Ever since its inception in 2011, the Team Liquid Map Contest has been a vital source of new maps in competitive StarCraft II. We’re delighted to announce that this tradition will continue for its twelfth year with TLMC #18.

We’d like to extend a special thanks to Monster Energy for being the presenting sponsor of Team Liquid Map Contest #18. Due to the broader contraction in the StarCraft II scene this year, there was a possibility that TLMC would not take place. Thanks to Monster Energy’s support, Team Liquid and the map-making community can continue to craft the high-quality maps that become the canvases for iconic matches.

Also, we’d like to thank ESL for continuing its relationship with the TLMC. The ESL Pro Tour will continue to be updated with TLMC maps, and the best maps will also be proposed to be included on the official StarCraft II ladder.

We begin now with the map submission phase, which will continue until May 8th.

Categories

Freestyle

• Guidelines: Maps in this category explore new ideas for how StarCraft II can be played. This category is intended for unorthodox, outside-the-box maps.
  
• Examples of features that might be included in this category:
  • Heavy or atypical usage of backdoor entrances with Mineral Walls/Reduced Mineral Patches.
    
  • Usage of Vespene Geysers as potential gates.
    
  • Inhibitor and Accelerator Zones.
    
  • Non-standard numbers of Mineral nodes or Vespene geysers at bases (Restriction: Values of each individual resource node cannot be adjusted)
    
  • Other strongly non-standard map designs.
• Map dimension guidelines: The "playable" area of the map should be approximately between 14,000 and 18,000 (NOT the "camera" or "full" measurements in the editor). This is a recommendation, not a hard restriction.
  
• Examples:
  • Altitude
    
  • Stargazers
    
  • Dasan Station
    
  • Golden Wall
    
  • Turbo Cruise ‘84
    
  • Korhal Carnage Knockout
    

Rush

• Guidelines: Map favors early aggression and offensive play.
  
• Average rush distance (main ramp to main ramp): 33 seconds or less. (Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)
  
• Playable map dimensions guidelines (not full map dimensions): Map playable area should be approximately between 14,000 and 16,000. (Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)
  
• Examples:
  • Babylon
    
  • Inside and Out
    
  • Waterfall
    
  • Curious Minds
    
  • Kairos Junction
    
  • Paladino Terminal
    
  • Interloper
    
  • Defender’s Landing

Standard

• Guidelines: Medium sized map. Players tend to have more flexibility on these maps to open with a wider variety of strategies and/or builds.
  
• Average rush distance (main ramp to main ramp): 33-38 seconds. (Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)
  
• Map dimension guidelines: The "playable" area of the map should be approximately between 15,000 and 17,000 (NOT the "camera" or "full" measurements in the editor). This is a recommendation, not a hard restriction.
  
• Examples:
  • Dragon Scales
    
  • 2000 Atmospheres
    
  • Blueshift
    
  • New Repugnancy
    
  • Cyber Forest
    
  • Catalyst
    
  • Overgrowth
    
  • Coda)

Macro

• Guidelines: A map that favors defensive play and encourages players to reach end game unit compositions.
  
• Average rush distance (main ramp to main ramp): 38-43 seconds. (Note: Not a hard restriction. Could be more or less)
  
• Map dimension guidelines: The "playable" area of the map should be approximately between 16,000 and 18,000 (NOT the "camera" or "full" measurements in the editor). This is a recommendation, not a hard restriction.
  
• Examples:
  • Gresvan
    
  • Data-C
    
  • Romanticide
    
  • Year Zero
    
  • Port Aleksander
    
  • King’s Cove LE
    
  • Odyssey
    
  • Blackpink

Features allowed per category - overview

While many creative map features are allowed in the TLMC, map-makers looking to maximize the chances of their maps being selected for the ESL Pro Tour should reference the most recent EPT map pools (selected from TLMC) when deciding how orthodox or unorthodox their maps should be.

	Rush	Standard	Macro	Freestyle
Mineral Wall
Rich Geyser
Inhibitor Zones
Acceleration Zones
3+ Starting Positions
5 Levels of Terrain Height

Restrictions

• No custom textures or Force Fields.
  
