Official 2006 Contest Voting Thread

OK guys, unless I receive some serious problem with a map or three, this will be the thread to vote in.

Remember: There are HL1 and HL2 entries. You will need to vote once for each.
If the entry does not follow the guidelines, it cannot win 1st place. If a map nominated for 1st is questionable, a board of impartial judges will decide its conformity.

Good luck to each and every person who entered.

(about the only thing we never decided was, how long should we allow the voting process to last. my personal opinion is 7 days. Post your opinion if it differs. thanx)

Modularity
Cathedral
Bar_Remix
Serene
Roman_Pool
Deep_Spaces
Garg
Stricken
Polluted_Coast

[EDIT] Deep Spaces graciously hosted by our own, Master Monqui.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

HL1 - Bar Remix<br style="color: white;"><br style="color: white;">HL2 - Cathedral

TheDisturbedOne said:
HL1 - Bar Remix<BR style="COLOR: white"><BR style="COLOR: white">HL2 - Cathedral

tbh, i won't trust votes that come from brand new accounts. whether it's someones mate coming to lend some support, or whether it's someone creating multiple accounts to cheat with, it's just the same thing. this is meant to be about maps, not who's got the most mates or spare time.

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i eat paint

I have concerns about multiple accounts and will keep a wary eye on them. I however see no way to avoid "friends" from last minute memberships.

Example #1
Example #2

CAUTION: LARGE SCREENS

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I've downloaded and played all of them for the exception of Deep_Spaces
as it seems that you've uploaded only the last part of the file Orph(or
only linked the last of the three files). Thus my HL2 vote might change
after I get it.

HL1 - Garg

HL2 - Roman Pool

The HL2 was very hard to choose. Cathedral and Modularity were two
other choices I considered voting, but the 3D skybox with the seagulls
finally won me over.

As for HL1, I can't stop banging my head to the wall for making an outside map. But nevertheless I'm voting Garg as it won my technical side over.

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Pvt.Scythe said:
I've downloaded and played all of them for the exception of Deep_Spaces as it seems that you've uploaded only the last part of the file Orph

Just open the file. The name is misleading. I told'ya the damned fool sent 5 copies of the same file.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I tried again and came up with an empty folder then I tested the file,
it seems that it's broken. Then I tried redownloading and it's still
broken. It pains me to ask this from you as I've been a 56k
user in the past, but is it possible for you to upload it again. Of
course it would be better that someone else tests it before you go
uploading it again...

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

sighs

let me download it. BUT, how you figure I got the screens if the zip was broken?

BRB, this will take a while.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Perhaps uploading borked it or something. All I know is that all the programs I've tried to use say that it's broken.

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Half-Life 1 Vote : polluted_coast

Half-Life 2 Vote : serene

I came close to voting for modularity, but I think serene did a real good job in the light/glossy effect area :smile:

Garg2006 for hl1 was another choosy one in my opinion, but polluted_coast (oddly) won me over. It also would have been nice if garg played at some reasonable framrates, but overall, polluted_coast and serene are my votes.

On the topic of deep_spaces: The problem I had with it, was that the genius who made the map put a .zipped file in a .rar file...

Zippin' a zip or raring a rar or whatever is never a good idea :razz:

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Breaking the laws of mapping since 2003 and doing a damn fine job at it

I'll tell'ya what. I'll zip the .bsp myself.

The current upload is borked but... Since it doesn't qualify under the guidelines you can skip it for the time being.

I will disable the link.

[EDIT] Its a 42 meg bsp. It zips to 12 megs. it RAR's to 10.5 megs.

I cannot upload a file that big. :sad:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

exciting :smile: sadly i won't be here for the results as i'm on holiday from the 9th to the 23rd of juli.

just quoting Orph from the other thread incase someone missed it:

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Orpheus</DIV>

<P class=quotetext>Judging
The contest will be judged by the entire membership roster. Each member will be allowed to vote only once. The contest will be judged by these categories;
<DIV class=quotetext>

• Creativity - If it cannot be original, shoot for the most impressive unoriginal concept.
  
• Attention to detail - The tiny things will count most.
  
• Craftsmanship - A rose by any other name is still a rose.
  
• Complexity - Think outside the box
• Originality - Pretty self explanatory.
  </LI>

</DIV>

</DIV>

carry on :smile:

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

UPDATE: Monqui has magnanimously volunteered to host the deepspaces zip.

I will link it when I can.

[EDIT] Link established

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Might want to change the link on the home-page too.

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Shameless plug.

Yes, will do. I had to swap the ones at the other sites. I was afraid that they would begin bitching if they wasted time on the last link.

