History Main / AbridgedArenaArray

* Dust 2 in ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' is one of the most iconic maps in the history of gaming for being well balanced between the two sides. The ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'' [[http://www.screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2005-08-19 knows this.]] It even has it's own [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_II Wikipedia Page!]] It's popular in every incarnation of the game from the default 5v5, to super high pop servers with 20+ players per side, in team deathmatch and gungame modes.

* The de_dust maps in ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' are quite popular. Heck, even ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'' [[http://www.screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2005-08-19 knows this.]]\\
The ''Global Offensive'' match searching options, which are normally sorted by game mode, has an option to search for Dust exclusively (annoyingly, "defuse mission" can and probably will ''still'' send you to Dust as well).
** And to a lesser extent, for a non-defuse map, Office or Assault.

** Some unofficial maps, especially ''fy_iceworld'', ''fy_pool_party'', ''aim_awp'' and ''cs_casa'' also enjoy this status, mostly because quite a bit of them are either very small maps that allow for very fast-paced deathmatches, or maps specially designed to use a certain weapon.

* For months, Gold Tier gameplay in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' multiplayer was "Firebase White, Geth" because the Geth were the only faction that had no sync-kill abilities and Firebase White had one corner that could be turtled fairly easily, as it had only two entrances that were both in he same general direction with cover that players could crouch behind and a convenient ammo box. That ended after a patch that changed Firebase White's layout and changing the stats on the Geth by making the Geth Pyro immune to grab attacks and adding the Geth Bomber.

* ''Day Of Defeat'' the WorldWarTwo game that ''Creator/ValveCorporation'' released a Source version of had Anzio as this when the game first release. Avalanche was also extremely popular and was hosted on many 24/7 servers, as it was a level that was mostly fought around the central cap point and allowed games to continue for a long time.

* ''DayOfDefeat'' the World War Two game that ''Creator/ValveCorporation'' released a Source version of had Anzio as this when the game first release. Avalanche was also extremely popular and was hosted on many 24/7 servers, as it was a level that was mostly fought around the central cap point and allowed games to continue for a long time.

* ''VideoGame/DayOfDefeat'', Anzio when the game first release. Avalanche was also extremely popular and was hosted on many 24/7 servers, as it was a level that was mostly fought around the central cap point and allowed games to continue for a long time.