• No custom data on maps.
  
• Maps must meet Melee mode requirements: Triggers and Data cannot be edited.
  
• Yes, Renegade Missile Turrets are still banned.

Focus on Quality Assurance

The Team Liquid Map Contest has always welcomed a broad range of submissions within the tournament rules, regardless of the experience of the mapmaker. However, this leads to a large number of submissions that do not meet the standards for competitive StarCraft II, or are poorly optimized for in-game performance.

While we do not wish to tighten the standards for submitting a map, we request that map-makers conduct as much debugging and quality assurance as reasonably possible before submitting maps to TLMC. This will reduce strain on TLMC and ESL staff, and assure that high quality, refined maps are added to the competitive map pool.

Factors to consider in QA include, but are not limited to:

• Unit pathing
  
• In-game performance (too many doodads is a frequent culprit)
  
• Correct line-of-sight blocker implementation
  
• Mineral/gas placement
  
• Compatibility of natural expansion chokes with standard wall-offs
  
• Unintended drop locations
  
• Removal of misc. remnants from map creation/testing phase

Please use resources such as video documentation of TLMC map feedback, previous TLMC feedback threads, and community groups such as the “Mappers’ Circle” Discord server to learn more about the principles behind high-end map-making. In particular, community groups can be invaluable for map-making discussion and getting feedback on your maps.

Suggestions and Notes

• We highly recommend that map-makers submitting maps join the “Mappers’ Circle” Discord server where the majority of participants and staff are likely to be active.
  
• We would like to remind participants that due to the removal of the official pre-judging feedback phase that existed in previous contests, it is important for map-makers to conduct as much quality assurance on their maps as possible before submitting them to TLMC.
  
• For clarification, maps submitted to other map competitions may be submitted to TLMC #18 as well.
  
• Reminder: We are keeping the reduced "Average rush distance" and "Playable map dimensions" values that were implemented in TLMC #14, as we still feel there is plenty of potential for high-quality maps to be created on the 'small' side of the spectrum. Ultimately, the listed values are just suggestions, and it's up to each individual map-maker to decide what map size fits their vision best.
  
• The average rush distance and playable map dimensions are guidelines and not strict restrictions. For example, large maps that play out aggressively or small maps that promote long games will still be considered using the same criteria as the other maps in the category.
  
• Maps with insufficient edge-map distance have been an issue in past map pools. While recent map pools have mostly avoided this problem, we still recommend map-makers leave a modicum of air space between playable ground areas and map edges.
  
• Overlord high ground scout positions over naturals have a large impact on gameplay and should be sized and placed carefully. We want to remind everyone that while these spots are still acceptable, they are not required, and we’d like to see a greater variety in how they’re placed.
  
• When deciding to utilize a gold base, make sure there is some sort of risk associated with them. Otherwise, gold mineral bases with low risk tend to usually favor Zerg over the other races.
  
• Be careful when adjusting the number of mineral nodes, vespene geysers, or rich vespene geysers at bases, especially in the main and natural, as it could impact balance between races and/or matchups.
  
• When using air pathing blockers, avoid setting up zones that trap air units within them.
  
• During the iteration phase of the competition (more on this below), small changes are often more desirable than large radical changes that dramatically alter the map’s direction.
  
• We want to let map-makers know that submitted maps aren’t required to utilize a high number of 'non-standard' map features (acceleration zones, mineral walls, etc), even in the Freestyle category. Maps will be judged based on how well map features are used and how much they add to the map.

Post contest map iteration

We want to give the map-makers an opportunity to edit their maps after the contest period to make any adjustments if necessary. Hopefully this will give the map-makers more control and a chance to make improvements based on any feedback from ESL, pro players, or the community at large.

After the contest, map-makers will be contacted by ESL or TLMC staff in order to make improvements and get their maps into a ladder-ready state before the next ladder season. For instance, map-makers can make small adjustments to the maps such as changes to Reaper cliffs. Results from our performance tests will also be made available to map-makers who can use those results to improve performance.