Thanx a bunch Monkee.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

um... Deep spaces seems to be a zip file wrapped in a rar. My computer wont unzip it.

All in all I vote for serenity. I would have loved to have seen some weaponry placed within the map. No reason it could'nt have been playable.

Next vote is for Roman pool. The attention to accurate detail is awe inspiring.

Finally, I like modularity for its crispness and unique style.

Unfortunately I could'nt wrap my head around any of the HL1 entries since the medium os so dated. I don't want to seem unfair but I just was'nt moved by any of those.

I also can't seem to figure out cathedral. It is 159 files of textures and models and it wont unzip properly. I uinzipped it to cstrike like the readme said but all I get is a huge page of files outside of their respective folders. I am alittle rusty though.

PS...I had an entry, but due to real life, I could'nt get it ready in time. Look for a posting in maps section in a week or two.

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Quote from Nietzsche....God is dead
Quote from God....Nietzsche is dead

Re-download deepspaces. Monkee is now hosting a good file.

As for Cathedral, unzip it one folder above cstrike and it will work. (C:Program FilesValveSteamSteamApps*******counter-strike source)

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Yes, will do. I had to swap the ones at the other sites. I was
afraid that they would begin bitching if they wasted time on the last
link.
Thanx a bunch Monkee.

AFAIK Orph editing our official news is not possible - not as far as i've figured out anyhow.

Since the Deep_Spaces map does not conform to the guidelines of the contest, I say don't bother with it any more. I can agree to that. I will eventually have to get some hosting space of my own for that and my next map. :rolleyes:

HL1 - Garg
HL2 - Cathedral

Very high standard, but that damn cathedral just won me over. :<

Best of luck to everyone who entered.

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I seem to have done toilet on your floor

I was really impressed by the quality of the entries. After the voting is over, I will give more detailed impressions of all the maps. This was a really tough decision and I had to take several spins through all of them. For now, I?ll just put in my two votes and give a brief explanation of what I liked about those maps.



Votes:

HL1 ? Polluted Coast

The brushwork in this map is really good. I wish I could build a hill like that. The path around it is smooth and flawless, quite an achievement using the HL1 engine. The surrounding areas were also well constructed. I would like to see this map expanded on, perhaps brought into HL2 DM as it seems like it could be a really fun landscape to play on. With some work on texturing, I think this map could be exceptional.



HL2 ? Modularity

[color=white]This map is really unique. What really struck me was how nicely it was put together. It has a very crisp and clean feel. After exploring the level a bit you really see how polished every element is. Even the lift with the floor housing looks great! The panels could be really fun in a DM setting if they were converted to props that could be pulled off with the grav gun and then fired at opponents. An arena like that, with no other weapons, would be lots of fun. [/color]

Why did you do a post like this Orph? Why not do 2 polls, 1 for HL2 and 1 for HL1! People are too lazy to post.

As for my winner, HL2 would be Kasperg with Serene...

...as its actually the only HL2 submission which followed the guidelines to the book and was playable as a DM level, which I personally liked. I was able to escape the clipping of modularity, deep spaces in my opinion was Killbox mark 2 and wasn't even within the guidelines. As for Roman baths, I was let down by it being an SP level, I would have liked to have seen some DM spawns. The cathedral level was good, but the name was unnapropriate and I think the arena was too small almost.

As for HL1, didn't play any of the entries as I don't have it.

even if you're able to escape the clipping with a bit of effort, you are still in the same room, i.e. you can still see everything (besides, this is not normal playmode anyway). if you're going to dismiss entries on this basis you might aswell dismiss romanpool because of the wall between the 2 sides of the pool, even dismiss serenity because you can "hide behind a pillar".

Also, the contest guidelines specifically say it doesn't have to be a playable DM level, so dismissing entries because of size or having only one spawn has nothing to do with the contest guidelines either.

The judging categories are creativity, detail, craftsmanship, complexity and originality, all being in 1 area. So if you picked serene based on these categories, just say so. Don't make it sound like romanpool, cathedral or modularity didn't follow the guidelines, because they did.

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

My Vote for Hl1 Goes to polluted_coast
The only real competitor to polluted_coast was Garg Both where very nice entries but i felt that garg was a copy and paste map. Polluted_coast looks like it can be a nice DM map. If the author of Polluted_coast is reading this i belive the most disappointing part of the map was the lighting if the mountains casted a more noticeable shadow it would look Much better.

