Thank you everyone for taking the time to vote in the Red Bull TL Map Contest. We're really pleased with how the finalists played out during the Red Bull TLMC Battle Grounds qualifier and some of the great games that resulted are a testament to the quality of these maps. While the competition for first place was never really in any doubt, only a few votes separated 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th, so every vote mattered right up to the end of the contest. Without any further delay the winners are....

Synapse

by -NegativeZero-



Congratulations to -NegativeZero- for grabbing fourth place and $100! Synapse is a map which places great emphasis on space control in long games. While this map should play out like many other maps up until the third bases are taken, the real beauty of this map is what it does to the late game. To take a fourth base players need to be able control sections of the map culminating in controlling their side of the ridge which divides the map. This in addition to the Blue Storm-esque path through the middle of the map was well received within the community. The map grabbed 10% of the overall vote (only .41% ahead of Graveside!) and a well deserved fourth place.

Blitzkrieg

by Neobowman



Congratulations to Neobowman for grabbing third place and $200! Any time you have a 2 player map with horizontal symmetry a key question a mapper must ask is how do you promote players to utilize the entire map, not just the short distance between the mains. Blitzkrieg approaches that problem through two ways; firstly the size restriction on units that are capable of passing through the shortest distance and secondly the watch tower which looks over the next shortest distance. This allows games to develop initially over the short distances and progress to the longer distances and makes for a dynamic map. In addition to this the map feature complicated and interesting design and a double ramp at the natural. Truly an exception map worthy of a top 3 finish in this contest. The map received 12.01% of the vote.

Habitation Station

by Sidianthebard



Congratulations to Sidianthebard for clinching second place and $300! The version of Habitation Station that you see today is the product of countless revisions after considering input from progamers and mappers alike. The first version of the map was entered in the previous TLMC but was unsuccessful. Sidian took that feedback a really made substantial improvements to the map and the result is outstanding. In comparison to Blitzkrieg, Habitation faces the horizontal symmetry problem head on, using gold bases to entice conflict between the short distances in the earlier stages of the game. Once these have been exhausted and the bases on the south side are taken, then the game continues to promote conflict through counter attacks and the proximity of the two bases at 6. As such the map favors aggressive macro play which should make for extremely exciting games. Habitation Station received 12.84% of the vote.

New Polaris Rhapsody

by Meerel


Congratulations to Meerel for winning the Red Bull TL Map Contest, and winning himself $400 and a trip to New York to watch his map in action at the Red Bull Battle Grounds. Even before we announced the finalists to the public, New Polaris Rhapsody was the #1 ranked map by our panel of judges who were all eager to see what this map could offer to influence the metagame. Once we announced the finalists we knew that this map would be a contender for first. Word that a map in the Red Bull TLMC was using the rising lava mechanic soon spread and seemingly captured the communities excitement. Even the casters of the Red Bull TLMC Qualifier [Tod and Rotterdam] remarked at how they had heard of this map and were excited to see how things would play out.

The lava mechanic offers a new dimension to the metagame. Players will need to be mindful of when the lava is rising else their units will be obliterated. We really look forward to progamers not only being mindful, but using the lava mechanic to launch attacks -- dropping once the lava rises, using mutalisks to pull an army one way before the lava rises so that they can dart into the main once the lava is up, using forcefields to trap units on the low ground before they're consumed by fire -- these possibilities make us very excited, and we hope that the map lives up to the potential that it offers. While some Zergs may find the map unattractive due to limitations on where they can place creep tumors, we hope that they embrace this challenge rather than shun it and look to alternatives like overlords dropping creep in place of creep tumors in lava-prone areas.

While we've talked a lot about the lava mechanic, the rest of the map is also well designed. For starters, the map brings back the same height natural-main which has been absent since Tal'Darim Altar. The area behind the natural also can make for interesting drop play. Looking past the first two bases, as lava only floods the central chasm of the map, a lot of focus will be given to how the game develops on the east and west wings of the map. With a natural third-fourth-fifth base flow on either side a normal game can develop despite the lava. It's this beautiful combination of standard and non-standard which won the hearts of the community and was the clear victor with 40.17% of the total vote.

The maps can all be found on Battle.net (all servers) by searching for the tag [TLMC] in the custom games section. Replays from the Red Bull Battle Grounds TLMC Qualifier can be found here.