EPTON the positive side, there will be alot of maps out there quickly for competitions.
On the negative side, the new ICCUP mapmaking team will shoulder the responsibility of being THE maps that the pros will play on, they will likely dictate every future map idea to come out of the game in the near future. It is also possible that players will be unwilling to try other mapmakers, unless they under the ICCUP umbrella, as ICCUP is such a huge name in our community that other mapmakers will not be given the same chance. This will create a desperate situation, especially considering the incredibly useless map system that blizzard has introduced, where if a map is not played, it will not be played, and if the map is played it will be more played. This will force mapmakers' new and old creations to the bottom of lists and will likely never get the exposure needed to be considered in competitive play, or to the eyes of ICCUP to add the artist to their team to allow their map to be played. in short, it will produce high quality maps, as defined by ICCUP, but it adds yet another significant road block for up and coming mapmakers to get their work out there.
Not only am i posting this to explain this idea, but to plead players to check TL, and also to click more maps quite a few times in your spare time to discover new maps and give us ALL the chance we deserve and not just those chosen few selected by ICCUP, seemingly based on ability to reproduce current brood war maps (all three names produced very high quality remakes check them out!) Creativity and competition need to be rewarded.
Good luck to the ICCUP mapmaking team, and i wish you the best and have all the confidence in the world in you guys. Don't forget the huge responsibility you and ICCUP have taken in deciding the future of Starcraft 2 for the next few years.
