The Team Liquid Map Contest is back for its first event of 2026!

Maps are a crucial part of the StarCraft II ecosystem, and it's our privilege to have been map-makers' creative outlet of choice since 2011. The passion and ingenuity of the map-making community never ceases to amaze us, and we're looking forward to seeing what their craftsmanship yields in this 22nd contest.

As always, we'd like to thank presenting sponsor Monster Energy for their continued support. The StarCraft II scene has faced many challenges over the last few years, and official ladder map rotations were once threatened as well. Thanks to Monster Energy's long-term commitment to TLMC in 2023, we've been able to maintain this vital fixture of competitive StarCraft. While Monster Energy has been affiliated with cornerstone tournaments such as WCS and EPT, we'd like to think that sustaining the competitive ladder is an equally important part of their legacy in StarCraft II.

We're also welcoming back an old friend in Shopify Rebellion! Shopify previously powered TLMC's #15 through #17, and now they've returned to support us under their pro-team banner. This partnership might come as a surprise to some fans, but old heads will know that Team Liquid is more than willing to join forces with a rival for the greater good.

What does this mean for the StarCraft II community? Well, not only are we holding another TLMC, but we're increasing the prize money for both the map-makers participating in TLMC and the pro-gamers competing in April's TLMC Test Tournament!

The map submission stage officially begins now, and will last until Tuesday, Mar 31 6:59am GMT (GMT+00:00). Please read below for rules and contest details.

Map Submission Guidelines

Map submission guidelines remain the same as the previous two 1v1 TLMC's, with subcategories removed and 'freestyle' rules applied across the board. Once again, we remind map-makers that this does not mean the intent of TLMC 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

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 #22 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 March 30. So the deadline is Tuesday, Mar 31 6:59am GMT (GMT+00:00).

Contest dates may be adjusted as needed.

Submission Phase

March 18 - March 30

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.

TL.net Judging Phase

March 31 - April 13

Once submissions have closed, maps will go through a preliminary 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.

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

April 14 - 26

Once judging is complete, we will announce the list of sixteen finalists and commence with the TLMC test tournament streamed by WardiTV. This competition allows the SC2 community to see the ladder map candidates tested in high-level play.

Thanks to our presenting sponsor Monster Energy and new partner Shopify Rebellion, we've been able to increase the prize money of the TLMC tournament to $5,000 and expand the event to two weeks for TLMC #22.

Outside the official TLMC test tournament, we welcome any community organizers to integrate TLMC finalist maps into their tournaments as well.

Public Voting & Ladder Map Selection

May (TBD)

Public voting by the community will determine the winning maps of TLMC and which finalists will be added to the official ladder pool. One to three ladder maps will be decided directly by the community vote (the top three community voted maps were added to the ladder from the TLMC). Additionally, separate votes will be held with tournament organizers and high-level players to determine the remainder of the ladder map pool.

Voting and ladder map selection will occur during a yet-to-be-determined date range in May. This date range is flexible at this time, as we seek to balance robust community testing with an on-schedule map rotation during the first half of 2026.

Prize Distribution

Thanks to our gracious presenting sponsor Monster Energy and new sponsor Shopify Rebellion, TLMC #22 has restored its map-maker prize pool to the $5,000 amount from older contests!

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 March 30th. 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 two business days, 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 (likely to be three).

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.