A while back, Wanderful made a post announcing that CommunityFortress's Map Testing Team would be deciding the maps for CEVO Season 5, which will begin after the upcoming RUSH tournament has wrapped up.
Our job was not easy. In seasons past, I couldn't help but feel that leagues were hurting for a lack of decent maps to choose from. This season, however, we had no shortage of maps. Both Valve and the Team Fortress 2 community's custom mappers presented us with a number of great options, and it's a bit of a disappointment that we're limited to only 10 maps between both the pre-season and regular season.
In the end, the map rotation we decided on was this:
- Badlands
- Granary
- Gravelpit
- Yukon
- Turbine
- Obscure
- Indulge
- Gorge
(Order not yet decided at this point.)
We realize that some of these picks might be surprising, so a bit of explanation is in order.
Badlands, Granary, and Gravelpit should need no explanation. They're some of the oldest maps in the book, and Valve's finest by far. Badlands and Granary are excellent examples of what a push map should be, and Gravelpit is the only attack/defend map that has stood the test of time, providing interesting geometry and a map layout that doesn't lead to games decided wholly by spam. There was never any doubt as to whether we would include these three maps.
Yukon and Turbine were also relatively easy choices. Yukon is a community push map that, while somewhat unconventional in terms of layout, has proved to be an interesting and balanced map in competitive play. Turbine has been an mainstay in Europe and has been catching on in American leagues the last several seasons, and the American metagame has reached the point where it can be an exciting and fast-paced map, rather than engineer turtling.
Obscure is a map that has yet to see play in American leagues, but it should be familiar to most people within the competitive community. Though its roots lie in Europe, it's begun to catch on in America, and we've reached the point where most people have had the chance to play it through pickup games. Obscure recently hit the release candidate stage, and we feel that even in its current state, it's ready for league play.
Indulge is a 5 CP custom map that may seem a bit alien to some of you. Though not as popular as Obscure, it has seen play in the #tf2.pug channel. We feel that, in its completed state, it is a solid map that will do well in competitive play. Although most teams haven't had the chance to scrim this map yet, the learning curve shouldn't be too steep; it's a 5 CP map and most of the skills that you've developed up to now should be applicable to Indulge.
Gorge may seem like a bit of an odd pick. For those of you who have forgotten it entirely, one aspect of the War update was the addition of two new Valve maps. Gorge was one of them. A two-point attack/defend map, Gorge is similar to Dustbowl in terms of linear progression. However, with regards to its open layout and the vertical layout of the final point, it bears more resemblance to Gravelpit. It also uses the control point capture times from Gravelpit. Gorge may seem like something out of left field, and I doubt many players have had the chance to play it in a 6v6 format, except possibly through the new TF2lobby system. However, it's a map that was designed for competitive play, and it's time to try it out competitively.
In addition to those listed above, there will be two pre-season maps. One of these will be Coldfront, a 5 CP map by Icarus, who some of you might know as the creator of Waste. (Rest assured that Coldfront's gameplay won't be anywhere near as slow as Waste's.) The second pre-season map will be a new CTF map. For those of you unaware, TF2maps.net is currently having a Competitive CTF mapping contest, and we're seeing a lot of interesting maps implementing mechanics like touch-to-return. We haven't yet decided what this CTF map will be, but there are some promising ones that we're going to keep our eyes on.
We had a wealth of maps to choose from, and we think that we've picked eight of the best. Unfortunately, the season isn't long enough to include all of the maps that we wanted. Even if your favorite map wasn't included in the final map rotation, we think you'll enjoy the maps we've picked.
Comments
When you actually examine it, I find that it's a terrible competitive map. The mid is the only part that's pretty well done, the second point, and the last point, are absolutely abominable. And we have enough choice now to not have to settle for mediocrity.
The lack of Freight and Follower angers me, those two maps are my favorites after Gran and Badlands.
Gorge and Indulge needed to be played during preseason before being put into the rotation. Having them played in tf2.pug means absolutely nothing.
I would have been interested to see another KOTH in the mix too.
I have been watching freight since its inception in competitive TF2 and I don't think it adds anything valuable.
Huge sniper lane at mid, not really worth it, a very small, closed off 2nd point that heavily favors soldiers and demomen, and a last point that has a flat terrain and offers nothing special.
Follower is a better pick than that, but even follower is just a rehash of the same old and should be phased out.
I was hoping for a KOTH map honestly, makes for some quick and fun matches.
That said, props for going out on a limb and bringing some fresh maps in. I like Gorge as a map and think it will provide some interesting play. Haven't played it 6v6 really, but it scales well. The new forward spawn removes the need for an offensive engineer, but I worry that caps might actually happen too quick.
No KotH
Wut are Cevo CTF rules?
Overall some good decisions made here. I wish turbine would FOAD and I'm not sure if Gorge is a good choice but I think the rest of the maps are solid picks, especially Indulge.
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