Welcome to the ManiaExchange Monthly Track Contest (MTC), July/August 2013, hosted by MX. I will be your host for this month

In the MTC, your task is to build a track on a given theme (see below). Later on, all of the entered tracks will be rated by our judges and a winner will be found.

The Details

Let's have a look at the details of the contest:

Theme of the Month: Acrobatics:
Build a track where, during the race, the car performs "acrobacy". It is up to you to define what that means. Originality is the key!

Deadline: Sunday, August 18th, 23:59:59 GMT

Prize:

Honour and the right to brag! (Jozii used to say that )
Top 3 tracks will be featured in the News section, getting extra spotlight.

The rules:

You can build in on any Trackmania2 environment (Stadium, Canyon and Valley)!
The author time should not exceed 2 minutes; but we are not imposing this as a strict rule. Generally, if there's too much spacing between the acrobatic elements, you will be receive reduced score for the Theme. Try to set a certain rhythm to your track ("Acrobatics - Connecting road - Acrobatics - Connecting road ...") and keep it nicely flowing.

Blockmixing is allowed, however there will be a 2 point "fee" deducted from the DESIGN category if your track uses blockmixing. Please state clearly in your track description that your track is blockmixed. Also: If your track REQUIRES Unlimiter to be installed on player's computer, it will be rejected!
Attention! If your map uses some sort of custom object / custom block, it is your responsibility to make absolutely sure it works "as is" after downloading the map file. Judges are not required to download anything else besides the track file (in fact, they get all the tracks in one package -- if anything is missing, too bad!).

Include the sequence of letters "MTC" somewhere in the track name so that it can be easily discovered on mania-exchange.com.

The track must have been uploaded to the exchange before August 19th 2013 00:00 GMT.

Important: To enter a track, simply upload it and post a link to your submission in this thread.

The Judging System (Attention! Change in point limits!):

Confirmed judges:
volunteers welcome!

A number of judges will rate the tracks on the following topics:

Design – Layout, respawnability of checkpoints, learning curve, scenery, the general "feel" of the track. -2 if you use blockmixing. Max 15 points/judge
- I am adding "Learning curve" to this section: Ideally, a player who never raced the track should be able to get further and further in your track with each try, or become better and better with each run. Try to avoid building sections which are show-stoppers for less skilled players.
- As a general rule of thumb, the faster a player goes through the track, the harder it should get, not the other way round.

Creativity – The creativity of the track itself and the realization of the monthly theme. This is where the THEME is judged. Max. 15 points/judge

Fun Factor – Sometimes a track can be poor in every way, but still extremely fun to drive. Depending on how fun the judges find your track, a few extra points can be given. Max 10 points/judge

Regarding the final results, the lowest and highest score of each track will be deleted and the average of the "medium scores" decides - if the number of judges is at least 5.

We need reliable and committed judges, so if you want to volunteer as a judge, please send a PM to Alcator!

Good luck! If you have any questions, please ask away

The theme definitely seems to be very interesting this time around, really tests how far you can fling your car around with decent enough accuracy flowyness.. this will be a very interesting competition with the arrival of Valley so soon also! best of luck to everyone over these next 1 and a half months

There was quite a bit of discussion regarding the topic. After giving it some thought, I realized that it is, ultimately, the players/builders/participants who should define the competition, so I've changed the topic to a simple "Make an acrobatical track".

I've removed majority of the posts in the thread, I apologize to those who posted them, but this way, it will be less confusing to new readers.

Thank you, gentlemen, hope you accept this.

thanks for not being stubborn pretty awesome theme now.

Alcator says:
You can build in on any Trackmania environment that allows loops, wallrides and jumps/drops!

Does that mean TMUF environments too?

Alcator says:
There was quite a bit of discussion regarding the topic. After giving it some thought, I realized that it is, ultimately, the players/builders/participants who should define the competition, so I've changed the topic to a simple "Make an acrobatical track".

I've removed majority of the posts in the thread, I apologize to those who posted them, but this way, it will be less confusing to new readers.

Thank you, gentlemen, hope you accept this.

that makes the whole theme more interesting
I'll wait until Valley comes out and then try to do something with it

FT»Mandark says:

Alcator says:
You can build in on any Trackmania environment that allows loops, wallrides and jumps/drops!

Does that mean TMUF environments too?

This is the ... wait for it ... ManiaPlanet exchange. TMUF is a different game. Only platforms which are part of the trackmania section of ManiaPlanet are allowed. Currently it means Stadium and Canyon, starting July 4th, this also means Valley.

The condition of loops, wallrides and jumps/drops is void and will be removed, it is a remnant of the old version of the theme.

Ah, that confused me a little because you said "any Trackmania environment" and not "any Trackmania 2 environment"

If all else fails could I enter a full PF map into the contest? I'll definitely try to make an actually racing map, but I was just wondering if a PF would even be acceptable.

Usually the absence of a certain rule means it is allowed. aka I think you are allowed to submit a PF map.
However, if I were to be a judge it would be a really good pf in order to score high. Submitting a PF for this theme is slightly like cheating the challenge as a PF is just about driving straight and thus all the stunts would work perfectly. And the challenge is to create cool stunts on a race track