Arctic VR, a community network built around Pavlov VR, is hosting a Pavlov Map-Making Event with over $4,000 in prizes.

“The objective of this event is to get more people into mapmaking and give the community some awesome maps to play,” states MessiahPenguin, an active Pavlov player who founded Arctic VR in March 2018.

“I tried Pavlov when I first got into VR,” says MessiahPenguin. He didn’t actually become involved with the game, however, until he saw a YouTube video that offers a great overview of the game. Created by Crowbcat, the video now has nearly 4 million views.

Like Crowbcat, many reviewers have compared Pavlov to Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. For fans of CS:GO who always wanted to be even more immersed in that chart-topping first-person shooter, Pavlov VR is a dream come true since it’s basically CS:GO in virtual reality.

Davevillz’ Pavlov VR currently has over 10,000 reviews on Steam with an overall impression of “very positive” and an average of nearly 700 players according to Steam charts. While that might not seem like much compared to CS:GO’s 500,000+ average players, the numbers for Pavlov are impressive considering the fact that VR is still an emerging area of esports and Pavlov has one of the highest number of average players of any VR game.

Pavlov’s chief competition in the world of VR first-person shooters is Onward, which was also designed from the ground up for virtual reality by a one-man team. Both games are featured in the VR Master League (VRML), a community-driven platform that offers players an opportunity for players to be involved in decisions that affect the games’ competitive scenes.

MessiahPenguin began playing Pavlov during VRML season 3, when there were only 104 players. Although he tried to join a couple of teams, when those didn’t work out, he created his own and it snowballed into Arctic VR. The community network now has four teams and they regularly host community events such as the map-making contest. Pavlov’s presence in the VR Master League has also grown overall and there are currently 384 players signed up for season six, which is entering week 8.

Map-making has been a tradition in Pavlov VR since the game was released in February 2017 and there are now over 1,000 custom-made maps on the Pavlov VR Wiki page. Since the community enjoys contributing to the game in this way, MessiahPenguin wanted to reward their efforts.

“This is the first time that community mapmakers for Pavlov have had a direct monetary incentive,” he states, “and I think it will bring out some talent not seen before.”

“The winning map will have a guaranteed spot in the captain’s vote next season and I think it is very likely to be part of the map pool for next season.”

Scoring

The top five finalists will be chosen based on a 100 point scale with the following criteria.

30 points: Balance (good search & destroy map; not counter-terrorist / terrorist sided)

Balance (good search & destroy map; not counter-terrorist / terrorist sided) 30 points: Overall Polish (bug-free maps; maps which run smoothly; other determinations related to quality)

Overall Polish (bug-free maps; maps which run smoothly; other determinations related to quality) 20 points: Originality (map is unique)

Originality (map is unique) 20 points:Visual Presentation (aesthetically pleasing; sophistication of map)

Prizes

The Pavlov Map-Making Event is offering a large prize pool, including a couple of fantastic products from AMD that are being offered by Pavlov VR creator Dave. The current prize pool includes:

Bragging Rights

A guaranteed Spot in the VMRL map pool vote for next season

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

$50 (courtesy of Needbail)

$20 Steam Gift card

Bunch of Steam Games (courtesy of Adil3tr)

One Month Humble Bundle Games (courtesy of HauntedToaster)

How to Enter

The contest is free and open for anyone to enter. Playable maps must be entered in the competition by midnight May 31, 2020. To submit a map, you will need to join the Arctic VR Discord and fill out this google form.

For additional rules or information, contestants should refer to the Arctic VR map-making page.