History Main / AbridgedArenaArray

** In the Japanese competitive scene, the community greatly prefers the Splat Zones ranked mode, with their most prestigious tournament (Area Cup) employing a Splat Zones-only ruleset. This is one of the factors that lead to their Meta Game being different to the Western scene, which is generally more game mode-agnostic when it comes to ranked.
** In the Western competitive scene, Turf War is disliked due to being viewed as having poor competitive integrity: one team can dominate the other all the way to their spawn, but all that matters is how much paint exists at the end of the match, meaning even a single wrong move at that point in the game can result in what could have been a curbstomb victory becoming an immediate loss, leading to the common (negative) refrain that only the last 30 seconds of a Turf War match actually count. In contrast, Japan widely accepts Turf War, with tournaments like Koshien even being Turf War only and Nintendo's own official ruleset using Turf War as qualifiers; as such, the West will begrudgingly play the mode when they have to, but it is rare to see Western tournaments make use of them.

* Even in "traditional" [=2D=] and TwoAndAHalfD fighters like ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' where obstacles aren't an issue, tournaments will generally be held on the training stage (and you can expect most of your opponents in online play to choose it as well). The pro-training players arguing that it's less distracting than arenas that have background animation, while the pro-variety players argue that the other stages are there for a reason. On another level, modern training stages tend to be marked with grids intended to help players figure out the spacing of attacks; while nobody questions this utility for practicing, critics have accused tournament players of being unable to play the game without their "training wheels". This reached a point where the 2021 Capcom Pro Tour used a mod on the spectator's end to replace the training stage with other stages for the sake of the viewing experience.

* There are way fewer ''VideoGame/LethalLeague Blaze'' matches in Central Streets, Scrap Desert, Paradise Field, New Rise District, or Workbot Factory compared to the other stages due to them having to be unlocked by redeeming it with in-game currency. Many players choose to use those credits to unlock alternate character skins instead. In particular, The Sewers and Room 21 come up a lot, especially on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, due to their polygon counts being low enough for the game to always run smoothly no matter what's going on.

* Averted with the map rotation system in the ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' series, which WordOfGod states is done to encourage weapon experimentation.
** [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 In the first game]], there are only two maps available for regular Turf War battles and two others for Ranked Battles at any given time. This is in addition to a different mode of Ranked Battle (such as [[RiskStyleMap Splat Zones]], [[EscortMission Tower Control]], or [[CaptureTheFlag Rainmaker]]) being available during each of these rotations as well. These sets changed every four hours.
** ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' added another mode, League Battle, which also has two maps available at a time. The game also reduced the rotation time for these [=PvP=] modes to two hours. There's also the new [[PlayerVersusEnvironment Salmon Run]] mode, which is only available at irregular intervals and only has one playable stage per shift.
** ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' still has the rotation time set for two hours, but allows for more options by splitting Ranked Battle into three modes, each with their own map rotations: Anarchy Battle Series, Anarchy Battle Open, and X Battle (which unlocks once a player reaches S+ rank). Salmon Run is also now available at all times, with the stage and weapon loadouts being changed every day or two.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaOfFlowerView'' tournaments are exclusively played on Misty Lake "due to possible frame drops on other stages and bullet visibility, especially for those that are color blind". Other than technical problems, each stage plays the same anyway, so it's not a big loss.

* 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. ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'' [[http://www.screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2005-08-19 parodied this way back in 2005.]] 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.

* ''Day Of Defeat Source'', the ''Creator/ValveCorporation'' remake of a Half Life 1 mod had Anzio as this when the game first released. 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/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).

** Valve has gone out of its way to change this for ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'', with all of the new playable Infected being made specifically to counter strategies based on camping (i.e. Spitter makes whatever spot its spit lands on hazardous, Charger can knock over the entire team if they don't move out of the way, and Jockey can separate teammates during an attack).
** In the original ''Left 4 Dead'', players only ever want to play the first campaign, No Mercy. Part of this is because at launch, only the first and fourth campaigns featured versus mode; since then all four campaigns have been released for versus, but people still rarely choose anything other than No Mercy over and over. Mirrored in the sequel where for VS games, people will only play Dead Center and The Parish, though ever since the original campaigns were officially ported No Mercy is once again the only one ever played. This is mostly due to Death Charges, a technique where a Charger player can charge into a survivor and hurl them to instant death. Dead Center and No Mercy have several spots where survivors can be instantly killed if they are not careful, so infected players pick these maps to get a shot at killing survivors in one shot.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaOfFlowerView'' tournaments are exclusively played on Misty Lake "due to possible frame drops on other stages and bullet visibility, especially for those that are color blind". Other than technical problems, stage plays the same anyway, so it's not a big loss.

* Usually in ''VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}'' games, many players prefer the normal battle mode stage.
** For FanGame ''VideoGame/PowerBomberman'', the three most commonly-played stages are Path to Glory, Full Power and Retro, due to not containing any obtrusive gimmicks.