@MASTER-88
I've pm'ed you my solution to "Level 19 Decimation".
It seems intended to me, but I first wanted your confirmation that it's not a backroute before posting it.

It took me an hour, but let's say a lot of people trained me for this particular type of solution and I got a nose for when to suspect it.

I wouldn't call it too precise as well! There are a few tight timings, but all in all it's still ok due to the level not being too long.
Great level! 
I my case it was very hard, but I've seen a lot worse as well. Difficulty is a bit of a perspective thing anyway.

The first voting round is open for 3 days in the respective voting topics:

Voting topic 1
Voting topic 2
Voting topic 3

The results will only show after the poll has been expired. 

Group 1

92Dexter11's "Prologue" (2 votes)
92Dexter11's "The Split" (2 votes)
Armani's "Rusty Ruin Zone" (4 votes)
GigaLem's "Palace of Ice" (1 vote)
Guigui's "So Many Spikes" (3 votes)
kaywhyn's "kaywhyn's Organic National Park" (5 votes)
kaywhyn's "We Got Mad Lemmings 3 Lab Skills!" (6 votes)

Group 2

92Dexter11's "Cursed Treasure" (1 vote)
92Dexter11's "Subjugation" (4 votes)
92Dexter11's "Unstable Egress" (2 votes)
GigaLem's "Lawful Neutral" (3 votes)
kaywhyn's "Quick Lab Rush" (6 votes)
IchoTolot's "Tower Of Sacrifice" (3 votes)
StokeApe's "Not To Scale" (1 vote)

Group 3

92Dexter11's "Diamond in the Rough" (1 vote)
92Dexter11's "Ring of Fire" (1 vote)
GigaLem's "Coyote Time" (2 votes)
kaywhyn's "Help Me, Help Dune" (5 votes)
kaywhyn's "It's Crazy Sports Day!" (6 votes)
IchoTolot's "Industrial Incident" (5 votes)
The Tomato Watcher's "A Puzzle Adventure" (4 votes)

Group 4

92Dexter11's "Epilogue" (4 votes)
92Dexter11's "No Looking Back" (3 votes)
Armani's "Speedlunky" (1 vote)
GigaLem's "Re-Enlistment" (2 votes)
Guigui's "Blues Walk With Me" (3 votes)
kaywhyn's "Oh Yes! A Hardcore Molten Problem" (5 votes)
Scotty's "Down The Upside" (2 votes)


Group 5

92Dexter11's "Building, Fencing" (2 votes)
92Dexter11's "Daybreak" (4 votes)
Armani's "Underroot" (5 votes)
Guigui's "Be Attitude For Save One" (1 vote)
kaywhyn's "Oh No! Another Hardcore Molten Problem" (4 votes)
Crane's "A Step Down With Difficulty" (2 votes)
Scotty's "Square One" (2 votes)

Welcome to the Level of the Year 2025 voteoff!

So, most of you will know how this works, but just in case - and so that specifics are covered - here's a quick rundown.

The 35 nominated levels have been divided into 5 groups of 7 levels, semi-randomly. To be specific, the division was done in such a way that a single author wouldn't have too many levels in a single group.

Each group will be voted on, with only 2 levels from each group advancing to Phase 2. We try to bring the number down to 2 in one single Round. I plan no tiebreakers for this and if we have a minor tie then all tied levels advance. In case of a lot of major ties (5or6+ levels), I might run a tiebreaker later.

If we then have a bit more than 10 levels in phase 2, these will be split up into new groups for phase 2. There, I also plan to just let 2-3 of each group survive with no tiebreakers if possible. Only in the final phase I plan to enforce the top 3 placements with tiebreakers.

If you want to see the full list of nominated levels in non-randomized order, check the nominations list topic.
If you want to play these levels without having to dig up all the various level packs, check the playing phase topic which has a pack available for download that contains all the nominated levels.

Please remember that discussing the nominated levels is not allowed in the LOTY2025 topics now that voting has begun. This does not apply to levels that have already been eliminated at the time. Discussing them elsewhere in the site is okay, as long as it's not in the context of LOTY2025.

The voting will be done in the 3 voting topics with results only being visible after the poll's time has run out:

Voting topic 1
Voting topic 2
Voting topic 3

This should also help:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6138.0

Armani made a compilation pack for all the contests! 

QuoteAny levels you particularly liked that you've seen or made?

In terms of contests here are some of my favorites:

- Simon's "Rhizome" (Lix)
- Nessy's "A Rock And A Hard Place"
- 92Dexter11's "Lem Ninja
- Dodochacalo's "Honey, I Shrunk the Lems"
- Pieuw's "A tad mad, a tad rad!"
- Armani's "Insert Coin, Choose Lemming"
- IchoTolot's "Revenants"
- DireKrow's "Shoestring Operation"
- tan x dx's "Measure once, build twice"

These contest entries should also count towards the difficulty category:

- Armani's "The Good, The Bad and The Weird"
- IchoTolot's "Violent Changes"

In terms of difficulty these are some of my favorites:

- Lemmings Uncharted [Aquarius 06]: RefleXion  (This took me months!)
- Lemmings Uncharted [Aquarius 19]: Immoral Society
- Lemmings Uncharted [Aquarius 15]: Simulation: FARO

- NepsterLems [Black Hole 01]: Thin Layers
- NepsterLems [Black Hole 20]: The Deadly Rooms of Lem
- NepsterLems [Black Hole 21]: Final Frustration

- Deceit's Lemmings [Mayhem 21]: Enter at your own risk...

