The Team Liquid Map Contest is back for its first content of 2024!

This time, we're taking an approach that's both old and new by bringing back the TL Team Map Contest for the first time since 2020. New maps are a critical part of keeping the game feeling fresh and dynamic, and that applies to all types of players across all skill levels. While the official team ladder map pool did get a partial update during the most recent season, we think it's high time that team maps got the full TLMC treatment again.

We're extremely grateful to Monster Energy for being the presenting sponsor of TLMC for the third straight competition. Monster Energy's involvement in StarCraft II goes back to its foundational days, and it's amazing that they're still supporting the game directly in 2024.

Of course, we also thank our partners at ESL, who are going above and beyond in their stewardship of StarCraft II by helping us serve parts of the community outside of the professional 1v1 scene.

Good luck to all the map-makers, and we look forward to seeing your creations! The submission phase begins now, and will last until July 7th.

Map Creation Guidelines

Restrictions & Allowed Features

• Maps must meet Melee requirements: Triggers and data which affect Melee requirements may not be modified.
  
• Maps may not contain custom data related to units or replacement textures for assets.
  
• The following features may be used: Rich Vespene Geysers, Inhibitor Zone Generators, Acceleration Zone Generators, Reduced Mineral Fields, Mineral Walls, Destructible Zerg Infestation, [Vespene Geysers or Collapsible Rock Towers crushing Mineral patches to work as gates].
  
• The following features may NOT be used
  • Healing Shrines
    
  • Hostile/Rogue Missile Turrets
    
  • Permanent Force Fields
• Avoid the utilization of air pathing blockers in such a way that it is utilized for entirely aesthetic features, and avoid its usage in such a way that units can become trapped by them.
  
• If you wish to use a feature that was not explicitly allowed or banned above, please inquire with TLMC staff for clarification.

Guidelines and Suggestions

These suggestions are overall guidelines for team map creation, not strict rules. While we generally advise caution when using non-standard/creative features, ultimately they can only be judged within the context of each individual map.

• Number of mining bases:
  • 2v2: 4 to 5 bases per player, 9 to 11 bases per team
    
  • 3v3: 4 bases per player, 11 to 13 bases per team
    
  • 4v4: 3 to 4 bases per player, 12 to 15 bases per team
• Avoid adding excessive numbers of Rich Mineral or High Yield Vespene Geysers to the first three bases of each player. Just one per two players might suffice, and then other Rich Bases could be added in the center.
  • Good applications: Overgrown City, Reclamation
• Bases with non-standard numbers of mining nodes, and/or non-standard amounts of resources per mining node are allowed. As with all other non-standard features, please be cautious when creating non-standard bases (especially inside of each players' first three bases).
  
• It is generally more difficult to make successful maps where players start in split bases, as early aggression is very powerful. Maps that succeed while having split base starts tend to be the exception to the shared-base norm.
  • Good application: Sludge City
    
  • Poor application: Shrines of Lizul
• It is generally recommended for natural/secondary bases to have either one large or two medium entrances. Please ensure that the natural/secondary base entrances can be walled off with comparative ease but not overly so.
  • Good application: Emerald City, Rhoskallian
  • Poor applications: Catalesque, Polka
• Take care when placing expansions that cause teammates to expand away from each other, as this can cause scenarios where players end up in a series of parallel 1v1's instead of a team game (especially important in 2v2).
  
• Be especially cautious with defense-friendly map designs. There is a heightened level of defender's advantage in team games, and defense-friendly maps can lead to overly passive play.
  • Poor application: Magma Mines
• Setting up large sections of map terrain and expansions behind narrow choke points can also lead to overly passive and defensive gameplay.
  • Poor applications: Traitor's Exile, Dusty Gorge
• As team games have larger overall unit count, make sure maps have enough open space for large armies to maneuver through.
  • Poor application: Seeds of Aiur

Map Archetypes & Examples

These are the general archetypes that the vast majority of team maps tend to fall into, but mapmakers are free to experiment with hybrid or more experimental layouts. The listed maps are examples of successful team maps, and should serve as an additional guideline for map creation.

