TLMC9 comes to a close as we round out the top five maps of the season as determined by you, the community. TLMC9 provided the public with a choice of 16 varied maps in 4 distinct categories. After months of map-making and judging, these maps were shown to the world in the form of the Wardi TLMC tournament. And after feedback from pros and the general public, mappers had a bit over a week to iterate on their creations. Then, you, the public voted on the fruits of their labor. There are the results:

All sixteen finalists will receive at least $100 by default for placing in the top 16. All finalists will also receive a custom community commander portrait if they do not yet have one. In addition, the authors of the top five maps will receive the following prizes, all provided by Blizzard.

First - $500
Second - $250
Third - $125
Fourth - $75
Fifth - $50

FIFTH PLACE

EASTWATCH | IeZaeL

"Play the game the way you want, be it macro or rush or standard, with the various rock towers providing exciting ways to shape the gameplay in never-seen-before ways. Now with even more meaningful choices due to the changes made during the iteration phase."

IeZaeL is most known for creating Coda, a TLMC5 finalist and one of the most iconic maps of HotS. IeZael will take fifth place with $50. In addition, he will receive an additional $300 for placing with three maps in TLMC9, including God's Garden and Neo Tropicana.

FOURTH PLACE

BACKWATER | Avex

"Backwater was my last attempt into creating a 'pocket-third' concept, and I think the games we had showed that it works out well. I asked around and it seems that the ease of scouting this base as well as the middle ground of harassing it seems to work out in most of the matchups, even in ZvZ. The map is easy to read, the linear expansion pattern and open field makes for surprisingly interesting engagements outside of the base locations rather than on the base itself. This map is a good bet to vote on if you are fan of three-base games that aren't necessarily turtle-y like Acolyte."

Avex is most known for ladder maps such as Invader, Blood Boil, and Odyssey, in addition to the decoration of Acolyte. Avex earns at least $75 for his fourth place finish in addition to taking home $200 for his finalist placing with two maps.

THIRD PLACE

NEON VIOLET SQUARE | RQM

"Neon Violet was a highly experimental map. It had many extreme features, not just one or two. Of course, it have received a lot of feedback during the tournament phase. Considering the comments, I picked acceptable ones out from those features. Now squares are only on the middle. As inevitable block lines were removed, players can bypass blocks and choose more routes than before. Safer main, more geysers on pocket base and new gold base let players to take different choices. Hence, the map now gives more possibilities. My attempt was to relax its forced gameplays. I hope you enjoy this map which now allows various aspects."

RQM is most known for Judgement, a map that was used in GSL 2016 Season 2. He'll take home $225 in total for his third place finish.

SECOND PLACE

CATALYST | NegativeZero

"This map is a composite of some of my best standard map ideas dating back to HotS. The flexible expansion layout allows you to tailor your expansion pattern to your own play style, and the combination of chokes and high grounds create a variety of interesting attack paths and defensive positions. Changes from the original mainly help fix a couple potentially abusable areas around the 3rd - widening a chokey area along the high ground attack path, and reducing the vulnerability of the path between the nat and 3rd to tanks on the low ground."

NegativeZero is most known for creating TLMC6 winner Terraform, TLMC7 2nd place finisher Apotheosis, and TLMC8 5th place finisher Sequencer. All three have been prominent ladder maps and we look forward to Catalyst possibly being one as well. NegativeZero will take home $250 for this second place finish in addition to $300 for making three finalist maps including Abiogenesis and Anomaly

FIRST PLACE

BLACKPINK | Avex

"Blackpink was a strong inspiration for me as a music group, and happens to be a part of my motivation to continue mapping, and I feel like the map aptly named Blackpink is showing that my progress as a mapper is going strong. During the contest it showed some aggressive games, but showed itself as having ample room for awesome macro games as we saw between ByuN and Serral. This is a safe contender for a solid macro map where you can play the way you want on the ladder."

For his first and fourth place finish, Avex has earned himself a total of $775 in TLMC9. This is the second TLMC that Avex has won in a row as he took TLMC8 with Windwaker, later renamed to Odyssey. We'll have to wait till TLMC10, however, to see if we can start calling him the Mapping B-word.

With that, TLMC9 comes to a close. Thank you to everyone who submitted a map, voted in the poll, watched the Wardi TLMC tournament, or otherwise showed an interest in the contest.

Now that the contest has concluded, it's in Blizzard's hands to pick the maps for the next season of ladder. We look forward to hear which of the sixteen finalists will make it!