Contest Phases

Note: The default timezone for TLMC is Pacific Standard Time (PST). While countdowns and specific times should be converted to local timezone on the TL.net website, PST will be used whenever we "just" use dates in posts. For example: the end date for submissions is May 8th. So the deadline is May 8th at 11:59 PM PST.

Submission Phase

April 13th to May 8th

To ensure that maps are ladder-appropriate and have minimal performance issues, please conduct as much quality assurance as possible on your maps before submitting them to TLMC.

TLnet Judging Phase

May 9th to May 15th

Once submissions have closed, maps will go through an initial screening by TLMC staff. The remaining maps will be submitted to a judge panel including professional players, community figures, and map-makers. If you are a professional player and would be interested in helping out, PM us. Together, the judges will trim down all submissions to a final 16 that will be used in the next stages of the contest. Map-makers win $200 in prize money for each map that finishes in the final 16.

Note: All submissions are anonymized before being sent on to the judges. Only the main admins of the contest have access to who the submitters are.

Test Tournament & Public Voting Phase

May 23rd to May 28th

Finally, the public will then vote on the final versions of these maps. Public voting determines how much additional prize money the map-makers win. Voting DOES NOT directly determine which maps will be chosen to be included in the ESL Pro Tour, although ESL may reference community opinion in their decision (TL.net may audit the votes if it notices botting or other irregular voting patterns).

The test tournament phase allows everyone to see the new maps being played by some of the best players in the world. For the tenth time, we will be working together with Wardi to hold the TLMC test tournament.

Iteration Phase

May 29th to TBD

The iteration phase has become a vital part for map-makers in TLMC. It gives them a chance to fix smaller issues that they may have been caught during the tournament phase. Note that smaller fixes are often better than huge changes.

As with previous TLMC's, we will make a public post introducing the sixteen finalist maps. Map-makers who make the top 16 will be given the opportunity to submit extra screenshots and link to YouTube or Twitch VODs of their map being played. We will also be collecting information about what they've changed and will mention the changes in the voting post. All this information will be sent out in a PM to the 16 finalists after the tournament phase.

TLMC Winners Announced

Shortly after the conclusion of the voting phase, we will present the final standings.

ESL will consider the sixteen finalist maps, and possibly some maps outside of the top sixteen (example: Neo Humanity from TLMC #17), for inclusion in the next season of the ESL Pro Tour. ESL will also propose the selected EPT maps for inclusion into the next official ladder rotation.

Prize Distribution

Thanks to Monster Energy, TLMC #18 will feature a prize pool of $3750.

How To Submit Maps

Submission Rules

• Each individual map MUST be assigned to one category. DO NOT submit the same map to multiple categories.
  
• Map-makers will be limited to five(5) map submissions each, with a limit of two maps per category. For example, you may submit two maps in two categories, one map in a third category, and none in the remaining category.
  
• For this contest, the judges will pick sixteen(16) finalist maps to move on to the next stage:
  • Three(3) Standard Maps
    
  • Three (3) Macro Maps
    
  • Three (3) Rush Maps
    
  • Three (3) Freestyle Maps
    
  • Four (4) "Judges' Picks"
• The four Judges' Pick maps will be selected through a combination of overall map scoring and discretion of the judges' panel. In recent contests, Judges' Picks have been the highest scoring maps that did not reach the top three cutoff in their category.

Please PM your map file(s) to TL Map Contest with the below format by May 8th. Please title your PMs with the name of the map. You must submit one PM for each map (five maps = five PM submissions). Once your map has been received you will receive a PM back confirming that we have received it. If you have not received a reply within 24 hours, please contact us directly. We may also PM you back requesting missing information. Your entry will not be officially confirmed until any issues with the submission have been resolved.

If you want to submit a revised map for the contest before the end of submissions, please send us a reply in the original PM chain on TLnet. This to ensure there are no mixups in the submission process.

