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In honor of the tenth anniversary of StarCraft II, I decided to try what the TL community considers the best map of all time, and theoretically the real Dreampool. I compiled a list of every map that was used on Blizzard's ladder, as well as maps that were used only in major offline tournaments, such as GSL's and Proleague.
Here is a list of the 176 maps that are in contention for this title:
+ Show Spoiler +16-Bit
Abiogenesis
Abyssal Caverns
Abyssal City
Abyssal Reef
Acid Plant
Acolyte
Acropolis
Akilon Flats/Wastes
Alterzim Stronghold
Anaconda
Antiga Shipyard
Apotheosis
Arid Plateau
Arkanoid
Ascension to Aiur
Atlantis Spaceship
Atlas
Automaton
Backwater
Backwater Gulch
Battle on the Boardwalk
Bel'Shir Beach
Bel'Shir Vestige
Bifrost/Neo Bifrost
Blackpink
Blistering Sands
Blitzkreig
Blood Boil
Blueshift
Bridgehead
Cactus Valley
CalDeum
Calm Before the Storm
Catallena
Catalyst
Central Protocol
Cerulean Fall
Cloud Kingdom
Cobalt
Coda
Condemned Ridge
Crevasse
Crossfire
Cyber Forest
Daedalus Point
Darkness Sanctuary
Dasan Station
Dash and Terminal
Daybreak
Deadwing
Deathaura
Defender's Landing
Delta Quadrant
Derelict Watcher
Desert Oasis
Disco Bloodbath
DMZ
Dreamcatcher
Dual Sight
Dusk Towers
Eastwatch
Echo
Entombed Valley
Ephemeron
Eternal Empire
Ever Dream
Expedition Lost
Foxtrot Labs
Fracture
Fractured Glacier
Frost
Frozen Temple
Fruitland
Galactic Process
Golden Wall
Grand Lagoon
Gwangalli Beach
Habitation Station
Haeundae
Heavy Rain
Honorgrounds
Howling Peak
Icarus
Ice and Chrome
Incineration Zone
Inferno Pools
Interloper
Invader
Iron Fortress
Judgement
Jungle Basin
Kairos Junction
King Sejong Station
King's Cove
Klontas Mire
Korhal Carnage Knockout
Korhal City
Korhal Compound
Korhal Floating/Sky Island
Kulas Ravine
Lerilak Crest
Lost and Found
Lost Temple
Maze
Mech Depot
Merry Go Round
Metalopolis
Metropolis
Moonlight Madness
Muspelheim
Naro Station
Neo Planet S
Neon Violet Square
Nerazim Crypt
New Fighting Spirit
New Gettysburg
New Polaris Rhapsody
New Repugnancy
Newkirk District/Precinct
Nightshade
Nimbus
Obsidian
Odyssey
Ohana
Orbital Shipyard
Outboxer
Overgrowth
Paladino Terminal
Para Site
Pillars of Gold
Polar Night
Port Aleksander
Prion Terraces
Proxima Station
Purity and Industry
Rak'Shir
Red City
Redshift
Ruins of Endion
Ruins of Seras
Sanshorn Mists
Scrap Station
Searing Crater
Secret Spring
Sequencer
Shakuras Plateau
Silver Sands
Simulacrum
Sky Shield
Slag Pits
Star Station
Stasis
Steppes of War
Submarine LE
Tal'Darim Altar
Terminus
Terraform
Testbug
The Shattered Temple
Thunderbird
Tristram
Triton
Turbo Cruise '84
Typhon Peaks
Ulrena
Vaani Research Station
Waystation
Whirlwind
Winter's Gate
World of Sleepers
Xel'Naga Caverns
Xel'Naga Fortress
Year Zero
Yeonsu
Zen
Zerus Prime
The maps will first be sorted into 32 groups, 17 with 6 and 15 with 5. The winner of each group will be seeded into a single-elimination bracket based on the percentage of group stage votes they receive. The last place finishers in each group will also be seeded into a single-elimination bracket in order to find the worst map in StarCraft II history.
Schedule:
Group Stage: June 19th-July 12th
Ro32: July 13th-July 24th
Ro16: July 25th-August 5th
Ro8: August 6th-August 15th
Semifinal 1: August 16th-August 21st
Semifinal 2: August 22nd-August 28th
Finals: August 29th-September 4th
Each poll up to the quarterfinals will be open for 3 days, starting and ending at midnight UTC (00:00 GMT (+00:00)). The quarterfinals polls will be open for 5 days, and the semifinals and finals will be open for a week.
The tournament will end on September 4th, 10 years to the day after the first ever GSL match between IdrA and Acupuncture (on Xel'Naga Caverns, if that impacts your voting at all.)
