In the end, I had to take all the artistic elements out of the equation, they are all great renditions. There are just so many things that make each map great on their own. I broke it down into smaller questions - which one looked most maplike, which one could I see being printed out as a supplement in an adventure, which one is best for labelling, and so on. It kept being too hard to decide.. finally what I boiled it down to was this - which one gives the best following of existing material (tanaka's challenge). And to be honest, mysticmagellan took that one with a clear lead in my opinion - so after 20 mins of casting around for something to say "that one has better elements" I finally found something, so goes my vote.

Well done to all, and certainly thanks for the inspiration and advice (and votes, even!) that got my own map to where it is. I'll Rep where I can, and hopefully I can get to everyone this time around

Dang, this was fun!