The submission PM must contain:

• Map name
  
• A download link to your map
  
• A picture of your map. Please use the standard 90° top down overview—do not use any angled or tilted images. Please mark start locations and describe any starting location constraints. You may attach additional images to highlight map features if you wish, but the top-down view is most important.
  
• The map category you wish to enter with this map
  
• The size (dimensions) of the map
  
• Number of bases
  
• Main to Main distance (in-game seconds using a worker from town hall to town hall)
  
• Top of main ramp to top of main ramp distance (in-game seconds using a worker)
  
• Natural to Natural distance: (in-game seconds using a worker from town hall to town hall)
  
• Any relevant analyzer images (optional)
  
• A description of the map: This is a very useful resource for judges and TLMC admins who are examining dozens of maps, so please try to be both informative and concise. We recommend around 700 characters at most, although this isn't a hard limit.
  
  • Point out any alternate resources, destructible rocks, or other elements that aren't obvious at first glance.
    
  • Describe any distinctive features
    
  • Explain the general concept and style of the map
    
  • Check out some of the map descriptions provided by the TLMC #17 finalists. As a specific example, here is Marras' short description of Stargazers from TLMC #16:
    
    Stargazers offers the opportunity to either play standard games or make things a bit more spicy by opening up the path through the pocket natural.
    
    Features:
    
    • There are 12 blue bases in total plus one gold base at the 6 o'clock position
      
    • The pocket naturals have a standard amount of minerals and gas but the base is blocked by two mineral nodes with the value of 10 per each
      
    • The minerals blocking the ramp leading from the pocket natural have a value of 40 each making opening up that path a big commitment if done by the attacker
      
    • Line of sight blockers are situated in the middle area and the bottom of the map
      
    • The Xelnaga Tower at the 12 o'clock position can see a little bit of the outermost parts of the pocket natural mineral lines.

The map file must contain:

• A short gameplay description: There is a field for this with a limit of 300 chars. You can include some flavor text here, or base it on the gameplay description from your map submission.

Entries not in this format may be excluded from consideration. Please do not send questions to the 'TL Map Contest' account; contact TLMC admin Waxangel instead.

Submit your map

FAQ

Q: Do I need to send my map file, or will an image or a link to my map on Battle.net be enough?
We want the map file for this contest, so a link to Battle.net is not sufficient. There will be a huge number of maps to choose from, so we will need to open many of them up in order to check for details that we can't find otherwise. To send your maps, upload them to a file hosting service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive and include the link in your entry.

Q: How do I attach a map file or image to a PM?
The Team Liquid PM system does not support attachments. Instead, use an external image/file hoster such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive for map files or Imgur for image files. Please send those links along with your submission.

Q: Can I enter a team map/FFA map into the contest?
Sorry, we will not be accepting non-1v1 maps in this contest. In the past, the Team Liquid Map Contest has occasionally allowed team play maps to be entered and evaluated separately from 1v1 maps, and some of these submissions did eventually reach the ladder map pool. However, we are focusing on only 1v1 maps for this contest. While we hope to hold a team map contest in the future, we cannot guarantee one at this time.

Q: Will the first place map automatically be included in tournaments?
No. ESL will consider the top rated maps, possibly including maps that did not finish in the top 16, for use in ESL tournaments.

Q: How crazy can my maps be?
Maps need to be ladder appropriate. This means that features requiring specialist knowledge (rising lava, geysers used to block ramps, etc.) will not be accepted. If your map passes that test and complies with the guidelines above then your map is acceptable! Of course, if you are concerned that your map may not be suitable for ladder then please PM us and we will tell you whether or not it is appropriate.

Q: I’m interested in the contest, but I’m horrible at map making. What can I do to support the map-makers?
Post in their map threads and give them support, encouragement, and replays on their maps! Giving your favorite map-maker support will be much appreciated by the map-maker. Replays are especially valuable as it helps the map-maker align their design goals with the map with the reality of how people play their map.

If you have any unanswered questions please do not hesitate to ask them below or PM us who will be happy to answer them. Again, we highly recommend you join the “Mappers’ Circle” Discord server.

Best of luck in the competition.