The current patch note is a great marketing for the upcoming Redbull tournament. It is mentioned a lot in the patch note. The devs even reset the EW ladder for this tournament.
One of the big things i read is that all of the maps on the EW ladder are the same maps that will be used during the Redbull tournament. I really like that part. The majority of the player base isnt a pro, but gets the opportunity to play on the same maps as the pros. This is great and will really add to the engagement of a tournament.
I really wished the devs did this a lot more often. There are lots of different big tournaments for the pros. This Redbull tournament will be considered as the 4th S-tier tournament in 2024. Nili’s Apartment Cup and Hidden Cup already happend. Warlords will start in a few weeks. It would be really great if some of these maps were put into the ranked map pool during those tournaments.
Just to list the maps of Nili’s Apartment Cup:
Acclivity
Acropolis
African Reed Beds
Arabia
Arena
Beachfight
Brood War
Canberra
Copenhagen
Desert Void
Dry Graveyards
Enclosed
Fortified Clearing
Golden Lakes
Hippopotamus
Llanganati
Marsh Madness
Northern Crossings
Outcrop
Rocky Forest
Shoals
And for Hidden Cup we have:
Arabia
Bay
Bypass
Cross
Cup
Evacuation
Gold Rush
Hidden Forts
High Tides
Islands
Mudflow
Quarry
Slopes
Some of these maps are part of the ranked rotations, but many of them are unknown.
There are a lot of benifts if we mix in some of these maps in ranked:
It is a promotion of the upcoming tournament. This makes the engagement of the player base with these tournaments stronger. This will bind the players more to the game.
It is refreshing to see new maps now and then in the map pool. Playing the same maps over and over again makes it boring in the end. Having a few new maps once in a while makes it much more interesting.
What the devs do for Redbull tournament is great. I really hope they will do the same for other big tournaments as well.
The first issue is that some of these maps are really optimized to produce games that are exciting to watch, not necessarily enjoyable to play.
The second issue is that widely unknown maps often lead to uneven games. One of the two players (who starred it) is likely much better prepared for the map than the other (who, by all likelihood, just wanted to play an ordinary arabia/arena game).
That’s why I would prefer to have more widely known maps in the pool (e.g., four lakes, hideout, nomad, islands, etc) in addition to Arabia and Arena – if these maps are played, it is much more likely that both players know what they’re doing.
Edit: To clarify: I’m not categorically against including tournament maps, but I would be cautious with it: let’s say one new map / rotation or so. What I would advice against is a map pool that only uses new tournament maps.
I dont ask for all maps in to the map pool, but just add a few. Most tournament maps pools will have maps which are enjoyable to play. So just pick those.
How do you look to what happens now with EW? It matches the Redbull Tournament maps. Many of them are new.
Also: If you just add a few maps in a map pool, then it is just fine to learn these new maps. If you dont like new maps, then just use your ban. By adding them one by one slowly to the map pool, then you can slowly learn these new maps. That would also be my suggestion. Just use 0-2 dev picks for new maps based on ongoing tournaments.
Funny to see you mentioning these maps. Four lakes is one of the few maps added to DE because it was a popular pick for tournaments, but wasnt part of DE at launch. At some point it got added to DE. Once it was added, it instantly became one of the fan favorites. What happend to Four lakes is what i am hoping for: Add more tournament maps to the base game and just use them for ranked. Probably some of them will stick by the players: Like what happend by Four Lakes.
Well, I guess this ladder is predominantly played by people who have aspirations to qualify for that upcoming tournament, so it makes sense to use them there.
That’s not the point. If I play a map, I want my opponent to be competent at it as well. But you don’t have control over that. For uncommon maps, many people will just accept a loss and re-queue (if they don’t alt-F4), instead of investing time to first learn a map that is in the map pool only once, and then never again.
I am aware of the origins of Four lakes aka Cross. But it is rather the exception to the general rule. Almost every other tournament map that entered the map pool (e.g. all these Red Bull Wololo maps from previous years) were pretty unpopular. Always losing in the voting, and for good reason.
I’m fairly indifferent on the subject of tournament maps being added officially, but I definitely think that the Ushguli map that @TommoChocolate and I created should be added officially. It is exceptionally well-executed, considering how vague my concept was, and it plays extraordinary.
In general its a good thing to introduce new maps in ranked. But if you look at the distribution of maps, Arabia, Arena, Nomad makeup 70+% of the games played. Unless some of these maps replace Arabia, Arena, Nomad (like say Dry Graveyards, Copenhagen, Compass), it wouldn’t make much of a difference for most players. Even if you set one of these maps as your priority, you’re still probably going to match with someone else on Arabia or Arena mostly.