- Lemmings United [Genocide 28]: It's All About The Pentiums!
- Lemmings United [Genocide 35]: Kiwi Knight's Keep
- Lemmings United [Genocide 37]: Gate To The Inner Sanctum


Of course these are just some of my personal favorites or levels which I am quite proud of.

To gain access to the contest levels I would suggest checking the nomination list topic for the LOTY. There is usually an description from where the level originated.

I am not a Speedrun junkie, but for point 2 and 3 of your list my initial thought is: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6062.0

Just take a look at the top 3 levels from the all the previuos "Level of the Year" contests and pick your favorites!

There you should get a better overview than just one or two people telling you some favorites! 

If you need replays for those levels, look at YouTube or ask the authors directly.

If you want levels directly tuned for difficulty I would hint at the last ranks of Lemmings Uncharted, Lemmings Destination, NepsterLems and Lemmings United.

Alright, I will first create the topic and with all the level image links and dicide the groups as always.

It will be 5 groups with 7 levels each and 2 planned survivors per group.

QuoteI hope that Icho keeps the first poll open until at least Thursday, July 2nd.

I will run 3 polls at a time again with each round except the last running for 3 days.

I can start on monday or tuesday if you have trouble voting otherwise. I rather catch as many people as possible for the vote than starting 2 days early. 

Also then people can already view the groups.

No worries, can't please everyone with every level! 

Still a really good pack! 

In "Though 19", while the solution is great the level layout itself was a bit too cluttered with traps, One-way-Walls and fireblowers for my taste.
I think with a different design approach in a few places/areas one could make it look and feel a bit cleaner.
It is still not totally over the top though and it's just a small thing.
I know things like this happen during fixing and level creation and I myself have created levels like these after a few iterations of fixes, but then I am always finding myself sad that I did not find a cleaner way.
Still a very good level! 

Quote from: Simon on June 09, 2026, 10:15:53 AMWhen two levels in the same pack share an ID, it confuses the mass verifier, okay.

What is with levels across different packs? Is it okay to duplicate one of the IDs outside the pack, as long as the pack, among itself, has all-different IDs?

Assuming it's okay to duplicate IDs outside the pack: How do authors with N packs verify solvability? Verify each pack individually, and point for each pack to a different tree of replays?

-- Simon

Across different packs, duplicate IDs do not really matter.

Replays are being checked in the mass replay checker out of one folder for one pack, so as long as a pack itself has no duplicate IDs everything is fine.

That way we cannot really run out of IDs.
The extremely rare case it could matter is if you create a compilation pack with levels from different packs, but I have yet to see an ID-collision there.

For replay verification of N packs: I go to each of the N packs in the level selection tree and click on the Mass Replay Check button for each one and select the respective folder. So I verify each pack individually as you stated.

I've noticed the disappearance of a lot of forum avatars, including mine.

I suspect this is the issue. 

Was a very enjoyable stream today where we went through quite a lot of entries from most authors! 

Here are my solutions! 

A really good first pack!

Although I must say you do enjoy torturing your friends for sure! 

This is not a pack I would advise beginners to start with! Especially the last rank is quite tough.

I would say it is "Medium" to even "Medium-Hard" as a few levels were quite the difficulty spikes!

My favorites were "Medium 26", Medium 27", Medium 29", "Tough 18", "Tough 9" and "Tough 3". These I really liked and "Tough 3" being the hardest level of the pack for me! 

"Tough 19" is on the verge of greatness but some things were a bit fiddly, the timer is not needed in my opinion and the level looks a bit messy.

There are a few levels I don't like and the prime example is "Tough 30" - It just feels like a few levels duct-taped together and quite a lot of the things I already saw before and it felt a bit like a chore.
Yeah, that should be the theme of the level, but it's just really exhausting and not that interesting
I enjoy seing different, new and interesting things and not just the difficulty coming from more and more stuff being tagged on.

A few unnecesary timers here and there, but that's a minor thing.

I still really enjoyed the pack! 

I will watch your progress with great interest! 

One thing: The "devil-heads" should actually represent some meteors 

Development is slow, but I am still making some progress. 

I have just reached the 45 new level mark, while also having gathered 42 contest levels.

I added preview pictures in the first post for the currently planned ranks to give a little sneak-peak. 

No rank names for everything yet, but that's a thing for another time. I am tending to theme it around the pack's name "Isolation" though.