You know what, this got me thinking: What if, instead of a contest contest, we just made the whole year an open-ended competition to come up with the best map, or the best map in a given gamemode, or the most innovative new idea, etc. Basically like vying for a Golden Globe or an Emmy or Game of the Year or whatever. Because, while we get some pretty good maps out of our contests, we also get some really good maps during the rest of the year, and maybe those deserve to win prizes even more. Or we get really promising maps that stop being updated while they're still in alpha. If everyone had a chance to win something for their efforts, they might be more motivated to see their projects to completion. (This motivation used to be the prospect of maybe getting their map bought by Valve, but as time goes on, this seems less and less likely to happen to anyone.)