Who says everything must be planned? Welcome to the Spontaneous Knockout

Starting
Tuesday 5th November : 20:30 GMT (21:30 CET)

We love Trackmania so much this month, that we thought it would be nice to run the occasional spontaneous knockout. The first is on Tuesday 5th November on TrackMania United in rounds!

Join the Usual TMU KO server before the designated time to take part!

Throughout November, the MX KO is celebrating the TM 10th Anniversary with special events every weekend! Which will mean something different from usual!

But that's not all, check out the full schedule bellow for a fun filled TrackMania Saturday!
A combination of MX Knockouts, SmurfsCup, and TMX Knockout...

o 1st MX Knockout, at 10:30 CET (09:30 GMT)
o SmurfsCup, at 20:00 CET (19:00 GMT)
o 2nd MX Knockout, at 21:30 CET (20:30 GMT)
o United TMX Knockout, at 23:30 CET (22:30 GMT)

The SmurfsCup will be driven in rounds on 7 tracks on the Smurfen.net TM2 server, which is located in the Netherlands, Noord-Brabant, and starts each saturday in November at 20:00 CET (19:00 GMT). No registration, just turn up and play.

Next Knockout Environments - (2nd November)
Canyon - Special Surprise - 9:30 GMT
Valley - Its a secret - 20:30 GMT

The Knockout Servers are located under 'United Kingdom'. If you don't find them during the week, don't worry, we sometimes don't start them until the hours before the event. Just turn up to play.

Note the 20:30 GMT new start time for the 2nd KO
(UK Time currently = GMT, CET Time currently = GMT+1)
Check your own local times against London GMT

Right about now, Trackmania is 10 Years Old!, which means its 10 years since the first TrackMania game. In recognition of this, Nadeo are running a series of Creative Competitions!.

Contest Links
Car Creation Contest
Video Creation Contest
Track Creation Contest

MX Forum Link:
http://tm.mania-exchange.com/threads/view/2269

Uploading entries to Mania Exchange
For the track creation contest, we made a site update..... track groups! If you upload your track entry to ManiaExchange using our Special TM 10th Anniversary Upload Link, then the map will still be listed under your own account, but all maps uploaded via that link are attached to the group as well, making your entry easy for everyone else to find...

Track Group Listing: Special TM 10th Anniversary Tracks List Link

Please check the offical rules Nadeo have provided in their own posts for the full details, but here is a summary of the track building rules

Hard Rules
o Players may only use TrackMania2 Stadium.
o First 10-15 seconds as PF that leads into a jump.
o Use a [10th] tag in the map title
o No custom signs, graphics, music, mods
o Upload your map to Steam (cough!) or ManiaExchange (click!)
o Post a link to your upload here: Link Submission Page

Uploading to MX
Use our special TM 10th Anniversary upload link

Soft Rules
o 3-5 second intro is encouraged (longer not encouraged)
o Copper Cost: Please try to not exceed 5000.

Building Advise
Build so a beginner can drive the track. The track length should be 40-50 Seconds. Players should be able to complete the track in one attempt. No section should require “perfection” in driving or speed... (if you can think back so far, think about StarTrack). Respwans should work.

Nadeo Deadlines
◾November 24th: Submission Deadline for Tracks. .
◾November 29th: 20 Semi-Finalists Announced, Community Voting Starts.
◾December 6th: Deadline for Community Voting, Finalists Announced
◾December 14th: 10th Anniversary LAN Event, Car Contest Results [Top 3]



Note: The earlier 60 participant limit has been relaxed

Next events: 19th Oct 2013

Canyon - KO1 Rounds - 9:30 GMT
Canyon - KO4 TimeAttack - 19:30 GMT
Be sure to know your own time zone relative to GMT

What is Knockout?
Its a friendly online competition, where you join our server to play. All you have to do is be on the server before the starting time of the competition and you can play. The way it works is that after every round, the last placed driver is eliminated (the script forces the player to be a spectator). This happens each round until there is 1 winner. (Search for Knockout or MX to find the server)

And don't forget, at 21:30 GMT on the same day, TMUnited do their weekly KO event.

