Again, thank you for your time and feedback. I know the judges have put a lot of time and energy into the competition, and thank you for putting it on.
Having said that, I do have to say that I will not be linking the site in the video, as agreed upon. Here's why:
It seems like this is a yearly competition, and a lot of people put a lot of time and energy into these maps and in putting on the contest. I've been active on the Discord for a few months now, and I'm still seeing new faces pop up, which is great. Even faces that are long-time members of the site that came out of the woodwork to view the competition and play the entries. Which is amazing.
I think that was the overall point of the competition, right? To foster community, bring people together, encourage map designing for veterans and inspire new creators, provide feedback so that maps become better and more enjoyable for other players (both inside and outside of the AoKH community), and of course so that someone can having bragging right for a year of being the best map designer haha.
And a lot of that was accomplished. I sparked up friendships with many people here, and improved my overall map designing skills. But I think the competition failed in many regards. And please don't take this an attack, it's not. I've been playing this game for 20 years, I don't want the memory of a feud interrupting my enjoyment of playing years from now. But some of this needs to be said.
I think the judges failed the contestants. There were 8 contestants, and only one was given a "somewhat" positive review by each of the judges. And I completely understand if the judges are at a very high level, and expect excellence. We want judges like that. But even Simon Cowell and Gordon Ramsey (the harshest judges on television) know that you have to love at least SOME of the contestants. No one would watch Masterchef if Gordon Ramsey judged every dish as unworthy of his time. Or if Simon Cowel judges every singing contestant against Aretha Franklin or Frank Sinatra. Every contestant would be a, excuse my language "pile of crap" in comparison. Without fail, when the final entries are up, no matter what the competition is, or how those contestants stack up against the previous years, the judges are going "Oh, this is so tough. That chicken parm was absolutely sensational, but the Panna Cotta by the other contestant was sooo good". We as the audience enjoy that. Crapping all over the bad entries can be enjoyable for some people to watch, in fact, many people only watch the first couple episodes of contest shows so that they can watch the judges tear people apart.
But there were only 8 entries here. And one of them wasn't even played. I have to say, that is totally unacceptable. This competition took months to put on, the maps have been worked on for months (6 months in my case. The "Slow painting" bug in Ludicrous sized maps is a real bottleneck) the reviews took the better part of a week and half, and you didn't want to message that person and say "hey, I couldn't get it to work. I know you spent a long time on this, we're all friends here, why don't you show me where you were coming from, and we can figure this out. Maybe you accidentally turned off an important trigger for testing purposes and that caused the map stall on not progress."
(Which actually leads me to a tangent idea for next yeat, in that there should be "check-ups" on each entry in the month leading up to deadline. This doesn't have to be the judges, but at least a volunteer who can run through the maps, and point out the obvious faults so that the judges don't run into them when they're evaluating them)
All of this leading to my biggest point, which is that I think the spirit of this competition was encourage creators to make maps for others to play, but based on the reviews of the maps, this is actually going to have the opposite effect. No one, not even Filthydelphia, who won, can really brag about the map in the competition. At best, the winner can say "Well, my map wasn't a total disaster like everyone else's, so I won be default. I'm going to go post this on the discord". None of the contestants want can advertise the results of the competition. None of the contestants want to advertise their maps. New players are not being drawn in with the competition (not nearly as many as is possible) and the maps might actually lose audience members and players as a result. I can only imagine what a typical "Multiplayer AoE" player would say if they saw the results of the competition "Well, I never liked custom maps anyway, and these all look like a pile of crap. The 'Best' map wasn't even good based on the reviews" The idea of the link to the competition being posted anywhere online, horrifies me.
Again, I get that you're trying to give an honest and comprehensive review, but I think there's a real calibration problem. No one would watch these competition shows if the contestants were compared to the best in their field. That's not what the competition was. That's a different competition and list entirely. (A list I would love to read)
This is why I can't post the link to the site in the video (nor would most of the contestants I imagine). Because it paints no one in a good light, and will do the opposite of what I'd like it to do, which is to draw more people in, build a larger audience of players, introduce new players to new content.
If that's not the point of the competition, I understand. If this is the kind of competition you'd like to put on, great. But I don't want to participate next time, if that's the case. I'd rather put on my own competition, or spend my time elsewhere.
I know this all coming from the last place entry, might seem like I'm bitter (I am a little, if I'm being honest haha. I had a very large map and no where was that reflected in my scores. Have you seen how long it takes to paint terrain on a "Ludicrous" sized map?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVgjwZT2dGI ) but I don't think I'm alone in these feelings, and I think this is a wonderful community, and one that I'd love to be a part of for years to come. So I hope these comments come off as "helpful and insightful" and not "vindictive" because I really do feel no ill will to the judges, and I would love to be a part of this community for as long as you'll have me.
Again, thank you for your time and energy!