Fortress

• Description: All teammates can defend the same choke.
• Examples:
  • 2v2 Emerald City
  • 2v2 Rhoskallian
  • 2v2 Heavy Artillery
  • 3v3 Misty Swamp
  • 3v3 Bastion of the Conclave
  • 3v3 Jungle Depths
  • 4v4 Old Estate
  • 4v4 Last Impact

Semi-Fortress

• Description: There are multiple chokes and the team typically splits up to defend the chokes.
• Examples:
  • 2v2 Overgrown Facility
  • 2v2 Dusty Gorge
  • 3v3 Bone Temple
  • 3v3 Augustine Fall
  • 4v4 Sunset Valley
  • 4v4 Mementos
  • 4v4 Concord

Rush

• Description: Teammates can defend the same choke or multiple chokes, but the short ground and/or aerial distance between opposing bases favors aggressive early-game strategies.
• Examples:
  • 2v2 Flooded City (Rush Fortress)
  • 2v2 Snowy Mesa
  • Graystone Ravine
  • 3v3 Rosebud (Rush Fortress)
  • 4v4 Multiprocessor (Rush Fortress)
  • 4v4 Shipwrecked (Rush Fortress)

Open

• Description: Players start separated and do not share starting locations.
• Examples:
  • 2v2 Efflorescence
  • 4v4 Alaeni Enclave

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 and ESL staff, and help 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.

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 the judging panel, ESL, or the community at large.

After the contest, map-makers will be contacted by TLMC and/or ESL 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, PDT will be used whenever we "just" use dates in posts. For example: the end date for submissions is July 7th. So the deadline is November 7th at 11:59 PM PDT.

Submission Phase

June 10th - July 7th

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 Playtesting and Judging Phase

July 8th - July 28th

Once submissions have closed, maps will go through an initial screening by TLMC staff. The remaining maps will be submitted to a judging and playtesting panel. The judges will pick fifteen (15) finalist maps from the three categories to move on to the final voting stage:

• Five (5) 2v2 maps
• Five (5) 3v3 maps
• Five (5) 4v4 maps

Experienced mapmakers will notice that this is a much longer judging phase than previous TLMC's. We are attempting to make the judging process more thorough, as well as integrate more QA/testing into the judging phase.

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

August (TBD) 2024

The exact dates for the Test Tournament and subsequent voting have not been 100% finalized as we are adjusting our schedule around the SC2 tournament calendar.

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 fifteen finalist maps. Map-makers who make the top 15 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 15 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 be considered for addition to the official Battle.net ladder.

Iteration Phase

August-September (TBD) 2024

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.

TLMC, ESL, and Blizzard staff will consider the fifteen finalist maps, and possibly some maps outside of the top fifteen for inclusion on the official StarCraft II ladder.

Prize Distribution

Thanks to Monster Energy, Team TLMC #4 will feature a prize pool of $3750.

How To Submit Maps

Submission Rules

• Map-makers will be limited to three (3) map submissions per category (2v2, 3v3, 4v4) for a maximum of nine (9) submissions
  
• Maps can only be submitted to one category (you can't resubmit a 4v4 map as a 3v3 map with fewer starting points, NOT THAT ANYONE WOULD DO THIS)
  
• Maps from previous TTLMC's and other community contests may be submitted.

Please PM your map file(s) to TL Map Contest with the below format by July7th. Your PM should include the name of the map AND its team play category (2v2, 3v3, 4v4). You must submit one PM for each map (nine maps = nine 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
  
• Team play category: 2v2, 3v3, 4v4
  
• 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 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)
  • Please give the minimum and maximum times between the various bases
• 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 or Kantuvainstead.

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: Will the first place map in a category automatically be included on the ladder?
TLMC, ESL, and Blizzard staff will consider top placing maps for the ladder, but a first place map is not 100% guaranteed to be selected.

Q: How crazy can my maps be?
Maps need to be ladder appropriate, and the guidelines we listed earlier in the posting should point you in the right direction. If you are concerned that your map might be pushing the boundaries for ladder suitability, 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.