* The Anzio map in ''VideoGame/DayOfDefeat'' has this status.
** Nowadays it's Avalanche, which is particularly perplexing because Avalanche is quite possibly the worst official map in the game - it's confusingly laid out, filled with dead ends, and has a ridiculously open capture point in the middle of the map that makes it impossible to actually win on - unless one team is far more skilled than the other, the teams will just keep swapping the center control point for the entire game. Which normally lasts 15 minutes. And there are servers dedicated to playing this map ''24/7''.
*** They presumably just want to kill each other over and over without the game ending before their expectations to interrupt it. That or the difficulty of winning makes victory all the sweeter.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series:
** Final Destination is infamous among casual players. Many wannabe tournament players mistakenly feel that a completely flat stage, devoid of obstacles, is completely balanced and shows a true test of skill between players. In reality, it gives a slight edge to characters with powerful long-range attacks, like Fox with his blaster and Pit with his arrows (since there is nothing blocking their shots), and characters with great ground game like Little Mac. That said, it actually is a neutral stage in every game tournament-wise, since while it does give advantages to certain characters, said advantages are minor enough that they don't warrant a complete ban.
** As the first game, the ''64'' version has the fewest available stages, with only one being considered tournament legal. Most stages in the game have a significant element of luck, prompting even some casual players to cut arenas from the already short list. Compounding the issue, three of the "cleanest" levels out of the game's twelve are Final Destination, Battlefield, and Metal Cavern, none of which are available outside of the 1P mode without hacking. As such, all tournaments for this installment exclusively use Dream Land.
** In ''Melee'', Battlefield is rather considered by pros to be the most balanced stage and is the standard model to look at when judging other stages, with most of the other "neutral" stages have similar layouts to it.
** ''Brawl'''s Smashville stage - essentially Final Destination with one floating platform that moves back and forth - would become the newly accepted standard of fairness for it and all future entries, with Final Destination itself sometimes being dropped to the counterpick list in favor of moving Yoshi's Island to neutral.
** Nintendo themselves became aware that ''lots'' of people would only play on Final Destination when fighting other players online, which made random match-ups extremely boring for anyone looking to play something casual or at least a level that wasn't Final Destination. In order to account for this, ''3DS/ Wii U'' gives each stage a normal and "Omega" variant; the latter being a version of the stage that is nearly identical to Final Destination in being a single flat platform. In addition, there was the creation of two online modes: "For Fun" lets you play on the regular levels (except for Final Destination) with items enabled, while "For Glory" only has the Omega versions with items turned off. There's some debate as to how the Omega stages should be handled competitively, as ironically, the "neutral" Omega stages actually have significant, matchup-altering differences from each other based on positions of the blast lines and whether the platform can be jumped under. However, the only tournament to ban Omega forms (EVO 2015) did so as a precaution due to the possibility of music rights issues rather than any competitive problems.
*** ''Ultimate'' went even further by not only giving each stage a third variant based on the "Battlefield" layout, but also giving players the options to turn off stage hazards, greatly increasing the number of potential stages for tournament play. In addition, all Omega stages have been standardized to be exactly like Final Destination, with a single platform that can be jumped under.
** Fan hacks like ''VideoGame/ProjectM'' attempt to make more stages viable for tournaments by removing the more powerful and luck-based elements from them, or by bringing back old stages that are naturally devoid of random hazards, such as Metal Cavern.
** To close out the competitive side of things, the "gentleman's rule" commonly allows any stage to be played on if both players agree to it.
** Among casual players, there's Hyrule Temple. No other stage outside of Final Destination comes close to how many times this one is played. This is essentially because it's extremely large, providing plenty of room for several players to screw around and chase each other, and it has no artificial stage hazards or unique mechanics to worry about, unlike other exceptionally large stages such as The Great Cave Offensive.

* ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA Online]]'' features a large amount of matches for each match mode, trying to avert this. Since "Verified" player-made matches first got out a bit after Creator Beta[[note]]A mode that lets you make custom matches, which itself was released a few weeks/months after ''Online'''s release[[/note]], it still shines through. One of the examples, "Down The Drain", was hugely popular to its simple track and a bug where players would get shot up into the air if they ran over a piece of cardboard. Sadly, the cardboards were patched to either not appear or not work, chopping down some of the popularity of it.

* ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA Online]]'' features a large amount of matches for each match mode, trying to avert this. Since "Verified" player-made matches first got out a bit after Creator Beta[[note]]A mode that lets you make custom matches, which itself was released a few weeks/months after ''Online'''s release[[/note]], it still shines through. One of the examples, "Down The Drain", was hugely popular to its simple track and [[GoodBadBugs how players would get shot up into the air if they ran over a piece of cardboard.]] Sadly, the cardboards were patched to either not appear or not work, chopping down some of the popularity of it.

* ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA Online]]'' features a large amount of matches for each match mode, trying to avert this. Since "Verified" player-made matches first got out a bit after Creator Beta[[note]]A mode that lets you make custom matches, which itself was released a few weeks/months after ''Online'''s release[[/note]], it still shines through. One of the examples, "Down The Drain", was hugely popular to its simple track and a bug of how players would get shot up into the air if they ran over a piece of cardboard. Sadly, the cardboards were patched to either not appear or not work, chopping down some of the popularity of it.

* ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA Online]]'' features a large amount of matches for each match mode, trying to avert this. Since "Verified" player-made matches first got out a bit after Creator Beta[[note]]A mode that lets you make custom matches, which itself was released a few weeks/months after ''Online'''s release[[/note]], it still shines through. One of the examples, "Down The Drain", was hugely popular to its simple track and [[GoodBadBugs how players would get shot up into the air if they ran over a piece of cardboard.]] Sadly, the cardboards were patched to either not appear or not work, chopping down some of the popularity of it.

