My opinions on people's maps (don't take them too personally)
elementisland: While it may be believable in terms of a desert, it's not very interesting as a map in a game. Add more visual cues.
gameguy: looks decent, but the shapes are slightly too blocky and the dark sand looks weird when it goes up and down ridges.
GAX: the heavy tint and clouds threw me off for some reason. And I have no idea wtf is going on with the elemental and such. The actual mapping part is still decent, though.
legacyblade: I can see the mountainous effect you were going for, but it looks a bit too jumbled. Very good shapes though.
Sourseb: theres a few too many cutoff objects for my taste, but I like the tint and general layout a lot.
Valdred: very nice classic desert map. I especially like the placement of the trees. My favorite map this round
winkio: there's a lot of subtle and interesting stuff at the edges, but the middle is too boring.
Something I noticed:
Why is everyone using so much tint/fog? Deserts are usually clear.
That is all.