I'd just like to start by giving a big thanks to all the contestants. This is definitely one of, if not the most, successful contests in Forge Hub history. I guess it goes to show that people will work their asses off for a sweet prize. With plenty of entrants and an abundance of amazing maps, this was a difficult contest to judge but it was extremely enjoyable. I thank you all again for making such awesome maps and giving me a few hours of enjoyment.
However, I'll cut the boring stuff pretty short as I know what you guys want to hear. The results will be posted below as: the three runners up (for extremely commendable work), the second place contestant and, of course, the victor. But just before we get into that let's talk about the prizes, shall we?
Runners Up:
A sweet custom title to represent their forging prowess
Second Place:
Forge Hub Feature
First Place:
SumoLounge Omni Bean bag chair
Forge Hub Feature
If you hadn't already heard about the Sumo Lounge Omni Bean Bag Chair, it is valued at a price equivalent to $150 USD. Sumo Lounge Bean Bags are some of the best on the market with quality and comfort to outmatch the competition. These lightweight, supersized bags can be contorted into over 10 different positions and come in 10 unique colors. Sumo bags are made out of a rip-proof nylon and come with top quality Sumo beans. If you're in the market for a new gamer chair or even a piece of bean furniture for your living room, make sure to check out Sumo Lounge.
The Results:
Runners Up:
Our three runners up all displayed their excellent abilities in Halo 3's Forge with their amazing entries. While these three maps were excellent in their own right, they weren't quite there in the terms of the contest. This does not mean that these maps cannot or will not be featured in their own right, however if this is the case their features will not be from this contest. So in alphabetical order, our Runners Up...
Campgrounds
Created By: MickRaider & Bloo Jay
Campgrounds was superb. Its geometry was a near perfect transition of Campgrounds from Quake Live. Coupled with its excellent recreation of geometry, Campgrounds did a wonderful job recreating a weapon layout reminiscent of Quake. Campgrounds scored the highest of all maps, save a tie with the First Place map, in the category of "Remake Accuracy". However, some breaks, grenade holes and gameplay that was not quite on par with the upper tier maps held Campgrounds back. If you are looking to play Campgrounds then increased speed is recommended.
Halfghan
Created By: jakob hunter
Halfghan is quite, quite accurate in its recreation of the multiplayer map Afghan, of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. However, like the name denotes, Halfghan is much smaller than its Call of Duty counterpart. While Halfghan doesn't quite handle the player sizes that Afghan can, it does make for some great 2v2 fun on a map with some pretty interesting geometry. Though jakob hunter's attention to detail was exceptional, in terms of the contest, Halfghan is hindered by its size.
Kingdom
Created By: LD
If you don't know it by now, you will. LD is a pure genius when it comes to aesthetics in maps. Kingdom, though not overloaded, has some impressive and extreme aesthetics in all of the right places. As well as those aesthetics, LD has done a wonderful job creating the geometry of his map, which is based on the map Hells Gate of Quake Live. Kingdom comes out playing as a beautiful competitive map. Only minor hindrances, such as subpar lifts, shorter pillars and a few spawn mishaps held back Kingdoms from a higher place. Walls also would have helped the accuracy.
Second Place:
Shipment
Created By: MetaWaddleDee
Wow. I was truly surprised that a Shipment remake could be this good. That's not to take anything away from MetaWaddleDee in the slightest but, with a slew of remakes of the Call of Duty 4 famous container map of the same name, it was hard to imagine one being a full head and shoulders above the rest. MetaWaddleDee's map needed no special gametypes; being that is was forged at the top of the skybubble. It played excellently as a Halo 3 doubles map, and had a weapon layout that favored some more interesting gameplay than usual; both the SMG and the Brute Shot took quite the coveted place in the weapon hierarchy this time around. I only have to knock you for this one little thing Meta: when bragging about the most accurate Shipment remake, you should make sure your open containers are in the right positions. Despite this little mishap however, Meta accomplished an amazing feat; he took a simple map and managed to make it intricate, thoughtful and gorgeous.
First Place:
Sentinel
Created By: Vyctoriouz and The Sir Toppum Hat
Honestly, this probably isn't a surprise to many of you. Had you taken two seconds to step onto this map you'd have seen that it's likely the most amazing feat accomplished in Forge in at least the last year. Gorgeous; it's beyond gorgeous. Gameplay is superb, accuracy is excellent. The map is enjoyable to the eyes, enjoyable to the mind and, most importantly, the soul. Playing Sentinel doesn't frustrate you or confuse you, it doesn't blind you or force your eyes to glaze over from boredom. Most importantly of all it makes Halo 3 feel fresh once more. It doesn't have players wanting to jump ship to another game or turn off their xbox and stare at a blank wall. Sentinel is what this contest was all about. It brings the awesome maps and awesome times we have on other games, the reasons we leave Halo, and then it brings it all back into Halo. Now maybe Sentinel, the Unreal Tournament III version, was just a perfect map to bring over and maybe you can't consider these two all that amazing for this map. However that would be a completely unfair way to judge their map because not only did they choose their remake and not only did they pay extreme attention to detail; they did enough necessary changes to size, shape, weapons and spawns to make Sentinel play amazing in Halo 3. So for one more than awesome remake I congratulate Vyctoriouz and The Sir Toppum Hat for being the champions of Foreign Treasures. Have fun dividing that Bean Bag guys!
In closing, I would like to thank all of our contestants once more. Honestly guys, there were no bad maps in this contest. Everything had at least one redeeming factor; be it that it was an accurate remake, had great aesthetics or played well as its own map. I can say that on behalf of all the judges we truly enjoyed playing your creations. As we see Halo 3 come to a close and we approach Reach I become ever more excited to see what you guys will create, knowing that if only you weren't held back by the limitations of Forge in Halo 3 you would go so much further. Congratulations to Vyctoriouz, SirToppumHat1, MetaWaddleDee, LD, jakob hunter, Bloo Jay and MickRaider for making the cream of the crop. Make sure to look for the Sentinel and Shipment feature threads in the coming week. Thanks guys.