Seeing as this is only the first contest, pretty much anything goes. We need to see what works and what doesn't, and fix them for the next contest. We're already discussing rules for the next contest, as it'll be right around the corner. So right now, let's keep the .map files optional. If a lot of people include them, then we can make it required without making it too much of a hassle.
As to ViciouZ's post, the "Sign Up Deadline" was mainly so we had a general idea of how many people were participating. If we didn't have that, and no one bothered to post saying that they were entering, we'd have no clue how many entries we were going to recieve, if not any at all.
Sorry if this contest seemed completely unorganized. There have been a lot of problems and rule changing, but that'll be fixed for the coming contests.