For Hl2 Im not going to vote

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Why Do we all have to wear these ridiculous ties

Myrk- said:
Why did you do a post like this Orph? Why not do 2 polls, 1 for HL2 and 1 for HL1! People are too lazy to post.

As for my winner, HL2 would be Kasperg with Serene...

...as its actually the only HL2 submission which followed the guidelines to the book and was playable as a DM level, which I personally liked. I was able to escape the clipping of modularity, deep spaces in my opinion was Killbox mark 2 and wasn't even within the guidelines. As for Roman baths, I was let down by it being an SP level, I would have liked to have seen some DM spawns. The cathedral level was good, but the name was unnapropriate and I think the arena was too small almost.

As for HL1, didn't play any of the entries as I don't have it.

I'm not sure where you're coming from Myrk. It seems to me that all of the maps except deep spaces followed the guidelines. You can try to split hairs on all the maps. You can say romanpool has a seperate platform area and two different pool areas. You can say modularity has two different levels seperated by a lift. You can say Cathedral has an alter area and a pew area. You could even say Serene has a paved courtyard area and a seperate pond area. These distinctions are not in the spirit of the competition. To try and rule maps out because of these fickle distinctions would be unfair.
I agree with Blister that multiplayer considerations are not part of the judging criteria. I don't think you'll find any of the maps have been set up with multiplayer gameplay criteria in mind. To use that criteria when voting would also be unfair.

Gwil said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Yes, will do. I had to swap the ones at the other sites. I was afraid that they would begin bitching if they wasted time on the last link.
Thanx a bunch Monkee.

AFAIK Orph editing our official news is not possible - not as far as i've figured out anyhow.
</div></div>

Frontpage posts are fully editble Gwil Look to the far right. There is an edit option there.

Oops, of course. I remember using that feature a long time ago now. Time to dust off my spectacles I reckon? :smile:

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Myrk-</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Why did you do a post like this Orph? Why not do 2 polls, 1 for HL2 and 1 for HL1! People are too lazy to post.

</DIV></DIV>

we have +-90 active members (wild guess) and 7 voted sofar in 5 days. imo the problem isn't so much lazyness (many ppl voted in the 2004 contest), but rather

a) not caring about mapping anymore, just browsing general banter

b) anonymity

i fear it might be a) (in which case it could help to move this topic to general banter + just remove the two 2005 contest topics),

but in the case of b), why don't you come out of your ivory tower and create a poll or two, Myrk? :wink:

it seems like the candidates' efforts, but also Orph's efforts, are going to waste like this. 7 votes don't even give statistical significance.

i'll be back in 2 weeks

I think the reason Orph didn't do polls is because of anonymity. Having to post means we can check each vote - who made it, and their reasons for doing so. However when we have only had 7 posts, I don't think it's at the level where we need to worry about illegitimate votes!

My reason for not having voted is that all I've looked at is screenshots of the maps, and I don't feel happy juding solely on that. I'll try to have a run through them when I get a chance (I'd really like to see Modularity "in person" as I think it looks funky as hell) and vote, but I don't have all that much time on my hands at the moment.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

People assume sometimes that my being the least educated here, that I do things without thinking. I may pick the wrong side of some/many/all debates but I do think about doing so. After all, how could I always chose the wrong side if I didn't use some sort of a planned action?

That said, I thought long and hard on this voting issue prior to implementing it.

My reasons for doing it this way are:

[*] The authors invested a lot of time into their creation. The deserve to hear from their peers why the votes went the way they did.
[*] This is the first inter-site competition that Snarkpit has hosted. I wanted to dispel the rumors that this site is elitist mentality. I wanted to show the other sites that this site judges all maps fairly.
[*] Voting in simple poll cannot be traced. I have admin powers but those powers do not include tracking poll votes.
[*] Anonymity can and often is abused.

I am sorry if this competition doesn't finish as well as people would have liked but at least you will know, who had time to comment and why they did so.

As to the ones who do not comment, they have their reasons and not voicing them is within their purview.

</LI>

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Personally i think if someone makes many accounts and votes for themselves thats not even a win. If you have to cheat to win you will live with it and fell bad about cheating

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Why Do we all have to wear these ridiculous ties

The reason I didn't comment yet is because I didn't play yet. I'll make some time coming week. The competors deserve at least some time, seeing those cool screenies. :wink:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

ok. i've looked at the maps.
my final decision is..... roman pool. it was a really tough decision. Modularity and Serenity and Cathedral were all really good. if i had to chose second, modularity and serenity would tie for me.

Roman pool, while I don't think it is technically as difficult or intricate as some of the other maps, is just executed SO WELL. It's just a joy to be in it. And the textures are simply beautiful.

