Newbie Contest

The trouble is, a newbie contest would be relatively simple, which means the veterans would be able to do everything just as well, or more likely better. You could theoretically say "no-one mapping for more than a month can do this" but that bings up a whole load more problems- how do you prove it? does mapping for another game count? etc. etc.

No-one will stop you entering a contest you feel you cant win. Cp_mountainlab was (if i recall correctly) a first tf2 map. Try. Nobody will complain. You'll get a ton of good feedback.

It's a charming idea, but it's probably not going to happen.
It would be almost impossible to determine who is eligible for participation and who isn't and the chances of quality maps being produced is low (theoretically), so interest in such a competition would probably not be sustainable for very long...

There will be mini contest coming up in the following months (as usual), these will be short and not focused on creating full sized maps. So anyone should be able to participate and learn something.

Winning is not always the motivation for participating. there could be a number of reasons, like challenging yourself to finish a map and work side by side to other mappers.

I wouldn't say they're aimed at veteran mappers, veteran mappers just win these constest because they make good maps.

A newbie mapping competition would be problematic for two reasons: First, drawing the line between newbies and veteran mappers would be difficult, I have no idea whether I am a veteran already or still a newbie, most likely something in between. Secondly, not allowing everyone who wants to join is unfair, I know I would hate it if there was a really cool contest, but I wasn't allowed to enter because I'm too good at mapping.

In my eyes, the important thing about mapping contests, at least at tf2maps, isn't winning, but learning things and becoming better at mapping. The veterans you see here were all noobs once, and it took years of practise to become the great mappers they are now. A newbie mapping contest would pretty much tell every new mapper that being bad is okay because you can still win, when they should be encouraged to work hard and become better at mapping, and when they're finally good enough to win a contest, it will be a lot more rewarding too.

Just my two cents.

Ravidge said:

and the chances of quality maps being produced is low (theoretically), so interest in such a competition would probably not be sustainable for very long...

Click to expand...

Edit: this too

Ontop of the very valid reasons above, a nooby contest probably wouldn't be that competitive. Determing a winner would be fairly arbitrary if the quality of the work is low. What exactly would you consider basing a nooby contest on? Creating a DEV layout? most people can do this in an afternoon, there's no real skill in creating a layout besides making sure it's well optimised and isn't too big or small. Besides that, working gameplay is hit and miss/trial and error.

Try your hand at the mini contests, as Ravidge said. There is less pressure and fewer restrictive rules (such as working gameplay and objectives). They are good practice for learning to create more complex geometry and utilising other tools like displacements.

Originally these contests were about getting more maps of a specific gamemode out. Making a plr contest when the plr gamemode came out would provide more content for the TF2 community so that they didn't have the play the same stock map over and over. It wasn't about winning but providing new content whilst also having fun. Rewards were just a perk.