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Reddit + Mapcore CS:GO Mapping Contest!

FMPONE

By FMPONE

mapcore-contest-white-bg.thumb.png.3a930

(Art by Thurnip)

 


/r/GlobalOffensive and Mapcore are teaming up to grow Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s mapping community!  


Check out the reddit thread for this contest »


 

 

The Big Reveal
 

We’re hosting a map-making contest for original, competitive 5v5 bomb defusal maps AND competitively-minded hostage maps, open exclusively to mappers who have not yet had their work featured in a Valve Operation! 

 

Older projects are fair game: now’s the perfect time to polish up that map you’ve been working on but never got around to finishing. Experienced Mapcore judges and prominent members of the Counter-Strike community such as Sadokist, Moses, DDK, James Bardolph, and Anders Blume will be weighing in – but only one map can win it all.

 

 

Helpful Playtesting

 

Every week for the length of the contest, eligible maps will be playtested during /r/GlobalOffensive community nights according to a sign-up schedule. Slots on this schedule will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis following an approval process, but we will try our best to accommodate everyone at least once. However, because it’s impossible to guarantee that all contest entries will have the chance to be playtested, /r/GlobalOffensive playtesting is a supplemental, helpful tool which will have no bearing whatsoever on contest judging.

 

You can register for a playtesting slot here. Remember -- playtesting registration is first-come, first-serve!

 

 

Enter Your Level

 

To officially enter your level into this contest, post a WIP thread with a link to your level’s Steam Workshop page in Mapcore’s official event forum.

 

Posting a WIP thread with a link to your level’s Steam workshop page constitutes your official entry into the contest, however you don’t need to do both at the same time. In other words, you can post your WIP thread and then update it later with your workshop link if you’re not ready to go right away. You can also feel free to continue updating your workshop level after you’ve posted your workshop link – contest entries will not be judged until after the submission deadline.

 

 

The Deadline
 

 

Your level must be submitted to Mapcore by August 31st, 2015 at midnight Pacific Standard Time (PST).

 


Our panel of judges will then select four finalist levels based on the following criteria:

  • Fun factor
  • Visual/thematic presentation (graphics)
  • Overall polish


Grand Prize Deadline

After the top four maps have been announced, /r/GlobalOffensive users will put them to the test!

Once all four finalist maps have been tested, mappers will have two weeks to revise their work based on community feedback. After those two weeks, an official Grand Prize Winning Map will be chosen!

 

 

 

Contest Calendar

 

 

 

Our Goal

 

The goal of this event is to raise awareness about Mapcore's incredible level design community and the incredibly useful playtesting capabilities of /r/GlobalOffensive. Both Mapcore and /r/GlobalOffensive are free resources available to all mappers. To date, Mapcore users are responsible for creating more than 70% of Valve Operation levels. Mapcore’s staff are unpaid volunteers, and do not personally profit in any way from additional traffic to the site.


Prizes

 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a contest without a reward… In addition to the helpful feedback and free publicity that CS:GO mappers will receive by participating in this event, each finalist will also receive:

  • Eternal Bragging Rights™ and a showcase on Mapcore (where their level will be highly visible to industry-veteran game developers and the rest of the community)
  • A monetary prize ($1000 + Mapcore swag for first place; $400 for second place; $200 for third place; $100 and Mapcore swag for fourth place)
  • The top-finishing map will also be played in a competitive show-match casted and streamed by goRGNtv, for all to watch and enjoy!
  • *NEW* CEVO has generously agreed to host the winning map in their PUG rotations for one month!
  • *NEW* Added $1,000 to prize pool thanks to Gamebanana.com and EGO DEATH (gun skin creator)
  • *NEW* Valve prizes!

 

                   Top 4 will receive

1. Signed CS:GO poster

2. CS:GO Lanyard

3. CS:GO Vinyl Sticker

 

         First place will receive a CS:GO prize pack:

1. Signed CS:GO poster

2. CS:GO Lanyard

3. CS:GO Vinyl Sticker

4. CS:GO SteelSeries Kana Mouse

 

 

This is your big chance -- get to it!
Good luck, mappers!

 

Additional Rules

  • Remakes of older maps are NOT allowed. All works must be original to you and their layouts must not have appeared in any prior versions of Counter-Strike.
  • Custom artwork is allowed and encouraged, but must meet workshop guidelines.
  • Collaborations are allowed and encouraged. Any contest winnings arising from a collaboration will be split in accordance with the collaborators' mutual agreement.

 

 

Judging Procedure

  • Mapcore staff will rate their top four maps of the contest, results will be tallied and all votes given equal weight.
  • Some time later, the judges and guest judges will rate the top four finalist maps and results will be tallied, with all votes given equal weight.
  • Guest judges will be asked to act as tie-breakers in the event of any ties in the voting.