I wasn't very impressed by the pics of modularity, but it just goes to show that you can't base everything about a map from pics. After i walked around in it, i began to really like it. Lots of brush detail, a mover, and great composition. The plain orange behind the panels was great. The style is cool, and the walls are very curvey and varried. You really need to make a full map out of that, Blister.

Serenity was great fun to walk around in. A wonderful sense of size with good lighting, texture choice, and architecture. Something I could easily see in a retail SP game with a little bit of polish.

I thought cathedral was good too, but it didn't quite do it for me. I just didn't get a sense of grandeur from it. I also felt the arches could have used a few more sides to make them smoother. well done, just... not enough.

Oprheus.. well, it's a cool map. It could have been awesome. The subject was leaps and bounds beyond the other submissions in terms of interactivity and scope of project, but soooo many plain flat surfaces. The idea was great, and the big moving thingie was cool, but it just didn't look good. One part in particular that I remember was a box-type corridor with spotlights that had no source. four sides and some light (but no lights). If you work on it, it will be awesome. As it is now, it's just cool in theory and ugly.

I didn't load up any of the HL1 maps, but striken probably wins.

good job everyone who submitted. more than i did (though maybe some day i'll finish what i started).

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___My Site___ | www.leveldesign.nl

HL1: Garg2006
HL1 Honorable mention: polluted_coast - could have been great with more contrast in the lighting/shadows and scaled up textures on the cliffs.

HL2: Modularity
HL2 Honorable mention: deep_spaces - great concept and feel to the map, but the craftsmanship just wasnt there. I disagree with Myrk saying that it is a killbox - the map has a big open space like a killbox, but that is because it is following a theme that calls for it (big space hangar) not because the mapper was lazy. If the author is reading this, take time to tweak the map and take care of the little craftsmanship things and it could be a lot better!

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http://maze5.net

I will cast my votes upon my return from Phoenix. Each and every map had something I liked intensely. Each of them had something I felt was a bit outside my idea of the original intent of the guideline. Thats not to say that any (excepting DeepSpaces of course) was not a qualifier for this competition.

In case it slips my mind somehow: I am deeply grateful for each person who participated in this event. Both the authors and the voters/commenter's deserve my thanx.

I would also like to add that even though DeepSpaces wasn't within the guidelines it still showed promise as an eventual Deathmatch map. It was outside the guideline "One area" but its creativity and originality was well inside. It could very well get 2nd or 3rd place... Who can say?

I respect Myrks outlook on the entries but, I feel that they were somewhat jaded by his lack of enthusiasm for the game engine. If this were 4 years ago and a strictly HL1 event, he would have been a bit more positive methinks. His track record for positive comments is still exemplary.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

HL1 - Bar_Remix by G.Ballblue.
HL2 - Cathedral by Dewdal.

The results thus far. Please feel free to check my math. Keep those votes coming guys. :smile:

Modularity- 20%
Cathedral- 30%
Serene- 30%
Roman_Pool- 20%
Deep_Spaces- 0%

Bar_Remix- 22%
Garg- 33%
Stricken- 11%
Polluted_Coast- 33%

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The best things in life, aren't things.

HL1 - Garg
HL2 - Cathedral

I saw Cathedral slowly being built and I was amazed at the quality. Serene almost made the vote for me, but Cathedral nabbed it mainly because it had more variation in it: Serene had fair too much repetition, both in the brushwork and the texturing.

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Signature? Screw that.

HL1 - Garg
HL2 - Modularity

I considered voting for both roman pool and bar_remix because of the well done custom work and unusual theme. Ultimately I found the architecture and lighting (yes, I like lighting) better in the two I've chosen. Modularity has a very unusual architecture which, although it's a tad to artificial for my taste, deserves winning this competition. I tried not to fall for sunsets and HL2's beautiful water shaders also :heee: The cathedral looks very nice but I've seen it done better (duh') in lost coast already, so lost points for originality.

I haven't seen all the Source maps yet, but my HL1 vote goes to Garg.
Even if it's a "copy paste" job of unspeakable r_speeds, the result is
still impressive :smile:

*A simple suggestion for future contests of this nature would be to ask
the authors for six screenshots. The inside part (in my opinion the
better one) of "Serene" is about 65% of the map, yet 5 of the 6
screenshots show the more repetitive and bland (in comparison) outside.
One of the screenshots even shows a view the player is not meant to
see...

In a competition where there is no control over who actually downloads
the maps and who votes for screenshots, this is always risky (I'm not
saying this is the case).

