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The level contest for season 13 has been concluded and the judges have selected their 3 favorite maps for the ladder mappool. The winners were determined by holding a voting in the 'council', where each of the invited judges could vote for 3 maps they deemed to be the best fit for the mappool. A total of 5 judges voted in the council, whom were Lahm, JellyJam, Ragnarok, SJ and Anubis. The results were as follows: Butrinti - 5 votes Orbital IV - 3 votes Sparkling Illusions - 3 votes Painted Garden - 2 votes Nidavellir - 1 vote Red Rose - 1 vote Cleanse - 0 votes The Crackdown - 0 votes [I][6:06 PM] sn1ky: My top 3 would probably be xlmbut ezspark and ezpaint [10:49 PM] Jelly Jam: Hi, I vote for xlmbut, ezorb and xlmnidavellir and I recommend the last 2 to be 3vs3 only. [11:29 PM] Ragnarok: My 3 votes are gonna be (in order of preference), ezspark, xlmbut, and ezpaint - all of which can be both 2v2/3v3 [11:31 PM] SJ: In the meantime, I'll announce my own votes: Butrinti, Orbital IV, Red Rose [11:48 PM] Anubis: My final votes are xlmbut, ezspark, and ezorb (last one as 3v3 only). I might have picked ezpaint as my 3rd vote if it had better layout in the middle area though[/I] Thus the 3 maps that have been selected for the mappool are [B]Butrinti[/B], [B]Orbital IV[/B] and [B]Sparkling Illusions![/B] Congratulations for your victory [B]Smoke & Loon![/B] Your level truly impressed all of the judges. Also congratulations to [B]FawFul[/B] and [B]ThunDerDraGon[/B] for a tied 2nd place. The top-3 maps have now been added to the mappool, but Orbital IV as a 3v3 only map due to it's big size and complexity. Overall we got a total of 8 high quality, creative maps that were fun to play in during the judging process! That is way over my expectations! Therefore I want to thank everybody who participated in the contest! Also thanks to all the judges who voted and helped in judging the contest entries. Of course, we wouldn't want to leave others empty about why their maps weren't selected by the judges. So you may find a huge wall of text below stating the most essential things that the judges liked/disliked about each level: [B]Butrinti:[/B] +Well executed, versatile layout that suits both 2v2 and 3v3 games nicely +Very interesting carrot area with a lot of strategic options +Not too many camping spots +Good choice and spread of weapons and power ups +Well balanced open and closed areas +Visually gorgeous and not too distractive -Flow could use optimization; intuitive on one side, and bumpier on the other side [B]Orbital IV:[/B] +Excellent CTF layout with plenty of room for a very diverse, strategic gameplay +Movement and flow has been made easy to learn, yet hard to fully master +Inspiring visuals and background, not distractive +Excellent base design and fairly good vine placement to bring extra depth to the gameplay +The RF-powerups offer nice, various way to reach, since it's possible to also RF-climb to them or shoot with gun9 -Not much exciting action in 2v2 games, due to the fairly large size -There are some areas that are particularly campy, namely the top middle and the large horizontal spaces. Luckily the bouncer ammo helps a lot in the horizontal space, but requires patience. -Some of the ammo placement and vines could still benefit from some optimization [B]Sparkling Illusions:[/B] +Good, versatile layout that suits both 2v2/3v3 games, which encourages good movement +Cool and creative measures to counter camping in specific areas, generally not too easily campable +Good choice of powerups and well balanced, together with a suitable amount of ammo in the level +Many places with room for RF tricks +Visually impressive +Original and interesting base design -May be sometimes excessively visual, distractive; Particularly the visuals might make it hard to distinguish passable areas or solid platforms (as perhaps the level title implies) -The graphics cause minor fps drops in 16-bit mode, 8-bit mode seems to be recommended -Bumpy flow at parts, but is possible to get used to with some practice, potentially -Minor dead ends where you get stuck for a second if you don't jump to the spring immediately [B]Painted Garden:[/B] +Custom roller weapon that fits the level design very well, giving players the ability to shoot upwards the slopes +Good general placement of pickups +Sold layout with a reasonably good flow -Some parts of the level are a bit boring, particularly the middle area -Some areas under bases can get particularly annoying in 2v2s against camping flagholders who may require 2 players to hunt down, like the carrot areas that are fairly easily campable -Level could benefit from more seeker ammo -The level might be slightly overdecorated together with the very rich colours [B]Nidavellir:[/B] +Original layout +Well placed full NRG carrot that can be sent down +Interesting choice of power ups -The map is too big for 2v2, considering there are 3 carrots and the overall size of the map -Top area is probably only for camping -A lot of items of interest particularly at the bottom of the level -Gameplay seems too vertical and is mainly focused on going up and down different floors -The ropes above the bases make it so that you can camp a lot [B]Red Rose:[/B] +Fun and fast-paced map with a small layout that is easy to learn and remember +Flow is particularly nice and well balanced between all characters +The carrot area is well executed and camping there is counterable from above with bouncers -Might be sometimes a bit too chaotic in a 3v3 game, due to the small size of the map -The layout is pretty bouncer biased, and the thin walls and platforms the bouncers can go through only make this feeling stronger -The bottom level is slightly too cramped and linear -Some areas might be generally too campy, like the vines above bases together with seeker and bouncer ammo [B]Cleanse:[/B] +Very original, inspiring gameplay that rewards high skill together with the custom energy blast-weapon +Can be a lot of fun to play with other people who haven't fully learned or mastered the level yet +Well executed and inspiring alternative way to reach base (through the top) -Massive in size, although very open at the same time -Very punishing gameplay for players new to the level, with all the hazardous scenery (although it manages to crop the otherwise so large playable area a bit) -Long learning curve -Contains two full NRG carrots that are very separated from each other, which means that each team basically has their own full NRG carrots. This makes it very hard to kill the opposing, dominating flagcarriers (especially in 2v2). -Contains a laser shield in an area that is hard (but not impossible) to reach out alive. Enabling /noshields neither stops the shield from spawning, but just makes players using that shield to get kicked off for using an invalid shield (apparently due to a JJ2+ bug). That would be too much for the ladder. [B]The Crackdown:[/B] +Very original gameplay and impressive visual side +Solid, tactical layout that has room for numerous tricks, like RF-climbs +Offers some nice strategic possibilities with TNT ammo -Too campy and slow-paced for a 2v2-game -Might be too gimmicky, as the antigravity plays a big role in the map and may be too difficult for most players to get used to -The trigger scenery closing the top entrance to the base greatly limits movement in the map, although it is there for a reason -The bases can get very campy and challenging to reach against heavy defense, as the TNT backdoor isn't too easily accessible -Would benefit from more ammo