 

Mapcore Judges
Jason “General Vivi” Mojica -- Creator of "Rose Iron" Skin (Overkill Software)
Patrick "Puddy" Murphy -- Creator of CS_AGENCY (Overkill Software)
RZL (Independent) -- Creator of DE_RESORT
Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling (Independent)

Johnny “Sprony” van Spronsen (Journalist)

 

Guest Judges
Matt "Sadokist" Trivett -- @Sadokist
Jason “Moses” O’Toole -- @JmosesOT
Daniel "DDK" Kapadia -- @followddk
James Bardolph -- @jamesbardolph
Anders Blume -- @OnFireAnders

 

---

Our Thanks to 

EGO DEATH (Steam Workshop author)

valve_logo.jpg

4eaf0b8c34057.png

 

 

 
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Recommended Comments



Thrik

Thrik 3,359

Posted

Wow, those new prize levels. :D Hot rewards for mapping, which is great fun anyway! It's making me want to dust off Hammer and create a CS:GO successor to my much-loved classic from the early 2000s.

therealm1st

therealm1st 2

Posted

Got a question about the Reddit playtesting registration. If I register will I get the next date in the schedule or will I be able to choose one? Because I need about a month to finish my map and the first empty playtesting slot is in 2 weeks. :/

mithhunter55

mithhunter55 2

Posted

Got a question about the Reddit playtesting registration. If I register will I get the next date in the schedule or will I be able to choose one? Because I need about a month to finish my map and the first empty playtesting slot is in 2 weeks. :/

​Yeah I was wondering this as well. I estimate my map should be very playable in 2 weeks.

jackophant

jackophant 1,657

Posted

Got a question about the Reddit playtesting registration. If I register will I get the next date in the schedule or will I be able to choose one? Because I need about a month to finish my map and the first empty playtesting slot is in 2 weeks. :/

​Don't finish your map, block out a greybox for playtesting purposes and get that tested. Aesthetics aren't what get tested, but will be ofc still be commented on.

Thrik

Thrik 3,359

Posted

Yeah, seems wise to me to do testing with the map in a basic state so you can make big gameplay changes if needed to keep it fun. That's one of the most useful parts of having playtest events with fellow designers, they don't care if it looks all greybox. :D

Anduriel

Anduriel 63

Posted

Anduriel, I think you would be better off changing as much as you can. We will be enforcing our no re-make policy.

​It's basically just the bombspots which I recreated. I'll post a playable version of the layout soon, maybe you want to take a look at it then.

What about reusing assets, is this allowed? Of course I won't overdo it, but some of them would fit pretty good.

blackdog

blackdog 4,735

Posted

I'll go out on a limb and bet my balls that it's perfectly fine to use all the CSGO assets available through the SDK, plus any model/texture pack that is released as royalty free by their authors. Of course credits need to be made.

therealm1st

therealm1st 2

Posted

​Don't finish your map, block out a greybox for playtesting purposes and get that tested. Aesthetics aren't what get tested, but will be ofc still be commented on.

​Yeah, I wanted to do that, but I would also like to play and I am away on Tuesdays for the whole June, that's the second reason why I asked (but I'm probably just going to wait 'till it fills up for the whole June and then submit my map as a greybox as that's almost complete).

therealm1st

therealm1st 2

Posted

​Don't finish your map, block out a greybox for playtesting purposes and get that tested. Aesthetics aren't what get tested, but will be ofc still be commented on.

​Also, got this from the submission page:

NOTE: Maps must have been submitted to MapCore in order to be eligible for competition playtesting. Maps must also show a significant level of progress -- in other words, greybox/orangebox/whitebox maps will not be considered for playtesting. This is to ensure that all maps playtested have a fair shot of being completed and competitive by the end of the competition.

 That would mean that my map is not eligible yet. It might be in about three weeks to a month though. So I guess I will have to wait after all.

jackophant

jackophant 1,657

Posted

@therealm1st

That's refering to the final submission. Even if it doesn't explicitly say it, you need to test your map before you get to the detail stage. Simply put, the more work you put into detail the longer it takes to make layout changes. It is in your best interest to make sure it plays well before testing so that you have the time at the end to make it detailed, and still playable.

therealm1st

therealm1st 2

Posted

@therealm1st

That's refering to the final submission. Even if it doesn't explicitly say it, you need to test your map before you get to the detail stage. Simply put, the more work you put into detail the longer it takes to make layout changes. It is in your best interest to make sure it plays well before testing so that you have the time at the end to make it detailed, and still playable.

​Asked jpon9 about why there are only 3 maps in the calendar, about the booking and about testing greyboxes in the playtesting (not the finalist one!) and this is his reply:

You're right about it just not being edited. We're still assessing our queue, which contains roughly 25 unchecked maps at the moment. We're not going to playtest greyboxes, so we need to load up each map and assess its eligibility before putting down a date -- and we've been too busy to do that for more than just a couple weeks in advance.

About booking a specific date, unfortunately that's not something we can promise due to the first-come, first-serve policy that we've promised to eligible maps.

So yes, I do need it playtested, but unfortunately, Reddit will most likely not be the place where I will be able to do it ("25 unchecked maps" and only 10 or so playtesting slots, will definitely not happen.

Thrik

Thrik 3,359

Posted

Just noting that MapCore has a playtesting server (not specific to this contest) that runs sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. See the thread here:



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