Anyway, I know Orpheus took the time and effort of making and uploading the screenies @ 56K, and we should all thank him.

I'll take a look at the rest of the maps ASAP. Good luck to everyone!!

Kasperg_JM said:
. One of the screenshots even shows a view the player is not meant to see...

I have done a critique or two in my day. People like to see at least one "Lay of the land" type of screenshot. I try to include one whenever it seems prudent to include it. If its possible to get a decent shot by clipping up top somewhere, I'll generally do so. (I am assuming that you are commenting on a shot from the top somewhere. If I err. just file this info for later use)

As for my votes, I'll post my thoughts in a bit. I just got home and am really tired.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I will be locking this thread soon. By the time I get my thoughts wrote down about each map. Get any last minute voting in soon.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

FOR THE RECORD: I do not read other peoples replies in advance of my own. My opinions are mine alone and colored by no one else's.

Bar_Remix- My first impression is one of feeling small. The textures, most notably the flooring and the wooden door is most likely the cause. The room has some interesting architecture and the texture choices were excellent for the theme. The sounds themselves made it a convincing lounge setting.

Garg- Nice scale and architecture. I liked the grandeur of the area and felt that everything was spot on in that regard. My only complaint was the lighting. It felt to uniform. It would be difficult to have such a glowy all covering light in an area that large. I favored the orange/gray style most I think. Overall.. I felt convinced I was in a ship/bay/structure that could have been real.

Stricken- Had a very convincing industrial feel. This map would fit into any HL1 industrial theme map with little or no modification. The sounds were a bit much for my taste. Overwhelmed my senses. The lighting was superbly done too.

Polluted_Coast- My choice for the contest. It had the most to offer IMO. The lighting was poorly done but the grandeur of the map told me that of the entries, this map went the farthest in its creative juices. I would have liked a better sky but as I said, the map being by far the largest submitted spoke to me. It wanted my vote.

Modularity- This map made me dizzy to look at. Somehow the orange and gray texture created an illusion of depth that made me back up every time I loaded the map. (yeah, I looked at each entries several times.) I liked the lighting and the architecture screamed originality. I think with a bit of effort that this map could make a satisfactory DM map.

Serene- This map went the farthest in its scope or area covered for the contest. It was by far the largest map to follow the rules. The copy/pasted feel however had me a bit worried. It was almost to much. The outside water area helped to dissipate the feeling however and canceled out any negative aspects of the copy/pastedness.

Roman_Pool- This map was by far the most original IMO. I however thought that the map relied to much on the textures to pull the map together. The architecture was simple if you removed the grandeur of the coloration.

Deep_Spaces- This map gets my vote. In spite of the fact that it didn't follow the guidelines at all, it was the single most original map submitted. I know that it cannot possibly win but it still caught my attention as the most original construct. If the author had just been smart enough to clip off the exits, I feel this map would have stood a chance of winning.

Cathedral- By far the most architecturally creative I was however disappointed at the scale. The Cathedral area wasn't much bigger than a local country church. Cathedrals IMO need to be much larger. The map gets my vote for second place.

The results: Please feel free to check my results.

Modularity- 23%
Cathedral- 30%
Serene- 23%
Roman_Pool- 15%
Deep_Spaces- 7%

Bar_Remix- 15%
Garg- 46%
Stricken- 7%
Polluted_Coast- 30%

Congratulations go out to Cathedral and Garg.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Wow...didn't expect this, the competition has been fierce. Recently downloaded and tried the entries and found em all great. Good compo all.

I'm sorry I was in China and couldn't participate. I would have liked to cast my vote.

Congratulations dewdle and m_garg, and much respect to everyone who submitted something.

Well played (or, er...mapped :smile: ) guys! Congratulations to dewdle and garg. Really sorry I never got a chance to take a look at the maps and vote this time around, things are a little hectic at the moment.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

As a cs player would say:

gg :wink:

I had a lot of fun in this competition :smile:

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Breaking the laws of mapping since 2003 and doing a damn fine job at it

I consider this a personal victory as this is the only competition I
haven't found myself in the last or the second last place this far. Also
this competition finally gave me the push to move forward toward Q3 and
Source mapping. :smile:

Good competition. Although I regret that I had to send in a half
finished map due to some real life issues I'm not willing to talk about
in the public.

edit: killed the typo bunny

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

I was expecting Mr. Insane to beat me with stricken.

GC though, good compo

Yes, Congrats Dewdle and Gargantua

Gargantua: I never expected to even get any votes so its a win in my book. maybe ill have the joy of winning one of these next year.

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Why Do we all have to wear these ridiculous ties