• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:51
CEST 14:51
KST 21:51
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double2Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple3BSL Season 2313Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon111
StarCraft 2
General
StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double Recent Patches and the Future Stellar Fest 1 Replay Pack Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16)
Tourneys
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) 2026 GSTL Grand Finals SC2 INu's Battles#21 [ 3-Days tournament ] ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 545 And Drops and Rifts Mutation # 544 Double Trouble Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses
Brood War
General
Bot on ladder Where can I find Flash replays that work? a Announcement on the JEDI Ringing Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon? BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro8 Day 3 [ASL22] Ro8 Day 4 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro8 Day 2
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Total Annihilation Zero Nintendo Switch Thread
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine All you football fans (soccer)! Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Violent-Cooperative Play and…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8242 users

Team Liquid Map Contest #20: Results and Winners

Forum Index > SC2 General
13 CommentsPost a Reply

Team Liquid Map Contest #20: Results and Winners

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
Graphics byv1
March 21st, 2025 02:07 GMT
TLMC20
The community's votes have been cast and counted, and we're ready to announce the winners of Team Liquid Map Contest #20!

Ahead of the results, we'd like to thank everyone who made this TLMC possible. Monster Energy's long-term support for TLMC has been vital to the SC2 scene, and with their help, we hope to keep updating competitive map pools through 2025. Of course, the map-maker community is the foundation of TLMC, and we're grateful for their unending passion and creativity. We also want to thank Wardi and the TLMC test tournament participants for showcasing our finalist maps, as well as other creators who helped highlight this TLMC.

Now, onto the winners!

TLMC20: Results

Read our finalists post for full descriptions and overviews of all sixteen finalists.

Runners-up (16th to 6th place)
  • #16: Incorporeal
  • #15: Steam City
  • #14: Spirit Crusher
  • #13: Sandwyrm
  • #12: Antimatter
  • #11: Magannatha
  • #10: Selaginella
  • #9: Killer's Mile
  • #8: Diffusion
  • #7: Pylon
  • #6: Killswitch

5th place

"Tokamak" by volumin


Tokamak is a wide macro map with 16 bases, two of which are hybrid with 4 blue, 4 gold mineral patches + 1 Vespene gas. First expansions are relatively safe, further ones are more open.

Behind the hybrid base there are destructible towers that can be used defensively or offensively. When destroyed they block the area behind the base, but they crush all 4 blue mineral nodes.


4th place

"The Grid" by themusic246


Map-maker comments: When ground units travel inside the exhaust vents, they block vision of the outside terrain acting as the inverse of line of sight blockers. The map has 5 levels all consecutively going lower down the map. Welcome to The Grid.



3rd place

"Torches" by KillerSmile


Map-maker comments: The map features a narrow lowground passage to the opponent that opens up later in the game through self-destructing Zerg 'rocks', allowing access to the right-side gold base area. You can expand there earlier by mining through a gold mineral wall similar to Amphion or El Dorado. The gold bases on this map are conflict bases, and the gold minerals have a 2 tile wide gap every unit can fit through. Still, bigger armies will struggle to traverse them. On the left side there is a secluded healing shrine.


2nd place

"Persephone" by Patches


Map-maker comments: Persephone is a mostly standard map with some unique features. While the map itself is quite long, expanding to the triangle base significantly shortens the distance between you and your opponent. Due to the triangle third's proximity to the opposing side, the rocks + small mineral wall (5 minerals per node) serve the purpose of making the triangle easier to defend early on.

The triangle fourth base is uniquely positioned to help defend the main base while being only slightly closer to the opposing side than the triangle third base.

On the right side of the map, there is an acceleration zone "highway" leading to a gold base. This path is designed to enable armies to move quickly between the far corners of the map, adding a dynamic and strategic element. The gold base serves as a contestable late-game base that players may fight over.

At the center of the map is a healing shrine paired with an air blocker, preventing air units from taking advantage of it. While the shrine offers a potential tactical advantage, its placement also exposes players to enemy attacks if caught off guard.

