Thread: Is Arena played competitively?

where are you getting this idea that there will be new tactics and strats based on the fact you have one life?

there would be one tactic: turtling/ultra conservative play

Which is easily countered by securing the point beforehand, forcing the other team to break their turtle to push you off the point or risk losing it.

And I don't know why you'd restrict it to a single medic in an arena format. Hell, I don't see a good reason for only allowing one in comp format. Taking an extra medic means your team's combat classes are harder to kill, but also means your team has less killing power unless one of the medics was packing a kritz (in which case your team will have less killing power most of the time and more killing power some of the time.)

I'm sure the majority of classes would still be demo/scout/soldier because they're the general combat classes, but you'd certainly see more of the other classes round by round than I've ever seen in the demos and videos and crap that others have referred me to, saying "this is why it's fun."

The only way I could see tactics remaining the same as in comp play would be if you removed the first blood buff or otherwise altered the flow of an arena match... and then you really would just be playing the center point of a comp map endlessly instead of arena.

Have you even played ARENA? You can't just "secure" the point, you have to wait a minute before you can cap it... And just sitting on it holding it would be slightly lame.
If you had more then one Medic, and you were up against some GOOD players, you might see one reason why there is only one Medic. Killing him is supposed to signify a push, or gain an upper hand. If there was 2, it'd be like:

"I got one Medic, but the other is still there with an Uber, can't push." Also, 2 ubers at once would be... weird.

Arena is essentially the mid point of a map, but you do not respawn... and there is built in crits.

Have you even played ARENA? You can't just "secure" the point, you have to wait a minute before you can cap it... And just sitting on it holding it would be slightly lame.
If you had more then one Medic, and you were up against some GOOD players, you might see one reason why there is only one Medic. Killing him is supposed to signify a push, or gain an upper hand. If there was 2, it'd be like:

"I got one Medic, but the other is still there with an Uber, can't push." Also, 2 ubers at once would be... weird.

Arena is essentially the mid point of a map, but you do not respawn... and there is built in crits.

That arena is the mid point of a CP map with some different rules isn't something I'm trying to contest - that's exactly what it is. The big difference is in the way the rules work and how it's setup.

The maps are designed small to encourage the teams to fight. The first blood buff is also another thing designed to encourage aggressive playing.

You certainly can secure the point before it's open for capture. If the other team is camping and turtling back near their spawn, that gives your team ample time and space to move up and begin taking up good positions on the point. When the point opens up, your team is already in place and ready to cap it, meaning the team that was turtling now has to try attacking a team with both literal and figurative high ground. If the attacking team had an engineer, then it's even worse for them because that team will be supported by a dispenser, sentry, and possibly even a teleporter (a good example would be a tele that goes from one side of the attic to the other on arena_lumberyard.) On the other hand, a turtle would be very effective against a team that's playing very aggressively to try and get some early picks. Those are oversimplifications, but hopefully you get the idea.

I still don't see much reason for restricting class selection in arena. Maybe there's a reason for doing it in comp play (the whole "two medics would be lame/weird" idea just reeks of bullshit to me), but I can't see it being very effective in arena. Playing with a single medic on a full team of 6 or 8 would, in all likelihood, be a serious disadvantage unless your team can find a way to use him as bait to lure the other team into getting their heads blown off or kidneys gouged out.

Kyle, you seem to be looking at arena as though it's just a bastardized form of the middle point in a CP map, and it's really not. You can't look at it like you'd look at a normal CP map, because then you're going to miss a hell of a lot.

Originally Posted by Captain Coors

Originally Posted by SiderFace

Why would there be any restrictions to ANY form of play? I mean... someone please TEACH me...

In competitive play, restrictions promote using more class diversity actually. If there were no class restrictions, on some maps like GP defense you would have a couple medics and all demos/soldiers. Or couple medics and all scouts and one soldier on the scout heavy maps like badlands.

Personally I think the class limit for comp play should be 1 of each, not the design of 2 solly/scout/utility class & 1 demo/medic. That would force full time usage of spy/pyro/sniper/heavy which right now does see limited use.

every sport has restrictions on positions... in football you can only have one QB in soccer you can only have 1 goalie etc

Originally Posted by PizzaSHARK!

Have you even played ARENA? You can't just "secure" the point, you have to wait a minute before you can cap it... And just sitting on it holding it would be slightly lame.
If you had more then one Medic, and you were up against some GOOD players, you might see one reason why there is only one Medic. Killing him is supposed to signify a push, or gain an upper hand. If there was 2, it'd be like:

"I got one Medic, but the other is still there with an Uber, can't push." Also, 2 ubers at once would be... weird.

Arena is essentially the mid point of a map, but you do not respawn... and there is built in crits.

That arena is the mid point of a CP map with some different rules isn't something I'm trying to contest - that's exactly what it is. The big difference is in the way the rules work and how it's setup.

The maps are designed small to encourage the teams to fight. The first blood buff is also another thing designed to encourage aggressive playing.

You certainly can secure the point before it's open for capture. If the other team is camping and turtling back near their spawn, that gives your team ample time and space to move up and begin taking up good positions on the point. When the point opens up, your team is already in place and ready to cap it, meaning the team that was turtling now has to try attacking a team with both literal and figurative high ground. If the attacking team had an engineer, then it's even worse for them because that team will be supported by a dispenser, sentry, and possibly even a teleporter (a good example would be a tele that goes from one side of the attic to the other on arena_lumberyard.) On the other hand, a turtle would be very effective against a team that's playing very aggressively to try and get some early picks. Those are oversimplifications, but hopefully you get the idea.

I still don't see much reason for restricting class selection in arena. Maybe there's a reason for doing it in comp play (the whole "two medics would be lame/weird" idea just reeks of bullshit to me), but I can't see it being very effective in arena. Playing with a single medic on a full team of 6 or 8 would, in all likelihood, be a serious disadvantage unless your team can find a way to use him as bait to lure the other team into getting their heads blown off or kidneys gouged out.

Kyle, you seem to be looking at arena as though it's just a bastardized form of the middle point in a CP map, and it's really not. You can't look at it like you'd look at a normal CP map, because then you're going to miss a hell of a lot.

I like arena, but it just doesn't match up. I've played a few 3v3 matches, and they were sure fun. I can't wait to try the new arena matches, even if they are trying to shove it down our throats.
I still think that arena needs some kind of tweaking.

If *I* was to make a competitive league for arena, what I would do is:
*One class per team only. Highlander.
*First to 15 wins gets one round. Best of 5 rounds.
*4v4
(I feel like I missed something, but I cannot think of it.)

Removal of Sandman?

Well, that's a total given. Gay bat.
haha.