Hive Cup 2021: Melee Mapping Contest #8 - Second Phase Results

[Nightmare2077]

Dear all,
After many trials and tribulations, we are ready to finilise the 8th Melee Mapping contest.

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• 1st place: 750 experience points
• 2nd place: 600 experience points
• 3rd place: 450 experience points
• 4th place: 300 experience points
• 5th place: 150 experience points
• Judge: 25 experience points per entry

The five winners will receive an award icon representing the winning entry.

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Place	Contestant	Entry	Final Score
1	@SaveOrcas	Springtime	79.25
2	@Kaer#2460	Rusty Creek	77.09
T3	@INSEKT	Déjà Vu	72.37
T3	@Meerel	Fairy Tale	72.08
5	@Zucth	Throne of Tides	66.48
T6	@WolfFarkas	Northwestern River	61.97
T6	@StrickEagle	Snow Melt	61.41

Note that places 3 and 6 are tied between two contestants, since theirs scores are within 1 point of one another.

Result calculation

Second phase accounts for 70%, 80% of which is the google-poll survey of pros, casters and mappers; 20% is the discord-organised W3Gym poll.
See also the attached excel for more comments and formulas.

Discord poll:

Useful links:

• First phase results
• Announcement
• Last year's Hive Cup
• Liquidpedia: the tournament

 

[Daffa]

:O

Congrats to the winners!

EDIT: Why is this in Map Development?

 

[Nightmare2077]

Hi all,

Thanks to all involved for participating! Congrats to the winners
W3Champions already hinted that they will use our maps in the future

Please find attached the google form with player feedback.

 

[Daffa]

The :O is me getting surprised that the results are out in a good way.

Anyway, I find this interesting for more maps to add my altered melee races in. Never hurt to get more maps

 

[Kaer#2460]

I formated the relevant player feedback, so it's easier to digest:

Spoiler: Déjà Vu

sheik: Good macro map despite that ships still preatty useless.
Neytpoh: i dont like some places are deadends, for expample would be cool to go around the base, not stuck in corners ; ) need more room to run and harras.
ag3nt: Useless merccamp units. First troll cant even dispel. Overall good creepspots. No lab is sad for ud/human against warden.
Happy: My subjective (!) opinion of the map is 3, because i dislike macro maps. This is the very macro map (like Twisted Meadows, but even better for macroing). This map is strictly fast expand. Therefore it favors HU the most. Also its super AoW-creeping friendly, so its very good for nightelf.
Foggy: The map visually looks too complicated and has a large size. as for me, to compare Twisted Meadows looks nicer and simpler.

Spoiler: Fairy Tale

sheik: Main bases should have more trees and the starting respawn should me more wide open
Happy: Red spot creeps are too strong. LVL 10 turtle is stronger than lvl 10 dragon because of wave that does enormous damage.
Foggy: 1. there is not enough space on the main spawns to build buildings. ideally, it should be possible to make a wall and build at least 3 buildings inside the base. 2. the rest of the map looks good, you can add 1 month to the ladder to test the balance of the races.

Spoiler: Northwestern River

RaZZoRMaN: Don't like the big close camps near the base
sheik: imo this map need observatory. I would replace the marketplace with the goblin merchant, and add the observatory on the previous goblin merchant possition, so no marketplace on the map unless creator wants to place it in the mercenary camp position.
ag3nt: Interesting maplayout, but creeps should be changed. Very hard expanding for human. Very hard any early creep for human (forever level 1 archmage). No militia-only creep camps at all.
Happy: Red spot with 2 Mercenary camps looks out of place. First of all, its relatively easy to creep for such a good item drop (even on concealed hill its harder to pull ogre with item from the spot). Second, reward for clearing spot might be overpowered in certain matchups (because can buy plenty of mercs at once).
Foggy: 1. i don't like creep frost revenant (orange spot near base), because he able to deny himself or creep near by. 2. creep double green and 2 different orange spots near base don't give you 3 lvl. i think must be 1green+1green+1orange = 3LVL, not 2.8 or 2.9. 3. if you make these amendments, you can add a card for 1 month for testing in the ladder

Spoiler: Rusty Creek

sheik: Creeps on the middle goldmine should be swapped with the creeps that spawns on the possible player position.
Neytpoh: hard to adjust to unusual creeps etc.
ag3nt: Interesting map, but FE not possible in current state that mean its bad for human vs undead and night elf. I know Kaer plan to improve that, and preview of patched map looked better than current w3c version.
Happy: Probably should be a cross-only map (now its far right or far left spots). Otherwise early harassment might be a problem if its "close". Map looks a little bit too AoW-creeping friendly (Warden plays here might be a problem). "Respawn-expands" (not middle ones) have very weak protection. Also no critters close to "green turtles" in the middle. So for UD its always harassment or orange spots with WIldkin/Troll (and that looks way harder to creep, than, lvl3 ogre + lvl 3 troll trapper + lvl 4 berserker, with jus DK/skeletons). Change Wildkin to ogre lvl 3 and priest to lvl 3 trapper maybe?
Foggy: 1. the map is asymmetrical, on top of the mercenary camp there is more space for staging ancient of war than bottom. 2. in general map looks good, there is a feeling that there are not enough creeps for the late stage of the game (but i am not sure its good one or bad). 3. in general, the map resembles Turtle Rock map. Сonclusion: Сan be added to the ladder for testing and to get more feedback from the players.

Spoiler: Snow Melt

RaZZoRMaN: I think the map is too small, rush distance is close.
sheik: Goldmines way too far away from the base, and creeps way to strong, so that makes impossible to get early 2nd base which provides monotonous gameplay.
Happy: Another AoW-creeping friendly map (very easy nearby orange spots for creeping with 2x AoW). A little bit harder for HU with militia (because long way to observatory). Observatory has too weak creeps except golem. But golem has no strong protection (no high priest).
Foggy: 1. no access because of troll of trapper and no tress near mercenary camps. i suggest to add tress for wisp and change troll of trapper to have bait and buy a mercenary. 2. on respawns not enought space for make 3 building inside base. Conclusion: in genneral looks good, can add to w3champions 1month testing.

Spoiler: Spring Time

sheik: I like the concept of free expansion on the middle, but to make it work u probably need to make creeps on the goldmines way stronger, so that would encourage players to fight for the middle. And, i would suggest to nerf a bit creeps on the shop and observatory since those "orange camps" really close to be the reds, and there's really nothing to creep as soon as green creeps gone.
ag3nt: When pooling lab creeps, some nearby wolves want to combine with them into one creep camp.
Foggy: 1. Not enough space on respawn for building. In general map looks good, can add to 1 mounth testing to ladder.

Spoiler: Throne of Tides

sheik: This map has a lot from the ladder map pool pretty much, equal friendly to one and two bases play style.
Neytpoh: too many small creep camps imo.
ag3nt: Basically no choice to creep as 1st camp for human, only green is viable. and no militia-only creeping possible after that. FAST EXPAND looks unviable, that is VERY bad for human vs elf/ud.
Happy: No critter around first green spot. Critter spawns close to first orange spot (observatory), but you cant creep it with DK + skeletons. For NE and HU very easy to creep both early spots because of AoW or militia.
Foggy: Need to add close tree near observatory. Map seems good, can add to ladder for testing

 

[btp|Lancer]

Any ETA about the final match between Happy and Foggy?

 

[Nightmare2077]

Any ETA about the final match between Happy and Foggy?

Hi! In fact, yes: after the w3 Champ cup (per players' request), so around 23rd April or later.