Another year gone, another round of JCS awards! Now's your chance to honor the best JJ2 creations of the past 365 days!

You must read the rules before voting. They are as follows:

1) In the past you were only allowed to vote for one nomination per category. However, in order to allow more levels to get the chance to be appreciated this time around, you are now also allowed, but not obligated to vote for your second and third choices, which respectively have x0.5 and x0.25 the weighting of your main vote. You do not have to vote in every category if you wish not to do so.

2) You are not limited to voting within the nominations, but you are advised to at least check these levels if you haven't already, in order to make your vote fair. Also, unreleased/unfinished levels cannot be voted for; they must be available for public download.

3) Votes are to be kept private until announcement of the overall results. This is to raise the tension, and also to prevent bandwagoning. In order to vote, post your votes here and then delete the post after you have submitted it, and a moderator will undelete it after the deadline. Alternatively, if you prefer, you can submit them using the following Google Form, or you are allowed to PM them to Stijn, but bare in mind that your choices will be announced in public once the voting stage is over. Any votes left public will be forcibly deleted by moderation, and your vote may not count. If you vote using the Google Form, you must confirm with me by sending me a PM or replying to this thread to confirm that you have submitted your votes, else they will be null and void during the final count. This is to prevent people from claiming to be someone else when voting.

4) Voting closes on 23rd February at 23:59 GMT+1. Votes made promptly after this deadline may still be counted but as soon as a moderator undeletes the posts, any subsequent votes will be ignored.

The nominees are:

Best Battle:
A Cloudy Day - Dragusela
Bad LSD Trip - Loon
Cold Beers Beach - Slaz
ELEKTREK SPACE ROTATED SQUARE - Smoke
Freeport - Loon
Lake Party - Dragusela
Snow Highlands - Dragusela
The Pillar - Dragusela

Best CTF:
Ancient Hall of Wisdom - Slaz
Blast Concussion - Violet CLM
Central Park - Loon
Distant Plateau - Dragusela
Land of The Sn00zE - Superjazz
Scarlet Weald - PurpleJazz
Starry Night - Dragusela
Tubolation - FawFul
Winter Wish - Blackrose

Best Single Player:
Burrowsville? - Slaz
Day/Night cycle at Diamondus - Spyro
Easter The 9th - Slaz
Entrance - Spyro
Jingle Jumble - Primpy
Mini Boss Rush - Violet CLM
Shaddow Game - Miky Roby
The Mad Eva Boss - Miky Roby
The Town Pack - Slaz
Threed Realms - Violet CLM
Titanic Sinked Ship - Miky Roby

Best Eyecandy:
A Cloudy Day - Dragusela
Ancient Hall of Wisdom - Slaz
Bad LSD Trip - Loon
Blast Concussion - Violet CLM
Burrowsville? - Slaz
Central Park - Loon
Cold Beers Beach - Slaz
Day/Night cycle at Diamondus - Spyro
Distant Plateau - Dragusela
Easter The 9th - Slaz
Entrance - Spyro
ELEKTREK SPACE ROTATED SQUARE - Smoke
Freeport - Loon
Jingle Jumble - Primpy
Lake Party - Dragusela
Land of The Sn00zE - Superjazz
Mini Boss Rush - Violet CLM
Scarlet Weald - PurpleJazz
Shaddow Game - Miky Roby
Snow Highlands - Dragusela
Starry Night - Dragusela
The Mad Eva Boss - Miky Roby
The Pillar - Dragusela
The Town Pack - Slaz
Threed Realms - Violet CLM
Titanic Sinked Ship - Miky Roby
Tubolation - FawFul
Winter Wish - Blackrose

Note that you may vote for up to 5 choices in this category, with the weighting for your votes equalling x1, x0.5, x0.4, x0.3 and x0.2 respectively.

Best Mutator:
Condemned - Violet CLM
Custom HUD - Spaz Electro
Death Circle - Smoke
Gold Rush - Violet CLM
Minimap - minmay
Multiflag - Violet CLM
True Fur - Violet CLM

Best JCS'er:
Dragusela - A Cloudy Day, Distant Plateau, Lake Party, Snow Highlands, Starry Night, The Pillar
Loon - Bad LSD Trip, Central Park, Freeport
Miky Roby - Shaddow Game, The Mad Eva Boss, Titanic Sinked Ship
Slaz - Ancient Hall of Wisdom, Burrowsville?, Cold Beers Beach, Easter The 9th, The Town Pack
Spyro - Day/Night cycle at Diamondus, Entrance
Violet CLM - Blast Concussion, Mini Boss Rush, Threed Realms

Voted using the Google Form.

Voted with the form

Voted using the form

Voted using the form

Voted using the form.

Unfortunately due to prioritizing my own SP episode recently (which is very close to finish), I haven't had the time to play any of last year's SP uploads and thus I deemed that it would not be fair of me to cast my vote in any category that would involve SP. I'll try to take the time to enjoy the recent SP uploads after I'm done with my own. Cheers!

Also used the form.

The form just got used, again.

Voted using the form.

Voting is closed!
Stay tuned for the results.

Without further ado, the results of the JCS awards are here:

Best Battle Level of 2023

Freeport - Loon [5.75]
Bad LSD Trip - Loon [4.25]
Lake Party - Dragusela [2.75]

Runners up: Cold Beers Beach - Slaz [1.75], The Pillar - Dragusela [1.25]

Thank you for all of your votes! I certainly didn't expect to take the two top spots of the list. Freeport is heavily inspired by a cancelled game which I've played for hours, if not days. Bad LSD Trip was a bit of a funky project to combine certain tilesets. I owe credit to 'Pukahuna' for creating the background mountains. Well done to Dragusela for taking third place with Lake Party, which is created - and executed well - for the 'Secret Mimic Contest'.


Best CTF Level of 2023

Scarlet Weald - PurpleJazz [8.5]
Blast Concussion - Violet CLM [3.75]
Land of the Sn00zE - SuperJazz [1.75]

Runners up: Central Park - Loon [1], Tubolation - FawFul [1]

Scarlet Weald takes the grand prize for best CTF level, and by quite a huge margin. PurpleJazz has converted one of the many tilesets 'Szadi' has to offer and created a masterpiece. I certainly believe this would get hours of airtime during future JJ2MP matches, as it ticks off all the boxes. Well done to the the runners up! Blast Concussion sets a whole new standard for creating multiple parallax backgrounds in one level. The bombs are a nice touch to prevent you from standing still, it literally keeps you moving. Land of the Sn00zE also has stunning eyecandy and fantastic gameplay. Well done!


Best Single Player Release of 2023

Threed Realms - Violet CLM [5.75]
Jingle Jumble - Primpy [5]
Burrowsville? - Slaz [2.5]

Runner up: The Town Pack - Slaz [1.25]

Threed Realms has it all, custom enemies/bosses, an aircraft, bombs and stunning visuals. What more to say, other than it's superb! As the level was first intended for a community project that barely came of the ground I'm glad to see this got a standalone release as it would possibly overshadow the other levels. Primpy also delivered a high quality release with intriguing detail. Have you already found all the presents? Props to Slaz for delivering various single player uploads which are of a high standard aswell!


Best Eyecandy of 2023

Scarlet Weald - PurpleJazz [4.7]
Threed Realms - Violet CLM [4.3]
Blast Concussion - Violet CLM [2.3]

Runners up: Freeport - Loon [1.8], Tubolation - FawFul [1.7], Starry Night - Dragusela [1.4], Bad LSD Trip - Loon [1.3], Central Park - Loon [1.1]

This was possibly the hardest category to vote in, as all the nominated levels have their own unique eyecandy. Yet a winner has been declared! Scarlet Weald has proven to be a delight for the eyes, with nicely animated trees and distant swirling leaves. Threed Realms being a close runner up has gorgeous eyecandy aswell. Violet surely knows how to create a perfect blend between scripting and leveldesign. Blast Concussion also features some of the fine layer improvements MLLE has to offer, taking the final spot in the 'Best Eyecandy' category.


Best Mutator of 2023

Death Circle - Smoke [5.75]
Multiflag - Violet CLM [2.5]
True Fur - Violet CLM [1.75]
Condemned - Violet CLM [1.75]

Runners up: Custom HUD - Spaz Electro [1.5], Gold Rush - Violet CLM [0.75]

All of the nominees offer a different approach to gameplay. In this case Death Circle has taken the top spot as Best Mutator. Striking a perfect balance between frustration and fun, Smoke has created a mutator that is sure to be a popular choice for future events. Multiflag features a different approach to CTF, allowing more flags to be captured and to be dropped off. Communication and strategy is the key to success here. And that's not all Violet has created for us, taking a joint third place with 'True Fur' and 'Condemned'.


Best JCS'er of 2023

Loon [5.5]
Violet CLM [5]
Dragusela [4]

Runner up: Slaz [1.25]

I'm absolutely honoured to have received this many votes, and that for two years in a row. Thank you so much! Even though I believe Violet and Dragusela have created more noteworthy levels than I did, I'm glad to see them up on the podium with me. As the margins were quite small. Also a special shout out to Slaz for creating numerous of levels which earned him some praise.

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the voting and creating content for JJ2 in 2023. Let's hope for even a better year in 2024. See you all next year!

Here is a spreadsheet on how the voting went down.