It was crazy month! With TLMC5 and Mapximum 2 happening, alot of new maps were being made! And surprisingly, both of their winners did miss the MotM shortlist! There were close to 60 maps in consideration this month, making it possibly the most contested month in MotM history! It was also a special month for me, too, since it was right after TLMC4, that I decided to bring back MotM. It has become a consistent source of new maps since then, and has paid out around $500 in prize money to mapmakers!
So this month, more than ever, I am very proud to present you the winners of February 2015:
Once again, we had a some donations from the community, which contributed towards this month's 20$ prize pool! To make it a little bit more interesting, I decided to add some extra prizes:The 3 highest placed maps will be awarded one of the following games via Steam:
Hitman: Absolution Supreme Commander 2 Thief Murdered: Soul Sespect Deus EX: Human Revolution- Director's Cut Tomb Raider Sleeping Dogs Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Startopia Kane & Lynch Collection Farcry 3: Blood Dragon
To the 3 winners: Please pm me or contact me on skype to pick your rewards
1st Place goes to Rao Mesa by ScorpSCII, which received an incredible 32% of all votes, despite the competition! He will also receive the 20$ prize pool!
2nd Place goes to Exosphere by -NegativeZero-, which received 22% of all votes!
3rd Place goes to Ganymede by Uvantak, with 19% of the votes!
With that said, All map posted after the 25th of February will be considered for MotM March 2015!
All you need to do is to create a map thread following the forum guidelines (please include a top down overview) AND publish the map on battle.net until the end of March.
Once again we are taking donations! As usual, 50% of the donations will be used for the competition prize pool. The other 50% will be saved up to fund future MotM events. Yes, I am aware that those have been postponed for some time The previous plans for a MotM tourney didn't work out and I'll have to find another way once I find the time.
So, if you also want to support MotM, send your donations towards
Hyperlink has an incredible aesthetic. I remember -NegativeZero- experimenting with the concepts of Exosphere awhile ago. Excited to see the finished result.
Yep, I felt like Hyperlink and Exosphere were probably the 2 favorites among the mapmakers. Rao Mesa seemed more like a Dark Horse. I actually expected Ganymede to win the public poll!
Rao Mesa <3 Seriously though, I really like Exosphere, and I am surprised it didn't take home the first place, but it's been a great month and a lot of maps deserves better. Congratulations to all MotM finalists!
On March 05 2015 07:11 ScorpSCII wrote: Rao Mesa <3 Seriously though, I really like Exosphere, and I am surprised it didn't take home the first place, but it's been a great month and a lot of maps deserves better. Congratulations to all MotM finalists!
I see you put the rocks where they should be, this map is going to be so great for ladder and tournament. I expect it to be one of the least vetoed maps.
On March 05 2015 07:06 Pontius Pirate wrote: Exosphere has some of my favorite aesthetics of any map I've ever seen.
I dunno, Hyperlink is pretty sick in that regard, too!
It's nice. I appreciate the depth, especially over the dead space, and the thin lines providing a break from the saturation of the dominant dark gray color. But it doesn't really wow me like Exosphere does with how thematically self-explanatory its aesthetic change is. In particular, the palette of Hyperlink is another dreary dark gray map, the likes of which we have had more than enough throughout the lifespan of Starcraft, going back to vanilla SC1, whereas the verdant center of Exosphere provides a very pleasing contrast by itself, and the most interesting elements of the map are placed very much in the middle of normal gameplay area, so you'll be seeing a lot of them.
On March 05 2015 07:11 ScorpSCII wrote: Rao Mesa <3 Seriously though, I really like Exosphere, and I am surprised it didn't take home the first place, but it's been a great month and a lot of maps deserves better. Congratulations to all MotM finalists!
I see you put the rocks where they should be, this map is going to be so great for ladder and tournament. I expect it to be one of the least vetoed maps.
Those rocks really struck me as well. I have to wonder what it would be like to have some additional rock features, such as really strong rock towers that created permanent block-offs, or lightweight rocks or debris that had 0 armor and less than usual HP. Seeing how well this map uses browders makes me wish that maps didn't have to be this brilliantly designed in order to use them creatively.
On March 05 2015 11:12 Arceus wrote: This is like the most satisfied map contest result for me. Hope Blizz looks at this and considers the top2
I think any of the 6 maps could be considered for ladder. They're really great.
On March 05 2015 12:23 MiniFotToss wrote: GOD, Rao Mesa, looks like a real mecro orientated map, it's easy to fast 3 Nexus expand vs Zerg cuz of the distance of bases
Rao Mesa definitely does encourage a macro-oriented play style, which obviously shortens the early game, but the flow of the paths through the center should allow for some interesting mid/late game engagements. I am not saying all maps should be like that, because they surely should not, but it makes for some more map pool variety, which I think really is needed.
Why is this in General? Not that I'm against it, it's pretty awesome to have MotM results in SC2 General. Grats to the winners ofc, although I would have preferred Exosphere in first place
On March 05 2015 12:23 MiniFotToss wrote: GOD, Rao Mesa, looks like a real mecro orientated map, it's easy to fast 3 Nexus expand vs Zerg cuz of the distance of bases
It is equally easy for zerg to take 3 bases on that as well, which demotes most 2 base oriented playstyles since all 3 bases are connected outside of protoss engagement areas.
In my honest opinion, this favors zerg more than protoss when it comes to 3 base layout. The 4th, harder, sure, but so is it for protoss.
I think any first 3 base on every map should be "easy to take" similarily to this, because I am sure that enforces more greed to some players from which allins and cheeses becomes more popular again, whereas maps, like inferno pools, expedition lost and secret springs, almost has the hardest possible 3rds to take and those maps are unpopular and racially imbalanced.
Rao Mesa 3 base layout should be as standard as the main-natural layout. Polar Night and Rao Mesa, shows the best possible 3 base layout that should be existing on EVERY map in my opinion, and not with any rocks on the 3rd. It should be easy to take. This will also be much better with the LotV design that promotes expanding.
I am still undecided if that nat/third setup is actually better or worse. However, since most matches happend and end at that stage of the game, I am always happy to see different setups.
imo Rao Mesa (while a really freakin cool map) has problems with 4+ bases, due to distances. exosphere is a really smart "simple" map that def deserves some attention.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jt18MvP.jpg)
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The previous plans for a MotM tourney didn't work out and I'll have to find another way once I find the time.
)! But Hyperlink got shafted again, I'm really surprised.
