Welcome back! We're pleased to announce the winners of our recent Husky Raid Forge Contest today! The artistic achievements of this community never fail to impress us as they constantly raise the bar with their expert level of craftsmanship and creativity. We'd like to give a huge thanks to both Blaze and Randy from 343's Multiplayer Sustain Team for making this collaboration possible! We look forward to the possibility of them taking your creations and implementing them into matchmaking in the future. Last but not least, thanks to all participants for being a proactive component of this multi-faceted Halo community and spending the time to make a positive impact.

With nearly 100 submissions from all of you, we're grateful for receiving more maps than expected. We're always excited when it comes time to review maps because the community never fails to show us something new each time; reminding us how amazing this craft can be.

While the judges commonly shared perspectives on many aspects during the evaluation process, we also had some varying opinions due to the amount of visually diverse submissions. Here are some of our personal favorite maps that didn't make it into the final round that we felt compelled to mention for doing something exceptionally well.

We boiled down our favorite maps into a top 10 list, cross-compared perspectives, and voted for what ultimately became our list of top maps for the contest. The level of creativity and craftsmanship required to create some of these environments was truly inspirational. Thankfully forgers were able to work without the overbearing constraints decorating complex layouts. Historically, this is the most ambitious effort Husky Raid has ever received and we look forward to providing the same level of support to other community created modes in the future. Without further adieu, here are the top placing maps from the contest!

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Omission by TempFireFox takes us on a trip through memory lane by pulling inspiration from Cairo Station, a fan favorite campaign mission from Halo 2. The theme is faithfully executed using a sense of minimalism that provides each piece with a sense of purpose when detailing its areas. Certified Champ provides us with one of the most unique settings with his submission of Swamp Fever. Our immersion in the space is thoughtfully maintained by combining a wide range of atmospheric forge effects and visual cues such as water, fog density, buzzing insects, torch lighting and a multitude of overlapping sound effects. Meticulously constructed wooden huts overhang the central trench to visually offset the dominance of natural elements below. Both of these maps display an expert level of craftsmanship and transport us to some truly unique spaces, so make sure to check them out!
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m808b Production is set in a UNSC scorpion factory and provides us with one of the most meticulously crafted and detail-rich human environments in the contest. The abundance of metal framing, pipes and other accents help set the tone to make a convincingly gritty industrial atmosphere. The central hallway is one of the map's most defining characteristics featuring scripted doors that screech like nails on a chalkboard as they grind their way open, reminding players of the imminent danger ahead. The exterior views are just as impressive as the interior areas of the map as tanks are seen moving along an assembly production line with mechanical arms soldered together machine parts.

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Dominus takes place on an imperial star destroyer engaged in active combat against distant rebel ships. HairyMcclairy gives us one of the most skillfully crafted themes. The interior hallways of the spaceship display clean and precise object usage with well-defined structures that articulate the space in all the right places. A sense of geometric cohesiveness is imbued on the space as triangular windows, angular doorways and other structural assets complement each other nicely. An epic space battle can be seen outside of these triangular windows as live turrets are scripted to fire across to distant ships. For an experience that is truly out of this world, we highly recommend this map and congratulate the author for creating one of the best experiences in the contest!

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Traverse is set on a forerunner structure overlooking a large valley with spires and outposts decorating the horizon, creating one of the strongest themed maps in the contest. The architectural elements are carefully placed in a way that balances both interior and exterior spaces evenly with the skybox art being one of the most defining characteristics of the map. Unsorted Gaming took inspiration from Halo Infinite's engine demo trailer to compose the artistic direction for the overall shape of the natural landscape. The stylization of the forerunner geometry retains a sense of minimalism that harkens back to classic styles as well. We loved so many submissions from the contest but ultimately felt this map delivered the best overall package that made it rise to the top. We look forward to what Unsorted creates in the future!​

We congratulate all of the winners for their remarkable achievements and thank all the forgers who participated collectively provided us with nearly 100 submissions! Considering our first Halo 5 forge contest was hosted 3 years ago received 145 submissions, I'd say our community remains strong despite the overall tapering population. We'll do our best to keep this going and host more forge contests in the future, so keep up the pace! If you have any thoughts on what you would like to see for our next contest please reach out to our staff or make suggestions in our general threads, we're always watching and would love to give our community what they want most. I'm also happy we were able to review and decide on so many maps within a timely manner. We'll do our best to keep judging and posting results within these relatively quick time frames. I think we'll be forging for quite some time before Halo Infinite releases, whether for contests, personal enjoyment or advanced preparation. Lets embark on these goals collectively to make them bigger and better, its the best aspect of our community. Forge on and we'll see you next time!