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This week's Soapbox was submitted by Mark "jESUIT" Cheben, Editor-in-Chief of GotFrag and all around cool guy. Like all Soapboxes, this is solely his opinion.

Bring back Aztec and Cbble

While the current foursome of Counter-Strike maps (dust2, nuke, inferno, and train) are arguably the best maps included with Counter-Strike, they have fueled one of the harsher criticisms against the CS competitive scene … that it needs new maps.

Several leagues, tournaments, and individuals have sought to create quality maps for competitive play. Out of the many attempts, only one map has been created that has the balance of dust2, nuke, inferno, and train. That map is CPL_mill. Unfortunately, this map is inexorably linked to the organization from which it takes its name. It had been used for one season in CEVO, and infrequently in LAN tournaments.

The rest of these so called “competition maps” are hideous. They play worse than the “unbalanced” maps we abandoned. Maps like Russka and especially Tuscan are poorly laid out.
Tuscan is supposedly a map inspired by Mill, but does away with the best parts of it. The map is essentially split in two, making it very difficult for CTs to quickly travel between the sites. The changes to bombsite 2, the one with the blue squeaky door that made Mill so balanced, have made Tuscan impossible for the CTs. The bombsite forces the CTs there to hold two choke points while their teammates cannot easily rotate.

Russka is slightly better, but has the feel of a map laid out on an etch-a-sketch. The bomb sites here are so closely arranged that the opposite critique applies here. Also, the haphazardly placed balcony that connects the sites is very inaccessible and feels more like an attempt to rip off dust2 than create solid game play.

Fire and Strike are much tighter maps, but don’t have the magic their elder sibling mill has. Fire saw X3’s first LAN defeat at the hands of an American by Domain of Pain at the CPL Invite event held at the CPL’s Dallas offices. It has evolved considerably since then, but with the T routes so far apart regrouping is difficult. Strike makes it awkward for both CTs and Ts to rotate. Both of these maps are closer to being a good competitive map than any of the others.

Contra is an abomination. What serious competition map has a freaking river in it? Forge is little better and is as much of a competition map as Chateau. Why the map maker placed the second bomb site equally distant from the Ts and CTs is a wonder to me.

While Aztec and Cbble are not perfect, they are noticeably better than these aforementioned maps. There is a lot of history behind these maps. I’ve seen amazing matches on Aztec, and Cbble. =ATF= dominated Aztec in CAL Invite because of their coordination on T, and was able to rack up the offensive rounds. HeatoN’s legendary five on one versus Four Kings would not have the chance to take place today.

Firstwave, shaGuar’s first big team, made their impact felt by dominating X3 on Aztec. The newer spawns in Aztec have yet to see competitive play; a major event or league has not used Aztec since this change.

fzer0’s infamous smoke over the cbble walls surprised 3D and, in part, led to Moto and Kane joining the team. RDW versus SK, minus the money issues surrounding that match, was a display of how great a cbble match could be. fRoD versus Four Kings on cbble was one of the best PoV’s I have ever seen, and one of the best displays of awping prowess.

These maps, while tilted in favor of the CT side due to layout, are balanced due to the current CS rules. It’s why we have two halves instead of just one.

Watching MYM take on mTw on Cbble was an epiphany for me, why are we forced to watch matches on sub-par maps, like Russka, when the older maps play better? These maps have very unique dynamics to them. They often emphasize spawn timing and coordination on the more “difficult." A map that doesn’t play exactly like Dust2 isn’t bad, just different.

With ESWC adding Tuscan to its map list, this is of great importance. Would you rather see f0rest versus Neo on a poor imitation of CPL_mill or on Aztec? I think the answer is pretty straight forward.