Detailed Rules
Please note that rules may differ slightly between rounds. To learn the details of the current round, see the “Season” page.
Seasons
The XSTC is a bi-weekly contest. It proceeds in rounds, or seasons as they’re more commonly refered to, of two weeks each. The first week of each season is called the “Submission Week“. During this week you may submit a track to the contest. The second week is called the “Judging Week“, during which all participating tracks are judged as explained on the “Groups & Judging” page.
When a season ends, a new one starts. You can consider this as the contest starting over again.
On a more detailed level, a season is divided as follows:
- Entire first week - Tracks are accepted
- Second week, day 1-3 (Monday-Wednesday) - Scanning (judging process part 1)
- Second Week, day 4-6 (Thursday-Saturday) - Actual Judging (judging process part 2)
- Second Week, day 7 (Sunday) - Results are published
Please note that this schedule may differ slightly from season to season, as some months are longer than others, and we don’t want a season to span over month borders.
To learn how to submit tracks (point 1), see the “Join” page.
Groups
The XSTC is split into three separate groups based on environment. Each group will have a unique winner (the best track of each group), but at the end of each season there’s also a combined winner (the best track of all groups). The groups in question are:
- ORIGINAL - All tracks made in the environments from TrackMania Original (Desert, Rally & Alpine)
- SUNRISE - All tracks made in the environments from TrackMania Sunrise (Island, Bay & Coast)
- NATIONS - All tracks made in the environment from TrackMania Nations (Stadium)
Please make sure not to confuse the fact that these groups are simply a division of the seven environments available in TrackMania United. The groups are not a division of the original games - the contest is for United only!
Judging
The judging process, taking part in the second week of a season, is split into two stages: Scanning and Actual Judging. Each of these two stages are carried out separated from each group (for example, tracks in the Nations Group are not compared to tracks in the Original Group).
1. Scanning process
During the scanning process, tracks are sorted through roughly, eliminating the less good tracks straight away. The aim is not to have too many tracks in each group, giving the judges in the following stage more time to focus on each track individually.
2. Actual judging
During the “actual judging” stage, three judges per group, to be announced at the start of each season, judge the remaining tracks on the following aspects, giving each aspect a number of points:
- DESIGN (max 25 points) - Overall execution and style of the track
- INNOVATION (max 25 points) - Original and innovative features of the track
- LOOK (max 20 points) - MT work, scenery, etc.
- ENTERTAINMENT (max 20 points) - How fun the track is to play
During the actual judging process, the judges also vote for their favorite overall track (all groups combined). They must come to an agreement on which track should be announced the overall winner of the season.
Interested in being a judge? Use the contact page to apply.
