The future of competitive StarCraft II may be unclear, but TLMC continues to forge forward in its search for the best new maps.

After taking a detour to provide a much-needed update to the team map pool in the previous TLMC, this time we're returning to our 1v1 roots. Continuing in the spirit of TLMC 19, we've decided TLMC 20 will also be a 'freestyle' contest in spirit. While the original goal of TLMC 19 was to promote more radical maps, we were also happy with the submissions that were standard-ish with a twist. Ultimately, giving map-makers more freedom resulted in better, more interesting maps all across the spectrum. Rather than return to our previous macro/rush/standard/freestyle segments, we believe TLMC should continue in this open-ended direction.

Of course, we'd like to thank Monster Energy for being our presenting sponsor once more. By supporting us into 2025, Monster continues to show its long-term faith in not only TLMC, but in the entire StarCraft II community. We hope to repay that belief by bringing forth the best maps yet, wherever they may be played.

As the future of StarCraft II is uncertain, we cannot give an absolute, 100% guarantee that TLMC 20 maps will be rotated into the ladder. However, we are reasonably confident that ladder rotations will continue in the near future, and that TLMC maps will be a part of them. In the worst case, we will try to work with community organizers to introduce new maps into their tournaments. (None of the above should be taken as an indicator of ESL/EWC's future involvement in SC2—TL.net has no more information than the rest of the community regarding this matter.)

With all that out of the way, the map submission phase begins now!

Map Submission Guidelines

Most of the restrictions from older TLMC's have been lifted, applying 'freestyle' rules to all submissions. However, this does not mean the intent of this contest is to explicitly reward the most unorthodox maps.

We are lifting restrictions so map-makers have the most tools available with which to create the best overall maps. Maps will be judged in their entirety, where creativity is just one part of the whole. In effect, this was already the judgment criteria of TLMC 19, but we are making it more explicit this time around.

List of allowed and disallowed features (click)

Besides the explicitly disallowed elements listed above, there are no 'hard lines' regarding the implementation of non-standard features. Please inquire regarding specific features that are not listed.

Please read this list before starting the map creation process. While the rules have been loosened compared to previous contests, we have set limits in order to future-proof maps against later patches and changes, ensure maps are portable to the ladder, ensure units maintain their expected pathing behavior, and to prevent maps from being overly unintuitive to players.

The current features list is slightly more restrictive than in TLMC19. While we understand that this may be disappointing to some mapmakers, this is due to limitations in quality assurance resources available to TLMC and its partners.

• Examples of features that can be included:
  • Healing shrines
    
  • Heavy or atypical usage of backdoor entrances with Mineral Walls/Reduced Mineral Patches.
    
  • Inhibitor and Accelerator Zones.
    
  • Non-standard numbers of mineral nodes or Vespene geysers at bases.
    
  • Semi-island starting positions
    
  • Neutral Zerg buildings as 'timed' obstructions
    
  • 3+ Starting positions
• Past Examples: Basically every map ever made.

Other Restrictions

• No custom textures or Force Fields.
  
• No custom data which modifies units.
  
• Maps must meet Melee mode requirements: Triggers can't be edited, and Data needs to comply with Melee, legibility and QA requirements.

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 number of submissions that do not meet the standards for competitive StarCraft II, or are poorly optimized for in-game performance.

Since 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 staff, and help assure that high quality, refined maps are considered for competitive play.

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.
  
• For clarification, maps submitted to other map competitions may be submitted to TLMC #20 as well.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.

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.

After the contest, map-makers will be contacted by TLMC staff in order to fix bugs and make general improvements.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 Schedule

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 January 27th. So the deadline is January 27th at 11:59 PM PST.

Contest dates may be adjusted as needed.

Submission Phase

December 31 - January 27

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

Pre-Judging Feedback
We will be offering pre-judging feedback so map-makers can work with TLMC staff to iron out potential issues before maps are officially submitted. All maps that are submitted before January 17th will be eligible for feedback from TLMC staff. Please keep in mind that maps with positive feedback or that have had issues fixed as a result of this review process are not guaranteed to be selected for the Top 16.

TLnet Judging Phase

January 28 - February 17

Once submissions have closed, maps will go through an initial screening by TLMC staff. The remaining maps will be submitted to a judge panel that may include professional players, community figures, and map-makers. 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

Late February/Early March

The exact dates for the Test Tournament and subsequent voting have not been 100% finalized as we aim to be flexible around other competitions.

The test tournament phase allows everyone to see the new maps being played by some of the best players in the world.

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.

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 potentially be added to the ladder, though community opinion may be referenced in the process (TL.net may audit votes if it notices botting or other irregular voting patterns).

Iteration Phase

Ongoing after tournament phase

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

TLMC Winners Announced

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

As mentioned, we currently cannot 100% guarantee TLMC 20 maps will be added to the official StarCraft II ladder. However, we are reasonably confident that ladder rotations will continue going forward (once more, this is not an indicator of any insider knowledge regarding ESL and StarCraft II—TL.net has the same information as the general public). Historically, the top sixteen TLMC finalists have been favored for inclusion on the ladder, but maps outside the top sixteen have been selected as well (examples: Radhuset Station, Alcyone, and Site Delta from TLMC #18).

Prize Distribution

Thanks to Monster Energy, TLMC #20 will feature a prize pool of $3750.

How To Submit Maps

Submission Rules

• Map-makers will be limited to five(5) map submissions each.
  
• Please designate each map with the traditional TLMC category it most closely aligns with: Rush, Standard, or Macro. Refer to TLMC 18 for the category guidelines.
  
  • This information will ONLY be used to aid internal sorting alongside other subcategories.
    
  • There are no submission limitations regarding these subcategories (Example: You can submit 5x "Standard" maps.
    
  • There is no minimum or maximum finalist quota per subcategory (Example: There could be 0x finalists from "Standard" submissions).

Please PM your map file(s) to TL Map Contest with the below format by January 27th. 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 one business day, 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 subcategory (for sorting purposes only): Rush, Standard, or Macro
  
• The size (dimensions) of the map
  
• Number of bases (note the number of bases with rich minerals and/or Vespene)
  
• 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 800 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.
    
  • Explain the general concept and style of the map
    
  • Describe the features that distinguish it from 'normal' maps
    
  • 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 Xel'naga 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, Imgur, 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: Will the first place map automatically be included in tournaments?
Historically, all high-placing TLMC maps have been considered for ladder and/or tournaments, but the first place map has not been 100% guaranteed to be included.

Q: How crazy can my maps be?
Although this is a Freestyle-oriented contest, maps still need to be ladder appropriate. Please refer to the first section of this article to check our general philosophy on maps, as well as the detailed list of allowed/disallowed map elements.

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!