Rock towers positioned around the map make it possible to close off smaller 2x ramps making positions easier to defend if used correctly. The rock towers can also be utilized to hinder the defender's (or attackers) ability to rotate their army (somewhat similar to Babylon's linear third base setup)

Near the center, there is also a small LOS blocker "pod" breaking up the open space, this adds a little bit of spice to the otherwise open high ground which players may utilize in various ways (for example, hiding Reapers and Hellions in TvT and surprising the opposing Terrans reapers).


1st place

"Last Fantasy" by Timmay


Map-maker comments: Tournament organizers want more than two spawns. Players don't want four spawns. This is the perfect compromise to get more than two spawns. Acceleration Zones promote fast maneuvering.

Distinctive Features: Air blockers surround the map, keeping air space the same for all spawns. All naturals can be walled with three Evolution Chambers with no Creep tumors. All mains and natural mineral lines have pockets for workers.




Mapmakers will receive $200 per map that finished in the top sixteen, as well as additional prize money for maps that finished in the top five of public voting.
  • 1st place - $200
  • 2nd place - $125
  • 3rd place - $100
  • 4th place - $75
  • 5th place- $50

Note: Top placing maps in TLMC #20 are not guaranteed to be added to the ladder and/or professional tournaments. The results of voting will be considered alongside other competitive factors.
Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
sidasf
Profile Joined February 2023
108 Posts
March 21 2025 03:00 GMT
#2
With all these freestyle maps, I hope we get an extra veto or this game's playerbase is going to plummet over the next year.

We already tried a map pool with a high amount of freestyle maps in the previous pool and it was almost universally resented. I hope ESL gives some representation to the other maps too. It's sad to see Magannatha, Sandwyrm or Pylon didn't even make top 5.
Magnath10
Profile Joined February 2020
Egypt37 Posts
March 21 2025 03:46 GMT
#3
agree on the Magannatha front!! + Show Spoiler +
shh
themusic246
Profile Joined December 2012
United States214 Posts
March 21 2025 03:56 GMT
#4
Agree on the Pylon front!!

No shh.
1st place Blizzard arcade RTC contest. 2x 1st place 1v1 Team Liquid Map Contest (30 total ladder map contest finalists). Developer of Zealot Hockey, Star Party, Monobattle Map Rotation and other stuff
kikito
Profile Joined March 2025
1 Post
March 21 2025 11:47 GMT
#5
Congrats to the winners! And thanks to the authors of Incorporeal, Steam City, Spirit Crusher, Sandwyrm, Antimatter, Selaginella, Diffusion, Pylon and Killswitch for their efforts.
CharactR
Profile Joined January 2020
Canada113 Posts
Last Edited: 2025-03-21 17:56:21
March 21 2025 17:54 GMT
#6
I hope ESL gives some representation to the other maps too. It's sad to see Magannatha, Sandwyrm or Pylon didn't even make top 5.

As the guy who made Sandwyrm. I'm ok with it not making top 5.
It's a pretty basic rush map with a light twist, but it's nothing special, I certainly could have made more interesting use of the infantry only filters aka the Dragons Teeth.
Plus It doesn't really affect if it makes ladder or not, and I can't complain with a 200$ prize, any extra is just a cherry on top :D
Creator of ladder maps: Altitude LE, Undercurrent (2v2), Crimson Research Lab (2v2), Sandstorm (3v3), Lexiphanicism (4v4), Floodplain (4v4)
Black_Frames
Profile Joined May 2021
3 Posts
March 22 2025 02:05 GMT
#7
Can someone explain to me why we don't just use the top nine finishers here for the ladder? For whatever flaws the TLMC process may have, at least it is a process -- one that has itself been subject to review and improvement over the last few cycles.

High-level players looked at the submissions to make sure the finalists were solid choices. Average players like me looked at these and voted on those we thought would be enoyable to play on. If there is some other basis for how the ladder maps are chosen, I, for one, would like to know what those criteria are.

The top 9 include some that I personally love and some that I wasn't so keen on, which is absolutely fine and what you would expect from a process like this.

In the past one of the difficulties facing the TLMC is just finding enough person-hours to review all the maps. I'd humbly suggest that this would be a lot easier, and volunteers would be much more willing to spend time carefully reviewing each map, if there were a clearer, more direct relationship between TLMC results and being added to the pool. If you look at past TLMC results and compare it to the ladder, the claim that "it helps" to be a top-finisher is tenuous at best.
MrIronGolem27
Profile Joined July 2020
United States255 Posts
March 22 2025 02:42 GMT
#8
On March 22 2025 11:05 Black_Frames wrote:
Can someone explain to me why we don't just use the top nine finishers here for the ladder? For whatever flaws the TLMC process may have, at least it is a process -- one that has itself been subject to review and improvement over the last few cycles.