** Vashj'ir in ''Cataclysm''. You'll not find many people in that zone because at launch it left a bad taste in many peoples' mouths. Many claim the zone is an example of AtlantisIsBoring, but the zone is actually quite diverse, with seaweed forests, massive palaces, deep ravines, underwater caves, and enormous sea creatures. Its status as a ScrappyLevel seems to come mostly from the fact that people just don't like underwater levels. For all its diversity, because the zone is in deep water it's necessarily darker than most zones and always a shade of blue, giving a constant feeling of heaviness and sneaking claustrophobia. People just generally see water more as a place to ''get out of'' rather than a place to stay for an extended period of time (possibly an evolutionary thing in our subconscious). There ''are'' two objective problems with the zone however. When first released it was incredibly buggy, preventing some people from even progressing through it (you can still get screwed on the final quest if you're unlucky). Secondly, the whole theme of the zone was a build-up to a confrontation with underwater [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch abominations]] which, while planned to be released later, [[OrphanedSeries never happened,]] making the whole thing feel pointless.

** Nintendo themselves became aware that ''lots'' of people would only play on Final Destination when fighting other players online, which made random match-ups extremely boring for anyone looking to play something casual or at least a level that wasn't Final Destination. In order to account for this, ''3DS/ Wii U'' gives each stage a normal and "Omega" variant; the latter being a version of the stage that follows Final Destination in being a single flat platform. In addition, there was the creation of two online modes: "For Fun" lets you play on the regular levels (except for Final Destination) with items enabled, while "For Glory" only has the Omega versions with items turned off. There's some debate as to how the Omega stages should be handled competitively, as ironically, the "neutral" Omega stages actually have significant, matchup-altering differences from each other based on positions of the blast lines and whether the platform can be jumped under. However, the only tournament to ban Omega forms (EVO 2015) did so as a precaution due to the possibility of music rights issues rather than any competitive problems.

** Among casual players, there's Hyrule Temple. No other stage comes close to how many times this one is played (apart from Final Destination). This is essentially because it's extremely large, providing plenty of room for several players to screw around, but it has no artificial stage hazards or unique mechanics to worry about.

* Most of the attention in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' is on Versus mode (you pick either Puyo Puyo or Tetris and play against other people). There are four other modes in the game: Swap, Fusion, Party, and Big Bang, but Swap and Big Bang are less common, and Party and Fusion are very rare, such that there are almost never any rooms open for those modes. Most likely, this is because players gravitate to either Puyo Puyo or Tetris, and the other four modes, for different reasons, force players out of their comfort zones (and while most modes balance the two games against each other pretty well, Party is considered horrifically unbalanced against Puyo Puyo players). In Puzzle League, the ranked mode, players can disable modes as they wish, meaning you will mostly see Versus there too, with a Swap or Big Bang match every now and then. That being said, Swap has been established as the standard mode for tournaments, leading to slightly higher Swap play; even then, it's rarer than Versus, as it requires adeptness at both Puyo Puyo and Tetris, as this mode is played on two playfields at once, one for each game.

* Most of the attention in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' is on Versus mode (you pick either Puyo Puyo or Tetris and play against other people). There are four other modes in the game: Swap, Fusion, Party, and Big Bang, but Swap and Big Bang are less common, and Party and Fusion are very rare, such that there are almost never any rooms open for those modes. Most likely, this is because players gravitate to either Puyo Puyo or Tetris, and the other four modes, for different reasons, force players out of their comfort zones (and while most modes balance the two games against each other pretty well, Party is considered horrifically unbalanced against Puyo Puyo players). In Puzzle League, the ranked mode, players can disable modes as they wish, meaning you will mostly see Versus there too, with a Swap or Big Bang match every now and then.

