On January 10 2011 13:23 shoopuhpowah wrote:
Biohazard would be disgusting vs a Terran. Having walls enclosed around the expo AND a cliff would provide easy harassment from tanks. >.<

it's a 3rd/4th, i THINK you'll have mutas out by then.

Nayru

United States87 Posts

January 10 2011 06:19 GMT

#704

I would love to see some different maps. There are too few.

Yoshi Kirishima

United States10380 Posts

January 10 2011 06:21 GMT

#705

HOLY SHIT FINALLY a major tournament decides to use non-ladder maps.... my god

I hope you realize that Gom and Blizzard are so close that they're basically one and the same when you're talking about GSL maps.

Pwere

Canada1557 Posts

January 10 2011 06:25 GMT

#706

On January 10 2011 13:23 shoopuhpowah wrote:
Biohazard would be disgusting vs a Terran. Having walls enclosed around the expo AND a cliff would provide easy harassment from tanks. >.<

I thought the map looked good... until I saw this video and realized that it was about the size of Steppes.

Then apparently Altar isn't viable for Toss because of the weird ramp, and Aiur has that weird isolated in-base second that is apparently very vulnerable to proxy air, but they should be more playable than what was lost.

At least, Terminus and Crossfire look really good.

MiKTeX

United States234 Posts

January 10 2011 06:50 GMT

#707

sweeeet this is awesome

thank you gom for taking the initiative to use custom maps in tournaments

Koshi

Belgium38799 Posts

January 10 2011 07:18 GMT

#708

This is important news! I would love to see some new maps instead of the same crap over and over. Even if the balance isn't 100% optimal on these maps, this is a step in the right direction.

GSL, I love you.

lichter

1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts

January 10 2011 07:19 GMT

#709

Aiur Garden looks like an excellent map

Snorkle

United States1648 Posts

January 10 2011 07:23 GMT

#710

On January 10 2011 15:25 Pwere wrote:

Show nested quote +

I thought the map looked good... until I saw this video and realized that it was about the size of Steppes.

about the size of steppes??? The zerg sees the protoss moving out and has time to make over 11 roaches before he gets there. that doesn't happen on steppes. You should log onto Bnet and look up the map and play vs. an AI just to see how big it is before coming in here saying it is the size of the smallest map out there.

Maedi

United States477 Posts

January 10 2011 07:29 GMT

#711

This is great, looking forward to new maps

SheaR619

United States2399 Posts

January 10 2011 07:30 GMT

#712

Good Bye Jungle basin? Im assuming that is the 4th candidate for winning the "GTFO" award :3

kazansky

Germany931 Posts

January 10 2011 08:16 GMT

#713

This is great news even if the maps were rubbish, finally some custom maps.

We played all the maps in our practice yesterday a few times in different matchups, Bio Hazard and Terminus feel nice and are also designed nice, TelDarim is ok aswell, Aiur plays out awkward but seems to work, and I didnt recognize the difference of the GSL crossfire and the blizzard crossfire, maybe we didnt look hard enough.

Summary is: nice maps, better than Steppes or Delta for sure, an improvement regardless of how the maps will turn out to be.

Z3kk

4099 Posts

January 10 2011 08:40 GMT

#714

This brings tears of joy to my eyes.

Maybe these maps will help foster 3-or-more-base play!! :D

Atticus.axl

United States456 Posts

January 10 2011 08:42 GMT

#715

I still eagerly await the day when we may look back at the old Blizzard maps and feel comforted knowing that we now play on maps that add a level of beauty and depth to the game. I'm just glad we are finally taking a step toward that future.

MagmaRam

United States395 Posts

January 10 2011 08:48 GMT

#716

These maps look nice, especially for macro-oriented play. I'd be really excited to see Crossfire get in, as it's the only Blizzard map that my friends and I play on regularly in custom games. Crossfire is so much fun for big macro games, and when it goes to 3+ bases, you have to think to be able to defend both your expansions and the production at your main. Defensive drops, blink micro, creep spreading and killing, there are a lot of things that can happen just because it doesn't hinder late-game play in the way that some of the maps leaving do (looking at you, Steppes of War). It's also an "official" map, so it could end up in the ladder pool at some point even if custom maps never make it.

Kilgort

Ukraine41 Posts

January 10 2011 08:50 GMT

#717

Didn't read whole topic, but saw that many ppl think that iCCUP maps are good in Starcraft 2. I played on few of these maps with my friends and want to say that almost all today iCCUP maps for SC2 are totally garbage. I'm playing zerg, not the high skill, but I win often my friends on SC2 normal maps like Metalopolis, etc. I lost many games on these maps, because they are not good.

sleepingdog

Austria6145 Posts

January 10 2011 09:06 GMT

#718

After staring at the maps for some time, I have to say that I'm in love with the design of Aiur Garden - you got the natural basicly on a silver plate, but it is VERY vulnerable to air harassment. Which is awsome, because nobody likes maps where you just can't harass early on. Banshees, phoenixes and mutas lose their purpose otherwise.
On the other hand, you are free to expand more aggressively outside of your base, where it is much harder to harass with air-units since the mineral line is near the ledge of the main. This expansion, however, can be entered not only from one big ramp but from two, which makes it hard to secure early on, especially versus ling-run-bys.
It looks like semi-all-ins off two base should be do-able, but still not as easy as, say, on Xel Naga where you auto-lose your expansion since it can be attacked from a million different paths. Also, once you establish a dominant position on the main ground outside your base, you have secured yourself 4 bases and games enter real macro-mode - nevertheless it will be hard to secure both this ground and your main/back-natural vs drops in lategame, which, again, is awsome.

SheaR619

United States2399 Posts

January 10 2011 10:19 GMT

#719

On January 10 2011 15:25 Pwere wrote:

Show nested quote +

Interesting, you are given a choice to take the gold that doesnt have gas or a regular expansion that does have gas on Biohazard. Obviously, most people will favor the regular expansion due the gas except terran who probably going heavy bio. I am concern about the tight close gap path that leads to the regular 3rd though. Seems like it is very suspectible to force field seal. Loving the easy to defend natural and the distance is probably same as shakuras.

More interesting is that very early third inbase hatch. Which indicate that the map is indeed bigger than steps. Just adding a new map totally alters the meta game. I am liking where this is headed already.

Bigger map means that zerg will have to be better at creep spread. I saw the game on teremis and i just gotta say, those baneling didnt do ANYTHING. Creep spread must be on par to be able to do anything sufficiant. Otherwise we will be seeing more infestor + baneling + ling play in TvZ. I think this might be another key that has been over looked.