The competitive StarCraft II scene marches forward after the 2025 world championship, and so follows the Team Liquid Map Contest! We're delighted to announce the 21st edition of the 1v1 TLMC, continuing a proud tradition that began in 2011.

TLMC #21, alongside the currently ongoing Team TLMC #5, are aimed at a ladder map rotation in late November. For 1v1, we plan to go through a similar map selection process as the previous rotation, with a portion of the ladder maps decided directly by TLMC voting. We haven't finalized the exact process for map selection at this moment, but we'll be looking to ask for community opinions soon.

As always, we'd like to thank Monster Energy for their continued support of TLMC and SC2. TLMC might have ended in 2023 without Monster Energy, and we're happy to be able to go on contributing to the SC2 community together. While we don't have the platform of Evil Geniuses playing on stage at a 2011 MLG, a "shoutout to our sponsor Monster Energy" was never more deserved.

The map submission stage begins now, and will last until Tuesday, Sep 09 6:59am GMT (GMT+00:00). Please read below for rules and contest details.

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.

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.

• 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

• Again, 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 #21 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 may favor a certain race depending on the specific layout.
  
• 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.

Map iteration/tournament readiness

During the latter stages of TLMC, 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 September 8. So the deadline is Tuesday, Sep 09 6:59am GMT (GMT+00:00).

Contest dates may be adjusted as needed.

Submission Phase

August 11 - September 8

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 August 29 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 will receive no additional benefit during judging.

TLnet Judging Phase

September 8 - 22

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 participant identities.

Test Tournament & Public Voting

Late September - Mid October

Once judging is complete, we will announce the list of sixteen finalists and commence with the TLMC test tournament.

The test tournament phase allows everyone to see the new maps being played by high-level competitors. Outside the official TLMC test tournament, we welcome any community organizers to integrate TLMC finalist maps into their tournaments as well.

Public voting determines how much additional prize money the map-makers win, and will be factored into which maps are ultimately added to the ladder. During TLMC #20, the top three vote-receiving maps were directly selected for the ladder. For TLMC #21 and the next ladder pool, we have not yet finalized exactly how many of the top vote-receiving maps will be added.

Voting is planned to begin in early October, but may be delayed for a number of weeks if robust testing is ongoing in community tournaments (as in the previous contest).

Iteration Phase

Ongoing after tournament phase

The iteration phase has become vital 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. The finalized 1v1 ladder pool will be decided in weeks afterwards, once we have taken progamer opinions and other factors into consideration.

Prize Distribution

Thanks to Monster Energy, TLMC #21 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 September 8. 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 previous TLMC finalists. As a specific example, here is Marras' short description of Stargazers:
    
    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 added to the official ladder map pool?
Barring extraordinary circumstances, the first place map will be added to the official ladder. Public voting will directly decide a number of additional maps as well, although we have not decided on the exact number at this time.

Q: How crazy can my maps be?
While TLMC has relaxed submission guidelines over the last few years, 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.