 maps

[MangyCarface]

Contest is pretty useless so...

[Icarus]

still makes me smile

[The Political Gamer]

Old contest is old! :O

[Memento Mori]

cry some moar

[YM]

cry some moar

big bump with no reason??? :glare: