You know, I've given this alot of thought whiles staring at hammer screens for hours on end. I have a couple of ideas for a more unique competition. For instance:
Editor art. Make a map that is so interesting looking in one of the editor views(top, or sides) that it could be art. The one rule is, it has to compile,(but would not necessarily have to be playable in a performance standard). You could make anything, a heart shaped map, a crest of arms, anything, the skies the limit. Using entities such as func_details and what not could add different colors to the pic. Then take a screen shot and post it with the compiled map.
Another idea:
Postcards. Find a postcard, no matter how involved or detailed the picture is, and try to re-create it in Hammer. Once again, performance would not have to be an issue, as I think theres some amazing amount of detail that could be squeezed into a map if performance issues were cast aside. The same rule would apply though. It has to compile. Send a pic of the postcard, a screenie of the map and the bsp.
Just a couple of thoughts. Trying to make it new and interesting.

Well, I know I've already talked with you about this Aaron, but I want to let others who might be interested in it know as well.

If or when we can get organized to host another competition (And when the compilation map can get finish [it's still being worked on.... slowly...]) we'll probably do it after the switch.

Larchy is currently beta testing a newer version of the site with many new features and bug fixes and not to mention faster speeds! -That's right, we've successfully moved a 'copy' of the site over to our new host. But this copy is just for beta testing purposes as of right now. I imagine, once we move everything over and make the final switch we can begin to re-establish our members. I'm pretty sure a lot of people get fed up with the slow globat server connection speed, and I think once that gets resolved, we'll have a lot more interested members (with spare time!). So, for now, I think the competition should wait.