* In Classic ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the players would always congregate around the high level zones and for awhile, a good 70-90% of the playerbase would hang out in either Orgrimmar or Ironforge, especially in the areas in and between the auction house and the mailbox. However, as for leveling, most players would either hang out around the Barrens (For horde), Westfall (For Alliance), Hillsbrad Foothills, then Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, then the Plaguelands and Un'goro, and later on, Silithus. Very ''very'' rarely you'd see somebody in Loch Modan, Wetlands, Silverpine Forest, Feralas, Stonetalon mountains, Azshara, Desolace, or the Hinterlands. Most of the time they were in places like Desolace it was because the only other option was [[FanNickname Ganklethorn Hell, Hellsbrad Foothills, or Ganklestan]] and on a PvP servers for awhile, you were very ''very'' likely to be ganked. Stranglethorn Vale was a common questing hub because there was just ''so many'' quests for ''both factions'', and they all covered a ''huge range''. Now there are more options, thankfully.

** In ''Gears 2'', get used to playing on Blood Drive, Security, and Jacinto. ''Especially'' Jacinto. River gets voted on a lot too, though [[BrokenBase the jury's still out on whether this is actually desirable]]. Blood Drive is more common in Horde than Versus, because of how easy it is to camp at one of the spawns and kill the Locust as they funnel into the narrow stairs to get to you.
** In the first game, there were pages and pages of matches on Gridlock.
** In ''Gears 3'', Checkout is set up really well for shotgun fights. Since the shotgun is [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome the only weapon anyone ever uses]], it makes sense that this would be the only map anyone ever wanted to play on.
** Checkout came back in ''Gears 4'' as DLC, and in rolling lobbies, playing the same mode on the same map again is ''always'' one of the options for voting. As soon as Checkout shows up, it will ''never go away''.

** The map for the franchise as a whole is Wake Island. It originally came with ''Battlefield 1942''. It was ported into ''Vietnam'', ''2'', ''[[VideoGame/Battlefield2142 2142]]'', ''1943'', ''VideoGame/BattlefieldHeroes'', and along with Karkand was one of the maps in the ''Battlefield 3'' pre-order bonus before it was added in the 'Back to Karkand' DLC. The only major games it isn't in are the two ''[[VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany Bad Company]]'' GaidenGame sequels.

*** Some players even get into earlier maps just to get to Locker, including Golmud Railway (the map before Locker on the standard playlist), which is unofficially known by fans as "that map before Locker" or "Operation Locker Eve".

* The de_dust maps in ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' are quite popular. Heck, ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'' [[http://www.screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2005-08-19 even knows this.]]\\

** ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' gave us Blood Gulch. On the PC version, after going through the usual server narrowing process (not full, users playing, not passworded) no less than EIGHT of the eleven pages were 24/7 Blood Gulch. Bungie and 343 Studios recognize it by always making sure there's a canyon map, which when downright remaking Blood Gulch will have a sanguine name (Coagulation, Hemorrhage, Bloodline).
*** ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' even cashed on that: that map is the original setting - the first five seasons are ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlue The Blood Gulch Chronicles]]'' - and even as the characters moved onto other places, they're known as the "Blood Gulch Crew".
*** The popularity on PC may also be due to the fact that the trial version only comes with that map. Most also run a "no 'Shees" mod (a mod that removes the Covenant Banshee with it's twin plasma cannons and insta-kill Fuel Rod Gun).

** Regarding custom campaigns, it's hard to find a good game that isn't going on in City 17, I Hate Mountains or Suicide Blitz 2.

** From the original Quake-based ''Team Fortress'', 2fort5 (which inspired ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' 's [=CTF_2Fort=]) and well6 (which has pretty much nothing to do with ''Team Fortress 2'''s CP_Well/CTF_Well).

*** Well, gameplay plus a respawn-time bug that was left unpatched, and possibly even uncaught, until ''2010'', three years after release. In a catch-22 scenario, the lack of play may have actually ''contributed'' to the bug not being caught.
** Similarly, the Arena mode has essentially been abandoned, mostly replaced by the fanmade Vs. Saxton Hale mode.
*** Though even Vs. Saxton Hale is losing players, since nobody wants to sit around and watch other people play after they've died. And when it's down to one or two people vs. the boss player (Saxton Hale), said remaining players will hide in out of the way areas, dragging the game out, and angering those who just want someone to ''win'' already so they can respawn and play again. The fact that most people won't capture the [[InstantWinCondition control point]] out of some misguided sense of honor may play into it as well.

