As you can undoubtedly infer from the banner above, it is in fact that time of the year again. Time to celebrate our craft, and show our gratitude for the countless individuals who throw down seemingly endless hours in attempts to perfect a map for all of us to enjoy. Time to crown some new kings of forge, and time to remember the legends of yore.
For those who aren’t completely familiar, the Best of Forge is a bi-annual celebration of forge, in which you, the community, have the opportunity to let your voice be heard and vote for your favorite maps from the past six months. Think your map has what it takes? Were it so easy.
Today marks the start of preliminary voting, where members will nominate maps in each of the fourteen categories, ranging from MLG to Infection and everything in between. The Best of Forge is undergoing some minor changes this time around, so pay close attention to the rules detailed below. If you don’t, well the staff will be forced to unleash a wild Shad0w on you, and that is something that you. will. regret.
Basic Guidelines
The map you nominate or vote for cannot be your own.
The map must have been posted on ForgeHub.com
The map has to have been made between January 14th, 2009 and July 11th, 2009.
All votes and nominations must be serious. If the map you submit is a joke, it will be discarded and ignored. Infractions may follow.
You may only vote for each category once. If you send anything other than a vote to one of the dummy accounts, an infraction may follow.
Please be advised that anyone found creating duplicate accounts in order to spam votes will be furiously permabanned. The staff is watching. Don't do it!
Map Category Eligibility
Restrictions have now been placed on which maps are eligible for certain categories. Last time around there was some confusion about distinctions such as casual and mini-game, leading to maps being entered in multiple categories and even appearing in categories to which they clearly don't belong. On this basis, maps are now only eligible to be entered in the category under which they are posted on the forums. For example, if a map was posted in the Casual Maps section then it is ineligible for entry in to the Best Mini-Game map, Best Race Map, or any other gametype specific category that your keen imagination could conjure up. Best Objective and Best Slayer, categories which don't have their own specific map forums on Forge Hub, must stem forth from the Competitive section. A key aspect of this decision was, as stated above, that many maps were entered in to multiple categories during the last BoF, thereby splitting the map's votes and hurting it's chances of winning in any category
Staff Override
Lastly, the Staff now reserves the right to veto a map in any particular category. For instance, if a remake miraculously garners enough votes to move on in the Best Original category, the Staff will pass on it, and go with a more appropriate choice for the category. This is just a precautionary measure, and most likely will not come into play. But in some extreme circumstances, it is possible to see the staff make a change that isn’t a direct reflection of the actual vote count.
Voting
In previous Best of Forge competitions, nominations were made via a post in a thread for each category. This led to some members immediately jumping on the bandwagon and going with the first thing they saw, which was usually whatever map was posted first in the thread. Now, the Staff has set up a dummy account for each category that will receive nominations via PM. This way, nominations are kept completely private and members are forced to give more time and effort into each vote. The staff wants to encourage you to take your time with your nominations, revisit some old maps you enjoyed, and please browse through the map sections for a few days before casting your votes.
To vote, click one of the below icons which will allow you to PM that category's dummy account with your nomination.
You must provide a link to the map's ForgeHub thread for each nomination.
Nothing more than the name of the map and the link is required in each PM.
Best of Forge [Spring/Summer 2009] Categories
http://www.forgehub.com/forum/private.php?do=newpm&u=37730
Voting for each category may be done by clicking each respective icon. Remember to take your time, hubbers. May the best maps win!