Banner by   Keissla.wp

Welcome to the Monthly Track Contest (MTC) for January 2024!
The MTC is a track building contest hosted by TrackmaniaExchange which challenges you to build a map with a specific theme. Later, all the tracks are rated and a winner is found.
There are no prerequisites or qualification requirements to enter; just read the theme below, hop in your editor, and submit a track before the deadline!

It's a new year, which means a new chance to make new resolutions. If you want to succeed in keeping them, though, you'll need a fair bit of resolve. How about we practice that with some challenge focused trial maps?

Theme: New Year's Resolve

• Make a map in the "trial" style
  
• Trial maps are characterized by having challenging segments rather than a flowy route, which means it's more about slowly finishing the map than getting a good time. If you're not sure how that feels, give a few trial maps a try!

General Rules

• One entry is allowed per user. Multi-author maps count as the single entry for all authors involved
  
• "MTC" must be present in the track name as it appears on TMX. Example: "mtc trial by fire" or "Precision Jumps Work! (mtc)"
  
• All entries must be built using the latest version of the game
  
• All entries must be built specifically for this MTC
  
• Blockmixing, Offgrid mapping, and Embedded Items are allowed
  
• Texture mods are allowed
  
• Royal tracks are not allowed

If you have any questions or would like to contest a rule, feel free to ask!

Submitting and Deadline

• Submit your course to the MTC mappack before the deadline below
  
• Submissions may be freely updated within the submission period
  
• The earliest deadline for submissions is the end of February 2nd. Submissions will continue to be accepted until I officially announce closure in this thread, which will likely occur the following EST morning
  
• Everyone will have 24 hours after submissions close to make any last minute edits to their submissions
  
• After this, you may not make any more updates until after the results are published

Prizes

• Honour and the right to brag! (Jozii used to say that. I wasn't around then, but maybe some of you still remember him? )
  
• The winning track will be featured on the TrackmaniaExchange front page!

Judging

• For judging, we will be using a public voting system
  
• A server will be opened for about a week that anyone can play the MTC maps on
  
• Anyone can vote by using the server's karma system
  
• More details on this will be provided in this thread once voting opens

Good luck! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread or in Discord! Now then, get to building!

Submissions are officially closed! You've still got 24 hours for any final edits if you've submitted a map. Otherwise, voting should start within a week, so keep an eye out for that!

So I missed my estimation by about a week, but other than that voting is ready to go! There's 5 trial maps to challenge this month.

Here's how to vote:

• Go to the "MTC" room found in the TM Exchange club
  
• When you're on a map, send one of these vote messages into chat to vote:
  • -- = 1 point (bad)
    
  • - = 2 points
    
  • +- = 3 points
    
  • + = 4 points
    
  • ++ = 5 points (good)
• If you need to change your vote on a map, just send your new vote in chat. Only the most recent vote on each map is recorded
  
• The map with the highest average rating wins!
  
• Everyone can vote! If you made a map, your vote on your own map WILL be counted (feel free to give it a ++ !)
  
• You do not need to finish a map to vote on it, but please give it your best effort!
  
• You must vote on at least half of the maps for your votes to count
  
• If you liked a map, please leave it an award
  
• If you have any feedback, please leave a comment on the map's page
  
• The jukebox and voting are enabled, so feel free to request, extend, and skip maps

The voting period will last for at least one week, after which I will tally all the votes and our final results will be posted!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Otherwise, start driving and get voting!

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Their map was out of this world; tag6661 gets first!

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With a tough trial map that'll test even the best, Vst²m takes second!

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Sternutatoire slides up next, tying second place and taking silver as well!

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With only two voters (big thanks to Ta__Da, the voter who wasn't me!), I'm not surprised to see a tie in the podium. Trial maps are more niche than other syles, and there were some hard ones this month! Still, I hope the changeup in style was an interesting challenge to build for.

Congratulations to our winners!

Here's the link to the full results sheet.

Thanks to all the builders and voters who participated in the contest!

In other news, the Rally car just got released, and the March MTC theme is simply to make a map with it! The build period's practically just started, so you have plenty of time to make a map. If you're looking to drive, the voting period for the February MTC will be starting within the week.

Thanks again, and see you next time!