Unorthodox maps - why are those never played competitively?

General Discussion
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This is a question to people who complain about the game or the meta getting stale, and I suppose it counts for SC2 all the same.

Why are maps without a certain set of features never played competitively, much less at tournaments?

I mean like maps with

  • atypical numbers of mineral patches/geysers
  • maps with only one base per player (forced single base matches)
  • maps where mineral patches are suboptimally distanced from the main building and/or spread into small, separate clumps
  • maps with no ground routes between the bases

I mean wouldn’t that test the players in different ways than traditional maps do? Require drastically different approaches and lead to games that play out completely differently? Was that ever attempted in the early days but abandoned? Genuine questions here

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There are a few things that are required for the competitive side of SC to work, some of these are:

  1. Fair distance between spawn points, not all races are done equal, there has to be a certain distance keeping Zerg in mind and even things that happen latter in game like Mutalisk or Terran pushes (Reason why Lost Temple and Python are considered broken for example).

  2. There are maps with 2 gases on the start, but the problem is that some races benefit too much from this specially Zerg and Terran, A Zerg with access to 2 gas can do a very annoying one base Mutalisk attack by turtling and Terran can go straight to 3/4 factories, on the other hand with 2 gases something like quick Carriers or templar drops are indeed broken for several reasons. The meta has changed too much and is overly accepted that the game is much more competitive if players have to take a second base for the Gas, thought some maps play with this option.

  3. About “one base maps” that situation actually exist on fastest maps, i know is probably not what you are referring to but SC professional games have avoided one map encounters because races are different, and some races are strongest only with one base, other races requires a lot of space to build. Simply not all races are build equal for a one base matchup to be balanced.

  4. About the amount of minerals and gas i thinking that is nothing to point here, it has to be equal and the minerals have to be equal on each spawn, the distance also applies, this has to be the same even on the minerals that are closer to the CC/hatch/Nexus at the very beginning. With this said there are some difference even today that are considered not that dramatic but map makers always take in consideration like placing a Gas on top as 4 workers are needed, whenever its avoided the best.

  5. Another thing to consider is the pathing, if you do “atypical” maps design the way that the units move are sometimes not fair, you have to take in consideration things like multitasking, scouting and placing rally points. Its by no way fair that someone can right click on the map and get to your main ramp and the other player has to move around trough some convoluted terrain to do the same. Its just not competitive or fair.

  6. Ramps are a very important factor of SC, there are 2 kinds: normal and inverted ramp, long story short whenever a unit is on the higher ground the units there get less attack because of the way the engine randomness work, is a feature everyone designing a map needs to understand. Ramps are necessary to defend yourself against rush and early attacks and have “choke points”. A Zealot as strong as it is cannot win against 6 Zerglings or even 4 micro in the right way. Marines have no choice but to use ramps to protect against Zerglings. Inverted ramps are specially bad for Terran as they do not have a way to block hydras and other stuff from killing everything…its a thing that has been proven several times before, terrans hate inverted ramps on their main.

  7. Another thing to quickly consider about map design is the exploits people can do, people know how to use small places to nuke, small places to storm, small places to siege and small places to place an annoying turret or just 2 workers repairing themselves, people are very creative and can break your experience and make everything seem broken and unfair.

I hope this information helps you understand that the Game Meta relies mostly on map design, the units balance is probably less than 40% the actual game Meta. This game without good map designers is nothing.

Despite all of this, lately there have been some maps that have “broken certain constrains or traditions” and have been taken into professional SC, some of these maps are really creative in the way they break what is thought to be stablished and make for an excellent map to enjoy, but they are hard to enjoy when you dont have a Korean level of gameplay and you dont prepare yourself beforehand, this situation makes for some of this “unfairness points” to be discovered on tournament themselves, the is why this map are normally always found to be Veto and are almost never played because they only get used on match point scenarios like the last game of a BO5 or Bo7, pro players mostly hate this maps as they know something we dont know about the meta and balance and they will always prefer a fair chance, some of these are:

  • Inner Coven: This map has Disruption connecting every single lane in the game, it made for AMAZING air game and strategies.

  • Transistor/neo transistor: Some people wont place this map in this category, Neo Transistor (the best version) was on the ladder and it was a quite balanced map but the amount of ramps, and wide ramps they are, made it extremally awkward to protect.

  • Third World: The map si divided and has a whole section you can only access with mineral walking. Your attack units can only get there via air transport, there are some amazing games in here is a weirdly example of a somehow asymmetric map that is somehow fair, the problem is mostly that zerg has nidus and overloads, also terran can lift.

  • Sparkle: Probably the most “out of the box” map ever played on a Premium Starcraft Broodwar tournament. People start with island and another base to take where you cannot build nothing but turrets, canons or spores. Made for some crazy air fights the problem is that Zerg has to much advantage in this on mid and late game.

As a side not if you are interested in seen the tournament with MOST “atypical” maps dont look further than ASL 5, it was an amazing experience but there is an after taste of things being a little bit unfair.

  • Whitheout: Another map people wont place as an atypical map, but the reality is that this map movement is nightmarish, the map has some trees and stuff all around and not all Races units are as slim as other, Protoss being quite fat for example.

  • Hitchhiker: Another map people wont place in this list, but the reality is that the narrow passage and the side temples you can break make for a very different play style, very turtleish.

  • Plasma: This map is probably the atypical next to neo-Transistor that has been played the most by regular people. The players start on small upper level islands and they need to workers mine to move around, everything is blocked by eggs and the bases are wide open once those eggs are broken. Zerg is honestly way overpowered in here because lurkers can break those egss quite easy and the bases dont give enough space to protect against air most of the time, moving goliaths there is a nightmare.

  • Iron Curtain: This is a map that is suppose to be played on 2v2 but i will include it in here because its been played at a professional level. This map is divided from left to right by destructible and has some crazy air gameplay.

  • Eclipse: This is the map that is teaching Starcraft Players that you can have an atypical non symmetrical map work for competitive ladder. Its probably the third most popular map for Starcraft Broowar Ladder right now next to Fighting Spirit and Circuit Breakers. Should we called this map atypical? i dont think so, but the map is so well done and designed that deserves a mention here as an example of atypical maps-layouts done right.

The list goes on and on, there has been other maps that are atypical on other Premier tournaments, specially on old tournaments around the begging of the 2000, Pro players have learn so much about the game since then that they are not even considered fair or playable at a professional level. The maps below are very atypical, some other maps like Python, Lost Temple, Reverse Temple, Fantasy 2, Arcadia 2 etc are not mentions because they still keep certain standards for balance. Check the list below for maps that have been played at a professional level and are pretty much the most atypical that every existed:

  • Sherwood Forest (The only map in the original BW map list that is considered here)
  • Showdown
  • Blaze
  • Glacial Epoch
  • Dark Stone
  • Deep Purple
  • Space Odyssey
  • Crimson Isles
  • Hall of Valhalla/ neo Hall of Valhalla
  • Ragnarok
  • Bifrost
  • Wishbone
  • Symmetry of Psy
  • Jungle Story/ neo Jungle Story
  • Charity
  • Guillotine
  • Paradoxxx
  • Alchemist
  • Ride of Valkyries
  • Pioneer Period/ Sin Pioneer Period
  • Peaks of Baekdu
  • Arkanoid
  • Chupung Ryeong
  • Korhal of Ceres
  • Tears of the Moon
  • Flight-Dreamliner
  • Pathfinder

I hope this information helps you understand that there is indeed a huge history of trying to make players play on atypical maps. Consider the following that one of the most “atypical” maps is one of the most played maps which is Hunters.

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