High-level players looked at the submissions to make sure the finalists were solid choices. Average players like me looked at these and voted on those we thought would be enoyable to play on. If there is some other basis for how the ladder maps are chosen, I, for one, would like to know what those criteria are.

The top 9 include some that I personally love and some that I wasn't so keen on, which is absolutely fine and what you would expect from a process like this.

In the past one of the difficulties facing the TLMC is just finding enough person-hours to review all the maps. I'd humbly suggest that this would be a lot easier, and volunteers would be much more willing to spend time carefully reviewing each map, if there were a clearer, more direct relationship between TLMC results and being added to the pool. If you look at past TLMC results and compare it to the ladder, the claim that "it helps" to be a top-finisher is tenuous at best.


Nobody can explain it to you, because the people who know the reason are under NDA
HyperONE - StarCraft Evolution League organizer, SC: Evo Complete developer, mapmaker (author of Magannatha, TLMC19 2nd place, TLMC17 3rd+5th place), Liquipedia editor
Balnazza
Profile Joined January 2018
Germany1364 Posts
March 22 2025 03:24 GMT
#9
On March 22 2025 11:05 Black_Frames wrote:
Can someone explain to me why we don't just use the top nine finishers here for the ladder? For whatever flaws the TLMC process may have, at least it is a process -- one that has itself been subject to review and improvement over the last few cycles.

High-level players looked at the submissions to make sure the finalists were solid choices. Average players like me looked at these and voted on those we thought would be enoyable to play on. If there is some other basis for how the ladder maps are chosen, I, for one, would like to know what those criteria are.

The top 9 include some that I personally love and some that I wasn't so keen on, which is absolutely fine and what you would expect from a process like this.

In the past one of the difficulties facing the TLMC is just finding enough person-hours to review all the maps. I'd humbly suggest that this would be a lot easier, and volunteers would be much more willing to spend time carefully reviewing each map, if there were a clearer, more direct relationship between TLMC results and being added to the pool. If you look at past TLMC results and compare it to the ladder, the claim that "it helps" to be a top-finisher is tenuous at best.


Just one added thought on this: This is a contest, so each map is individually looked at, but (atleast I assume so) they never get looked at together.
Meaning: It is checked how balanced a map is on its, but not how balanced the Top 9 are all together. It is entirely possible that for example 5 of the 9 maps are slightly X favored over Y, three are balanced and one is Y favored over X.
If you just pick them all together, the entire mappool suddenly is heavily X over Y favored, even though each of the nine maps individually is good and fine, together they suddenly create a huge problem
"Wenn die Zauberin runter geht, dann macht sie die Beine breit" - Khaldor, trying to cast WC3 German-only
TL+ Member
Black_Frames
Profile Joined May 2021
3 Posts
March 22 2025 20:19 GMT
#10
Just one added thought on this: This is a contest, so each map is individually looked at, but (atleast I assume so) they never get looked at together.


I can see the problem that you're describing, but in my opinion it is made worse, not better, by having this arbitrary and opaque selection process after the voting.

If everyone knows ahead of time that "the vote determines the pool" then the playerbase as a whole is highly-incentivized to participate. Not only that, but especially if you want to be selfish and pick maps that are good for your race / playstyle, you can only successfully do this by actually opening up the maps because there are simply too many things that you can't judge from an image.

The problem you're describing is basically "Yeah, but what if most people doing this like race / playstyle X? Don't we need something to correct for that?" and all I can say I think past pool selection has shown that, if anything, what happens is the vote tends to favor a relatively conservative / balanced pool, whereas the post-voting selection seems to reject standard maps in favor of more "interesting" choices.

And the really key point is, even if you reject that characterization of how it has gone historically, you can't tell me what basis was really used to select the pool because no one knows.
Balnazza
Profile Joined January 2018
Germany1364 Posts
March 22 2025 20:47 GMT
#11
On March 23 2025 05:19 Black_Frames wrote:
Show nested quote +
Just one added thought on this: This is a contest, so each map is individually looked at, but (atleast I assume so) they never get looked at together.


