This year, the Map Labs folks had a great idea – bring back the Hammer Cup, but in mini format! So this Cup was another great partnership with Map Labs that consisted of three mapping challenges, each with a different theme.

Entrants received points for each challenge they entered. At the end of the event, the best 2 points totals from the challenges they entered were added together for each entrant. These totals decided who won the Grand Prizes.

This means that entrants did not have to enter every challenge to win the grand prize but they needed to have entered at least 2 to have a chance of winning the prizes.

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The third and final challenge in the Hammer Cup 2022 kicks off now with another brand new Ville theme!

EscapeVille was also a never-used idea back in the original Hammer Cup days. DiamondDogsVille was kind of along the same line but it’s definitely one of the lesser-known challenges from back in the day. I’m happy to have Map Labs bring back these unused themes for their challenges!

This challenge is a Test Tube, so it only runs for 10 days. Get mapping!

Bonus maps (which can’t win but are judged and scored) are accepted for 4 days after the normal due date. Note that bonus map entries are not eligible for The Hammer Cup prizes!

Simple: the player must escape something, using force, wits, stealth – anything!

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

And if you’re not already there, join the Map Labs Discord for good discussion & a great mapping community.

The deadline for submission is Monday 23^rd May 2022. Bonus maps are accepted for another 4 days after that.

Submit maps using the Submission Form.

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CrossoverVille 2 is the theme of the second challenge in the Hammer Cup 2022 – again in collaboration with Map Labs!

The original CrossoverVille asked mappers to combine Half-Life with another game. But CrossoverVille 2 is broader – combine Half-Life with any other piece of media. Movies, games, music, art, opera – it’s all on the table. I suppose things like billboards and podcasts are too, knock yourselves out. So this new challenge kind of serves as a sequel to MovieVille as well!

This challenge runs for a full 3 weeks, with entries due on Sunday, March 27th. Get mapping! (But at least you have a bit more time for this challenge!)

Bonus maps (which can’t win but are judged and scored) are accepted for 4 days after the normal due date. Note that bonus map entries are not eligible for The Hammer Cup prizes!

Mix Half-Life and another piece of media – movie, game, etc. The crossover is totally up to your interpretation – location, art style, gameplay – anything, really.

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

And if you’re not already there, join the Map Labs Discord for good discussion & a great mapping community.

The deadline for submission is Sunday 27^th March 2022. Bonus maps are accepted for another 4 days after that.

Submit maps using the Submission Form.

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The Hammer Cup 2022 kicks off now with another brand new Ville theme!

DeceptionVille was another never-used idea back in the original Hammer Cup days. I’m happy to start The Hammer Cup 2022 with this theme and partner with the Map Labs crew yet again, so let’s see what you mappers can do with it!

This challenge is a Test Tube, so it only runs for 10 days. Get mapping!

Bonus maps (which can’t win but are judged and scored) are accepted for 4 days after the normal due date. Note that bonus map entries are not eligible for The Hammer Cup prizes!

Simple: something in the map isn’t what it seems. Clever deceptions encouraged.

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

And if you’re not already there, join the Map Labs Discord for good discussion & a great mapping community.

The deadline for submission is Sunday 20^th February 2022. Bonus maps are accepted for another 4 days after that.

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Same week, another Ville! ElevatorVille 2 starts now!

The original ElevatorVille was a 10-day mapping challenge run way back in 2012. That challenge had some specific rules, but this one is much easier: just make a map that features an elevator!

The second Ville in the Map Labs Atom Week begins right now!

This Atom challenge only runs 48 hours – maps are due 10pm Central U.S. Time on Saturday, March 20th. Go map!

Bonus maps (which can’t win but are judged and scored) are accepted until 3 days after the end of Atom Week (March 24th).

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

And if you’re not already there, join the Map Labs Discord for good discussion & a great mapping community.

The deadline for submission is Saturday 20^th March 2021.

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A brand new Ville theme! Did you ever think you’d see the day?

AscentVille was a never-used idea back in the Hammer Cup days. Finally, it gets to see the light as the first challenge in the Map Labs Atom Week, starting now!

The challenge only runs 24 hours – maps are due 10pm Central U.S. Time tomorrow – Monday, March 15th. Get mapping!

Bonus maps (which can’t win but are judged and scored) are accepted until 3 days after the end of Atom Week (March 24th).

Simple: make a map about climbing or ascending! This was an old idea for a full Hammer Cup Ville challenge years ago, but of course never came to pass. I’m glad it can live on in a Map Labs Atom.

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

And if you’re not already there, join the Map Labs Discord for good discussion & a great mapping community.

The deadline for submission is Monday 15^th March 2021.

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You’ve wanted it! We’ve wanted to do it! Perhaps the best Ville challenge ever finally returns!

FusionVille 2 is the next full Map Labs mapping challenge and it starts now! FusionVille 2 runs through Monday, August 31st. Get mapping!

The original FusionVille required mappers to combine 3 of 8 given themes from previous challenges. Same thing for FusionVille 2 but with a twist – you must pick 3 of the 10 given themes and fuse them together… drawn from past Villes and from past Map Labs!

• Bridge
• Toxic
• Teleport
• Liberation
• Vertical
• Episode One
• Two Rooms
• Think Tank
• Companion Piece
• Back on Track

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

The deadline for submission is Monday 31^st August 2020. With an extra 3 days after that for bonus (non-judged) maps.

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The most infamous Ville returns! The next Map Labs Test Tube (6-day) mapping challenge starts now! CromulentVille 2 starts now and runs through Monday, February 23rd. Get mapping! (You get an extra day on the front end cause the theme was guessed correctly in the Map Labs Discord!).

Just like in the original CromulentVille, mappers must create a weird, silly, strange, bizarre, surreal, peculiar, etc. map. That is, a perfectly cromulent map.

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

Note the optional Bonus Challenges, just to add even more cromulentness to the maps.

The deadline for submission is Sunday 23^rd February 2020. A whole week this time!

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Hey, you didn’t really think we’d never have another Ville challenge, right? Geez Louise!

Chris & Toki (the Map Labs folks) have really stepped up, filling the void that RTSL left once we started to wind things down late last year. This is the third “full” Map Labs Challenge – though they’ve run a couple of Test Tube (smaller) challenges in the vein of the Experimental Mapping Challenges here. Most of them are available right here on RTSL, and all are on the Map Labs ModDB page.

I’m happy to partner up with Map Labs for this challenge. May they keep the cool Half-Life challenges going! Perhaps there will be more crossovers like this in the distant future…

The Map Labs Discord just opened up for business. Head there to keep up with Map Labs, find out about new challenges, and maybe volunteer as a beta tester!

Just like in the original RunThinkShootLiveVille, mappers must create a map linking 4 distinct sections:

Section 1: RUN
Section 2: THINK
Section 3: SHOOT
Section 4: LIVE

They’re pretty self-explanatory, but we’ll let the official announcement fill in the details (click for full version):

Note the optional Bonus Challenges, just to add some spice to the maps.

The deadline for submission was Monday 8^th April 2019

Map Labs typically doesn’t have prizes for the challenges, other than special roles on the Discord server for placing in the top 3. But I happened to have a spare copy of Raising the Bar in decent shape kicking around, so I’m offering it up to the winner.

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The Lambda Cup 2018 consisted of five mapping challenges, each with a different theme.

Entrants received points for each challenge they enter.

At the end of the event, the best 3 points totals from the challenges they entered were added together for each entrant. These totals decided who won the Grand Prizes.

Read to find out who took the top 3 prizes – and we announce a couple of special prizes!

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