In the Deathmatch front you have [=DM-Deck16][=] and [=DM-Morpheus=]. Part of the fun regarding Face and Deck is simply the visual decor. Both maps have impressive art assets in addition to workable gameplay.\\

** But then to the other extreme, they actually ''added'' a "Nuketown 24/7" mode, which cycles through different modes exclusively on that map. It's only available during double-experience weekends on consoles, though. Its popularity is likely beecause the map is so small, there's a ''very'' high chance that chucking a Semtex two seconds after the match starts will get you a cheap grenade kill or three right off the bat. Also, the easy camping spots (on top of a bed, behind a fence, two houses with one open window) and the constantly-embroiled-in-explosions-and-gunfire Point B on Domination Mode made this place very popular.

** Among casual players, there's Hyrule Temple. No other stage comes close to how many times this one is played (apart from Final Destination).

* The Anzio map in ''DayOfDefeat'' has this status.

** ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' gave us Blood Gulch. On the PC version, after going through the usual server narrowing process (not full, users playing, not passworded) no less than EIGHT of the eleven pages were 24/7 Blood Gulch.
*** The popularity is probably the reason ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' is set on that map.

* In VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII, finding a game that isn't on Great Plains is a challenge in itself.

[[quoteright:354:[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/552c4236755b7ecdbcf320e70787cc60.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:354:Red = banned in tournaments.\\

** Operation Locker is essentially the sequel to Metro. Tightly packed hallways and very few options in assaulting means that it's a favorite in all modes, particularly Rush, where the attackers are forced to funnel their way through two very narrow hallways, where XM25 Airbursts, rocket-propelled grenades, and a rain of grenades likely await them. There's a side path outside, but it's also less travelled due to lack of cover and poor visiblity on the inside of the map.

* In the fan patched netplay version of ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Guilty Gear X2 Reload]]'', a lot of players tend to choose Slayer's stage even though stages really have no impact on gameplay in this game. To elaborate, Slayer's stage is a large open cathedral-looking area with a gigantic bearded skeleton wearing armour in the background. It is likely because they want to hear [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Slayer's admittedly cool theme tune]]

** Final Destination is infamous among casual players. Many wannabe tournament players mistakenly feel that a completely flat stage, devoid of obstacles, is completely balanced and shows a true test of skill between players. In reality, it gives a slight edge to characters with powerful long-range attacks, like Fox with his blaster and Pit with his arrows(since there is nothing blocking their shots), and characters with great ground game like Little Mac. It remains a neutral stage in every game tournament-wise, since while it does give advantages to certain characters, said advantages are minor enough that they don't warrant a complete ban.

** Brawl's Smashville stage - essentially Final Destination with one floating platform that moves back and forth - would become the newly accepted standard of fairness, with Final Destination itself sometimes being dropped to the counterpick list in favor of moving Yoshi's Island to neutral.
** Nintendo themselves became aware that ''lots'' of people would only play on Final Destination when fighting other players online, which made random match-ups extremely boring for anyone looking to play something casual or at least a level that wasn't Final Destination. In order to account for this, ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS'' gives each stage a normal and "Omega" variant; the latter being a version of the stage that follows Final Destination in being a single flat platform. In addition, there was the creation of two online modes: "For Fun" lets you play on the regular levels (except for Final Destination) and items are enabled, while "For Glory" only has the Omega versions with items turned off. There's some debate as to how these should be handled competitively; ironically, by tournament standards, the "neutral" Omega stages actually have significant, matchup-altering differences from each other based on positions of the blast lines and whether the platform can be jumped under. However, the only tournament to ban Omega forms (EVO 2015) did so as a precaution due to the possibility of music rights issues rather than any competitive problems.
*** ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' went even further by not only giving each stage a third variant based on the "Battlefield" layout, but also giving players the options to turn off stage hazards, greatly increasing the number of potential stages for tournament play.