Okay luffy, you want to rid ALL unfair advantages.
We ALL have to map same client version, all RME, all same walls, all same floors, same nature, same climate, same everything. Since some people prefer certain climates in the voting stage and therefore it is biased, under your logic. Whooo! No creativity
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Playing with ingame and light effects is creative mapping. So you are telling me that mixing lights to provide an atmosphere of your map. I.e. you want it dark and mysterious so you may use red lighting with a possible mix with purple or blue in some areas, is not creative? pfft.
#3 without ingames will still look pretty good via the structure, the detail etc. HOWEVER, i agree it probably wouldn't win like that. And #2 doesn't seem to have any ingame effects anyway. I can even see crystals hidden behind the snake head which shows there was an intention to but he didn't. Therefore #2 would look the same.
If the was no issue with setting up servers, then i am 90% sure the rules would state "INGAME ONLY". The only reason why it's not now is because of the hassle and effort needed to setup a server.
I understand you want to be judged fairly. Since people favour ingame (since as you said:- light effects mask and improve pieces greatly)
but choosing different climates, different styles are "unfair", there is no "league" within contestants. Surely it is unfair to place an intermediate mapper with you experienced ones? So you literally have no grounds on the equality argument.
You're not wrong. It isn't necessarily fair. But there is no need to have only map editor pictures. Scarlet gave you the choice. You had a month. You could of learnt how and setup a server within that time.