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Group 1:
Poll: Which of these maps do you consider to be the best?New Gettysburg (39) 38% Golden Wall (35) 34% Heavy Rain (11) 11% Zen (8) 8% Galactic Process (7) 7% Howling Peak (3) 3% 103 total votes You must be logged in to vote in this poll. ☐ Zen
☐ Golden Wall
☐ New Gettysburg
☐ Heavy Rain
☐ Galactic Process
☐ Howling Peak
Group 2:
Poll: Which of these maps do you consider to be the best?Yeonsu (40) 39% Blackpink (40) 39% Bridgehead (8) 8% Fracture (6) 6% New Polaris Rhapsody (4) 4% Darkness Sanctuary (4) 4% 102 total votes You must be logged in to vote in this poll. ☐ New Polaris Rhapsody
☐ Darkness Sanctuary
☐ Bridgehead
☐ Yeonsu
☐ Blackpink
☐ Fracture
Group 3:
Poll: Which of these maps do you consider to be the best?Xel'Naga Caverns (58) 59% Year Zero (16) 16% Nightshade (13) 13% Cobalt (6) 6% Tristram (4) 4% Grand Lagoon (1) 1% 98 total votes You must be logged in to vote in this poll. ☐ Year Zero
☐ Grand Lagoon
☐ Xel'Naga Caverns
☐ Cobalt
☐ Nightshade
☐ Tristram
Group 4:
Poll: Which of these maps do you consider to be the best?Terraform (32) 33% Foxtrot Labs (31) 32% Eastwatch (14) 14% Ice and Chrome (12) 12% Winter's Gate (6) 6% Zerus Prime (3) 3% 98 total votes You must be logged in to vote in this poll. ☐ Terraform
☐ Winter's Gate
☐ Eastwatch
☐ Zerus Prime
☐ Ice and Chrome
☐ Foxtrot Labs
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Nice initiative and a very complete list of maps! The only notable map that I can think of that's missing is Sanshorn Mist which was played in IPL and a bunch of tournaments back in the day. Maybe replace Blitzkrieg with it since Blitzkrieg was only ever used in that Redbull event and so isn't that notable. Also CalDeum is misspelled as DalDeum
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Steppes of War...easy
I’d like to see current Zergs like Serral and Reynolds try to win on those maps haha
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On June 19 2020 09:32 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Nice initiative and a very complete list of maps! The only notable map that I can think of that's missing is Sanshorn Mist which was played in IPL and a bunch of tournaments back in the day. Maybe replace Blitzkrieg with it since Blitzkrieg was only ever used in that Redbull event and so isn't that notable. Also CalDeum is misspelled as DalDeum
Thanks, I added Sanshorn to one of the 5 map groups. There are now 17 6-map groups and 15 5-map groups.
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Hey that's my thingy! 
Group 4 is the hardest for me, Winter's Gate and Foxtrot were both very fun map, gotta go with Terraform tho, it may have been cancer mech heaven, but damn does it look cool. Also I have no memory of Howling Peak but it look like a terrible map haha
Good luck with your tournament, could be cool to have an embedded link to an image of the maps if you have a sec tho, for those like me who can't remember a map unless they see it. (I think they all have a liquipedia page)
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My picks:
Group 1's a two way race between New Gettysburg and Golden Wall. Howling Peak's a terrible Blizzard map that saw no play. Zen doesn't deserve the hate it got from bad Protoss players who didn't realize it was actually a decent map in PvZ even before the nat got changed, but it's nevertheless just an average map. Galactic Process was just a mediocre Cloud Kingdom clone with lots of proxy reapers and where tanks got abused a lot against Protoss. Heavy Rain was pretty good but not outstanding.
Meanwhile Golden Wall has one of the most novel layouts to be successful in years and has given a lot of great games especially in TvZ. And New Gettysburg despite not being particularly balanced, was nevertheless the best map in an admittedly otherwise rather terrible year for maps, and has so many great memories associated with it. Zest messing up that cannon rush so badly in Proleague. That other cannon rush game where the wrong version of the map was hosted which meant that a cannon couldn't get powered from across the gap at the nat., Nerchio beating TY's invincible mech build in Shoutcraft Kings.
It's really close for me, but at the end of the day I have to choose Golden Wall for its layout.
For Group 2 gotta go with Blackpink which was all around a very strong map. New Polaris Rhapsody is the lava map from Red Bull but we never got that many games on it. Darkness Sanctuary had awful balance, and was just kinda miserable. Bridgehead is a product of TLMC6 where the judges lost their minds and decided to choose only maps with backdoors to the main following Expedition Lost's trend. Yeonsu was kinda decent except that it was at the heart of the blink stalker era. Fracture was just mediocre and not well liked.
Group 3's a pretty weak group. Year Zero was heavily vetoed, not that balanced, but had a few outstanding games like Serral vs soO, and those terran mech v P games. I can't remember anything about Grand Lagoon. Cobalt's another of those GSL-only 4p maps that always get vetoed. Nightshade was pretty good but ultimately very terran favored and played out very very similarly. Tristram's another map I don't remember due to not watching much GSTL--looks pretty generic anyhow. Which leaves Xel'naga Caverns which I'll vote for not because it's a good map, but because of the place it has in SCII history.
