^^^ Absolutely ... I could not have said it better myself ... that is why I know for a fact you were robbed in this contest. Your level is one of my fav new levels and its a crime that it didn't even make it to the top 10 while levels like Shiota are rewarded for being unplayable DM maps with little flow and no apparently little thought to item placement ... its an art project ... not a good DM map for the reasons you stated. It pains me to see this contest so flagrantly disregard their own rules and playability of the maps on average systems. If my system is struggling with some of these I can only imagine how other players are trying to play this.
Thanks, I'm happy to know that someone would have seen my map belonging to the top 10
The judging for this contest has been rather weird. It's their contest so they can pick who they want, but there have been lots of mappers who put lots of effort in their maps so a fair choice (considering that it's 3DBuzz, not some random website) would have been better.
For example I really wonder what's their definition of Average system. In the top 10 there are 5 maps that are optimized very badly in comparison to Retail maps: Citadel and Str8Control are completely unplayable, Shrift is very heavy while Calibrah and WhiteRealm could have used A LOT more optimization while they're still somwhow playable (Guys, the LOD settings have been added for a reason, it makes me cry seeing these maps lag a lot just because the authors kept all those water or snow effects also on Low Detail mode).
One might argue that the "Average system" definition is subjective. Then just take the retail UT 3 maps and check if the contest maps plays as well as those, simple.
I've nothing to argue about the visual quality or originality of the Top ten maps, but the other 3 judging factors (of which gameplay and performance are WAY more important than visuals and originality) have been skipped if you ask me. Now, since I'm in a whiny bitch mood, I'll tell my opinion about the top ten
Of the top ten, the only map that I enjoy playing and would want to keep in the rotation is Xenon. Good enough gameplay, good enough visuals, good performance.
Calibrah and WhiteRealm could be improved a lot in powerup placement and performance, but otherwise they're pretty good too.
SteamTemple could have been scaled down a bit and requires some more cover and connectivity (and removing the Invincibility from the Powerup machine cycle), but it's quite good too (and I was surprised of how well it ran on my machine with all those nice effects and moving stuff).
Shrift requires way better performance, more connectivity in the layout and generally a better attention for flow since it's not a real pleasure to play right now. Looks gorgeus, but the gameplay is rather boring.
Nimius is probably the most annoying map in the bunch, its layout is extremely confusing and looks like platforms scattered around randomly. LowGrav is hitscan-dominated enough even without forcing the players to jump around to follow the layout. There's also few cover. Between the platformy layout, the monotony in colors (sometimes it's pretty hard to see a platform between all that deco), the random window colors and the changing gravity this map seems to be thought to confuse players.
Citadel has a huge layout, in the bad sense unfortunately. For the most part gameplay consists in walking for hours trying to avoid snipers and trying to reach vehicles.
Str8Control is big, but it lags so much that I wasn't even able to play it properly on the lowest settings possible. At the normal settings on which I play the retail maps on this map literally freezes the game for several seconds when I turn the mouse around. For what I was able to see the layout isn't anything special, especially the flow could be improved. There are also too many powerups.
Shiota has a good atmosphere, but the layout is extremely simple and consists in long corridors. There's extremely few Z-Axis, the gameplay in this map is basically walking around in the huge corridors trying to find someone to shoot at.
Ebb has a boring gameplay too, huge walks and corridors but now with more sniping and open spaces. It also looks pretty bad.
Even judging basing on the quality of update posts, some of these maps had very few posts which basically consisted in pics of the map without explaining much. Some of those maps were already ready before entering the contest, so basically the mappers just deleted parts of the map to show how it was before.
Well, did I learn something from this contest? Yeah, fill the maps with visual details and you're OK.
Anyway I'm turning my update posts for the contest in a "tutorial" so my effort will not be wasted. Once I finished ordering them I will post it on my website. It will take a while, since there's more than 50000 characters spread on around 40 posts.