Dear players and builders, allow me to share with you the results of recent MTC rounds. For each month, you can see the top 3 tracks, and a track that the winner would like to recommend for your consideration -- Given that the winners are awesome track builders, if they recommend something, it's surely worth playing, so give it a try!

MTC June 2013

1. place "MTC - Binary (ft. sho0ta) by   Marius 89
2. place "MTC.Soberize by   adsun
3. place "[MTC] Entwine by   Snake55wildcat

Winner's recommendations: "[MTC] Cutted! by   Marius 89 and "TFET2 - Stamina by   sho0ta

MTC Summer 2013

"[PF] ///ADRENAL!NE (MTC) by   Zack11
"Get down and guess what (MTC) by   mgafMUAT
"MTC Tubular Hell by   Arsebiscuits and "mtc - jetlag. by   unholy79

Winner's recommendation: "Time C r U n c H by   Zack11


MTC October 2013 is in progress, with the theme: Verticality. Join now!

Next events: 5th Oct 2013

Canyon - KO3 Rounds - 9:30 GMT
Valley - KO2 TimeAttack - 19:30 GMT
Be sure to know your own time zone relative to GMT

What is Knockout?
Its a friendly online competition, where you join our server to play. All you have to do is be on the server before the starting time of the competition and you can play. The way it works is that after every round, the last placed driver is eliminated (the script forces the player to be a spectator). This happens each round until there is 1 winner.

The aim for most drivers becomes just not to be last placed.

And don't forget, at 21:30 GMT on the same day, hop on back over to TMUnited for their weekly event.

Knockouts
Next KO: Saturday 28th Sep 2013

Valley KO2 TimeAttack - Start Time: 9:30 GMT
Stadium KO1 Rounds - Start time: 19:30 GMT

Please cause Mikey more work by uploading your new KO maps!
Full details on how to submit maps are in Mikey's thread on the forum (first post)


Updated MX Windows
As you may have noticed, all of the front page track listings now have environment filters at the top right hand corner, letting you quickly see more tracks per environment in that window. If you don't see these, or the updater seems frozen, use Ctrl & F5 to refresh your browser.


PlayPal Online
Its still alive!, showcase your new track to other users by adding it as your PPO selection and then joining the PPO server to start building your karma value as you play other users own choices.

PPO Valley
PPO Stadium
PPO Canyon

Don't forget to return to MX to award the maps you like while you play.
The PPO page lists the ones you have just played for you!


Monthly Track Contest
This months theme is a curious one, its called Secrets : Your task is to build a track in which the player is prompted to discover something secret.

Read more about this months MTC in this post

Alcator says:
Deadline: Sunday, September 29th 30th 2013, 23:59:59 Pacific Time

I've no idea what that means either, roughly translated I'd guess the deadline is somewhere near the end of September this year!


The Return of the MSC!
The Monthly Screenshot Contest is back with an old theme that we truly loved - advertisements! And that's not all, we have an official copy of Valley to give away to the winner, so long as at least 15 people participate in the contest.

Read more about the MSC here!


Mania Exchange on Facebook!
We are finally trying to increase our profile at popular social media outlets. To begin with, please check out www.facebook.com/mxtrackmania... Those familiar with facebook will know what to do there I'm sure!


ESL Canyon Premiership
Your maps are needed for the first premiership for Canyon: ECP1
Read more about it here
The submission deadline here is 21st Sept


TM Interviews
Its been a great August for TM Interviews, if you missed them, check these out....

Interview with GanjaRider
Interview with Marius 89

I've no Idea if Wormi has more planned, but lets hope for more!


Finally - TMU still exists!
After the 2nd Knockout on a Saturday, don't forget there is invariably a TMU Knockout taking place at 21:30 GMT! - Why not make this your weekly return to Trackmania United!

I'm happy to announce that the Monthly Screenshot Contest is back with an old theme that we truly loved - advertisements! And that's not all: we have an official copy of Valley for the winner if at least 15 people participate!!

Hop in the thread and amaze us!

Please take a look at the new BOTW window on the front page...

Do you like it?

Let us know: http://tm.mania-exchange.com/threads/view/2200

This means that the '1 track per author' rule applies to each individual environment view, as well as the usual view, so you can have a track for Canyon, Valley and Stadium, all at the same time!