After many long and arduous months, the results are here.
Thank you to everyone who participated, sponsored, judged and played the maps!
And a very big thank you to all the mappers who submitted maps!
Even the mappers who unfortunately ended up pulling out of the contest.
A very impressive and uniquely challenging map by the legendary JB_Gamble. This map excelled in providing a unique gameplay for both Humans and Zombies alike, with a very impressive technical execution. The judges praised this map for its deviation from regular Zombie Escape gameplay, however criticized it's classic HL2 Source1 Era style of details. Regardless, congratulations to JB!
A collaboration map between the Frenchy Raphi and the British Hichatu, an unlikely alliance. The visuals of this map absolutely excelled in using Source2 to its fullest potential, but played it very safe with the mechanics and gameplay for Humans and Zombies. The judges highly praised the visual execution but universally agreed that the gameplay fell short compared to the other submissions. In any case, congratulations to Raphi and Hichatu!
A map by a relatively new ZE mapper, Vynd! This map was overall incredibly enjoyable and was a medium-ish diffulty map, which served very well in judging. A very well rounded submission that was liked by judges and players alike. The judges praised the innovative and interesting gameplay the map has, with an awesome NPC chase segment and impressive visuals. Congratulations to Vynd!
@Seth once again proves he is the king of Backrooms ZE maps! An incredible followup to his previous work and mapping efforts. A well rounded replayable enjoyable map with impressive backrooms-esque visuals. With interesting items and mechanics. The judges highly praised this map for its replayability and unique spin on the backrooms genre. As a follow up map to @Seth's previous work (ze_backrooms_deathbed), it proves an impressive sequel with it's own unique mechanics! Congratulations to @Seth.
SAMOSBOR by Waffel and kondik is easily one of the fan favourite maps of this contest. With it's incredibly randomly generated maze like gameplay, it makes for an instantly replayable map. Requiring a very skilled team to beat, including various items and a secret ending, there was no secret this map would be winning a prize. The judges highly praised the very impressive randomly generated chunks for the map's layout. Congratulations to Waffel and kondik!
Easily. By far. The most universally adored map amongst the submissions in this contest. Toggle Theory by Nyafi is overall an incredibly well put together map. Coming from ze_depths, as the winner of the Best-Up-And-Coming-Mapper prize from the 2022 contest, this is an incredible followup submission. From it's impressive visual style to it's very interesting "toggling" mechanics within the stages. To the music synchronization and the general vibe of the map. There is no suprise this map won. The judges unanimously agreed that this was their favourite map of the contest, and for good reason. With very little negative points to say, if any! A very big congratulations to Nyafi!
The full results of the contest can be found in this Google Sheet.