There have been mapping tournaments in the past. These go way back and I personally both participated in those tournaments, and hosted others. As a few examples:
I think all of these tournaments represented a win-win scenario. It created content that the community have enjoyed for years, and can enjoy for years to come. Knowledge was shared, and even extensively documented. Take for example the Advanced guides.
The last two tournaments were funded by me personally. The tournaments of Biass were funded by other individuals. No mapping tournament received official funding so far. The tournaments I hosted were an experiment. There was no prize money, instead participants could win a license to software. In particular they could win a license to Gaea or World Machine .
I've discussed in private with Balthazar whether the creative team has the capacity and motivation to host seasonal mapping tournaments. One tournament each quarter. Balthazar said such capacity is available. That means all we need to get this off the ground is an official budget. And that happens to be what we are here for!
I assume in this topic that we're all in favor of such tournaments.
After some quick brainstorming together with Balthazar we think a budget of $1200 would be sufficient. This allows the following rewards:
This provides sufficient flexibility for the creative team. Other software suites are possible too, as long as a license is perpetual and not recurring.
Other rewards may include, but is of course not limited to: