Here is an outline of a few things happening this month on Mania Exchange.

Mania Exchange Header Contest
Its been a while since we modified the banner at top of the site, and now that there is Stadium, and soon Valley, we thought now is a nice time to begin a contest to have some updated headers.
Here is the thread which explains how to submit
Thanks to Space for organising this for the site.

Knockouts
Knockouts take place each Saturday morning & evening. An online racing event where one player is knocked out of the contest each round. Next KO: 15th June 2013

Canyon KO1 Rounds - Start Time: 9:30 GMT
Canyon KO1 Rounds - Start time: 19:30 GMT

Please check your local time verses GMT to be on time.

Note: Maps still needed for Canyon pools
Get them in before Stadium building begins at the end of Stadium beta.

Monthly Track Contest
The MTC runs each month and involves building maps based on a set theme.
The theme for this months MTC is Dual Drive.
Read the detailed rules & how to participate

Results for last months MTC, The Offroad Monster, will be due soon.

SLIP5 building started
If you like building Stadium dirt maps, then the SPAM Team are waiting for your map submissions.
Dirt Mappers Needed
Deadline for submissions is 31/07/2013 midnight

Shootmania MMC
In SM, the Monthly Mapping Contest has a new theme for June, and the mode is TimeTrial.
Read the full rules
Results for last months Elite based MMC, will also be due soon.

Trackmania 1 still exists
That's right, and why not let your reason to revisit TM1 be the still running TMX KO & MTC events?
The United MTC theme is called 'Re-Uses'
The Nations Forever MTC theme is Pick 'Your Poison'

As well this, there is a TMU Knockout each Saturday at 21:30 GMT

Our Shootmania Exchange's very first Monthly Mapping Contest (MMC) has started today.

We invite you to read this thread for more information about this month's theme and rules.

The MMC will have its own dedicated server running to host the maps that are entered each month.

A little late news on the site finances. By the 1st Feb 2013 we paid for the MX / TMX server for another year! This is great news as we did it without needing to request new donations and support. So we would like to say thank you to everyone who supported the site during the past year, for making the next year possible.



Of course, in another year (actually its less than 11 months now), we will face the next payment, so if you ever thought of donating but did not, maybe now is the time.

Whether or not you can donate, please pay attention to the MX Supporters window on the front page and give these maps a try, it can be your 'thank you' to the people who supported the site.

I post this also as blog article for your comments

Video makers! Nadeo are running a video making contest for mania planet games, which is open until 25th March.

The categories
o TM² Stadium Open Beta = $400 Amazon Giftcard
o TM² Canyon = $400 Amazon Giftcard
o SM Storm = $400 Amazon Giftcard

The rules
o You must use the ManiaPlanet music
o You can only submit one video
o You can not use copyrighted material
o Format of video: 720p or 1080p, H264, .mp4, Stereo sound

Check the post made by Cerovan on the Maniaplanet forums : A videos contest on ManiaPlanet!

We need to just explain that Mania Exchange is for sharing your own creations with the community. Since the new Stadium arrived, some users have uploaded old stadium maps which are not their own work. Please only upload maps which you yourself have created and are the author of.

Thank you for respecting this rule.

Last night, your TM2 Canyon received a new blocks update via the ManiaPlanet client, and now TM2 Stadium is available to download and play!

Get the Open Beta from ManiaPlanet
http://www.maniaplanet.com/download




As we understand it, there will be a version which is free to access at release, while the full version will be €9.99 to buy.

"Hylis of Nadeo" says:
At the moment, the free access should be a station with time attack and a demo campaign. The paying version will have a full campaign, the official times, the custom modes, datas and other Maniaplanet services, including the planets and planets related services.

Theoretically, Mania Exchange should 'just work' with Stadium maps, without any (or very little) update, but this is not at all tested, so lets see

Edit: It works

Theme of the Month
Bi-Directional: Build a track with Multilap Start/Finish which splits soon* after start, forcing the player to choose one of at least 2 directions around it, and which finishes by entering the Multilap Start/Finish in reverse direction.

Deadline
Saturday, February 23rd 2013

http://tm.mania-exchange.com/s/ft/1777

All wrapped up inside the month, here are the results of the January MTC....

"[MTC] Rise and Fall by   Sayotoshi
"MTC-Nosedive by   Beatinfected
"Invasion (MTC) by   Mr.DVD

MTC Results Thread

Congratulations to the winnners and we look forward to seeing some of you at the next MTC

Welcome to the ManiaExchange Monthly Track Contest (MTC), January 2013, hosted by Alcator for MX.

Up and Down
For this months theme, build a track in which the car reaches the lowest and the highest buildable level during the race, at least one of them twice, with the other one in between. In other words, the track has to contain a climb from the bottom to the top, followed by a descent from the top to the bottom. Or a descent from top to the bottom, followed by a climb from bottom to the top.

Building Deadline : Saturday, January 19th 2013

Forum thread with full rules and instructions

Be sure to check the forum thread, or your track may be disqualifed, your statutory rights are not affected, this news may contain traces of nuts as it was posted by someone who is nuts!