I can see the problem that you're describing, but in my opinion it is made worse, not better, by having this arbitrary and opaque selection process after the voting.

If everyone knows ahead of time that "the vote determines the pool" then the playerbase as a whole is highly-incentivized to participate. Not only that, but especially if you want to be selfish and pick maps that are good for your race / playstyle, you can only successfully do this by actually opening up the maps because there are simply too many things that you can't judge from an image.

The problem you're describing is basically "Yeah, but what if most people doing this like race / playstyle X? Don't we need something to correct for that?" and all I can say I think past pool selection has shown that, if anything, what happens is the vote tends to favor a relatively conservative / balanced pool, whereas the post-voting selection seems to reject standard maps in favor of more "interesting" choices.

And the really key point is, even if you reject that characterization of how it has gone historically, you can't tell me what basis was really used to select the pool because no one knows.


My argument wasn't about player-bias or the voters deliberately trying to skew the balance. It can however just happen. If you would make a vote about the best 9 maps ever, there is a good chance that mappool would not be balanced.

However, and I just want to point that out: It is just one argument, I haven't put much thought into the idea beyond that. Back in the day for WC3, I actually was in the position to decide the mappool for tournaments and leagues, though ofc it was a much different discussion, since in WC3 we always re-used old(er) maps and just introduced new ones from time to time.
"Wenn die Zauberin runter geht, dann macht sie die Beine breit" - Khaldor, trying to cast WC3 German-only
TL+ Member
chirphysio
Profile Joined March 2025
1 Post
March 23 2025 04:02 GMT
#12
--- Nuked ---
Dobro
Profile Joined July 2018
1 Post
April 05 2025 06:24 GMT
#13
Would love to see new maps on ladder. Maybe soon... or without ESL hopefully at least later.
MJG
Profile Joined May 2018
United Kingdom1451 Posts
Last Edited: 2025-04-14 10:57:30
April 14 2025 10:57 GMT
#14
I really hope the winner doesn't make it onto ladder. A three-spawn map in 2025? No thanks...
puking up frothing vitriolic sarcastic spittle
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Kung Fu Cup
11:00
2026 Week 25
CosmosSc2 2
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech127
Rex 113
CosmosSc2 2
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 47539
Hyuk 1356
Jaedong 817
EffOrt 436
Soma 424
Horang2 369
Soulkey 365
actioN 349
BeSt 340
Mini 320
[ Show more ]
Last 272
Zeus 263
Light 260
Stork 233
910 176
Larva 170
ggaemo 138
Snow 124
Rush 113
ZerO 95
Killer 83
Pusan 80
Mind 66
JYJ 47
Shine 46
Sharp 45
Creator 43
hero 31
Free 30
Shinee 29
Yoon 26
Bale 26
ToSsGirL 22
Terrorterran 15
HiyA 15
yabsab 14
Noble 14
sorry 10
Sacsri 8
Icarus 6
Dota 2
Gorgc8485
Dendi779
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1577
markeloff497
kRYSTAL_29
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor1618
crisheroes890
Other Games
gofns41435
singsing2021
B2W.Neo686
hiko347
XBOCT307
Pyrionflax268
byalli264
DeMusliM245
ArmadaUGS99
Mew2King57
QueenE16
ZerO(Twitch)9
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 1542
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream141
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH338
• StrangeGG 37
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 10
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos1580
Other Games
• WagamamaTV197
Upcoming Events
Stellar Fest
10m
Rex113
IntoTheiNu 47
The PondCast
21h 10m
OSC
1d
Stellar Fest
1d
OSC
1d 11h
Stellar Fest
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
Online Event
2 days
FEL
3 days
AI Arena Tournament
3 days
[ Show More ]
BSL: Ladder Tournament
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
INu's Battles
3 days
herO vs Classic
Percival vs Rogue
BSL Open Qualifier
4 days
BSL Open Qualifier
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
INu's Battles
5 days
SHIN vs Cure
ByuN vs Zoun
PiGosaur Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-09-27
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Calamity Invitational

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Custodian Cup
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.