Group 4's more interesting. Zerus Prime is a terrible Blizzard map and can be discounted. Ice and Chrome is very new, but it's shaping up to be a pretty standard (possibly overly macro) map. Nothing that will stand out most likely. Eastwatch had some interesting games (like Trap vs Rogue or some hour long games with ravens and ghost), but wasn't that balanced. I like Winter's Gate but it didn't get played that much since it's small and pros were prejudiced against the slow zones after Turbo Cruise (despite Winter's Gate using them much better). Which leaves Terraform which was quite good and has a snazzy layout and Foxtrot Labs which was a beautiful two in one map that was rather underappreciated. It's another close one for me, but I like Terraform at little bit better.
Also I feel there should be a separate poll to determine the worst map in each group. You might not get votes just because you're an obscure map like Grand Lagoon. That's different from actively being hated like Secret Spring or Daedalus Point.
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Golden Wall, Bridgehead, Cobalt, Terraform
Weak groups TBH, waiting for the final 4 of WW, KSS Neo Planet S and Overgrowth.
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I love this concept! Way to go!
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I love to vote on Abyssal Reef, but the option bracket is nowhere in sight yet..
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I'm too lazy, can someone link some good games from each map?
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1) New Gettysburg by a hair, I've really come to appreciate Golden Wall and would probably vote for it after the next big event instead.
2) Blackpink by a decent margin. Bridgehead was interesting though and Yeonsu gives me anxiety to this day.
3) Xel'naga Caverns cause it's legendary, don't really like the rest of the group much.
4) Foxtrot Labs. Runner-up Terraform.
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Where is Blood Bath in Big Game Hunter? 
Cool idea! I just don't remember the layout of 90% of these and I'm way too lazy to look them up
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China5602 Posts
Man I don't even remember like half of the names now.
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Excellent idea! I think this calls for a WardiTV tournament played on the top maps from this
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It'll be great if the poll could include a link to the map, e.g.  Eastwatch LE
Otherwise, this is a great initiative! I even looked up the map one by one to make my decision
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On June 19 2020 11:29 Nakajin wrote:Hey that's my thingy! Group 4 is the hardest for me, Winter's Gate and Foxtrot were both very fun map, gotta go with Terraform tho, it may have been cancer mech heaven, but damn does it look cool. Also I have no memory of Howling Peak but it look like a terrible map haha Good luck with your tournament, could be cool to have an embedded link to an image of the maps if you have a sec tho, for those like me who can't remember a map unless they see it. (I think they all have a liquipedia page)
This may or may not have been inspired by your tournament last year.
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On June 19 2020 11:31 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
My picks:
Group 1's a two way race between New Gettysburg and Golden Wall. Howling Peak's a terrible Blizzard map that saw no play. Zen doesn't deserve the hate it got from bad Protoss players who didn't realize it was actually a decent map in PvZ even before the nat got changed, but it's nevertheless just an average map. Galactic Process was just a mediocre Cloud Kingdom clone with lots of proxy reapers and where tanks got abused a lot against Protoss. Heavy Rain was pretty good but not outstanding.
Meanwhile Golden Wall has one of the most novel layouts to be successful in years and has given a lot of great games especially in TvZ. And New Gettysburg despite not being particularly balanced, was nevertheless the best map in an admittedly otherwise rather terrible year for maps, and has so many great memories associated with it. Zest messing up that cannon rush so badly in Proleague. That other cannon rush game where the wrong version of the map was hosted which meant that a cannon couldn't get powered from across the gap at the nat., Nerchio beating TY's invincible mech build in Shoutcraft Kings.
It's really close for me, but at the end of the day I have to choose Golden Wall for its layout.
For Group 2 gotta go with Blackpink which was all around a very strong map. New Polaris Rhapsody is the lava map from Red Bull but we never got that many games on it. Darkness Sanctuary had awful balance, and was just kinda miserable. Bridgehead is a product of TLMC6 where the judges lost their minds and decided to choose only maps with backdoors to the main following Expedition Lost's trend. Yeonsu was kinda decent except that it was at the heart of the blink stalker era. Fracture was just mediocre and not well liked.
Group 3's a pretty weak group. Year Zero was heavily vetoed, not that balanced, but had a few outstanding games like Serral vs soO, and those terran mech v P games. I can't remember anything about Grand Lagoon. Cobalt's another of those GSL-only 4p maps that always get vetoed. Nightshade was pretty good but ultimately very terran favored and played out very very similarly. Tristram's another map I don't remember due to not watching much GSTL--looks pretty generic anyhow. Which leaves Xel'naga Caverns which I'll vote for not because it's a good map, but because of the place it has in SCII history.
Group 4's more interesting. Zerus Prime is a terrible Blizzard map and can be discounted. Ice and Chrome is very new, but it's shaping up to be a pretty standard (possibly overly macro) map. Nothing that will stand out most likely. Eastwatch had some interesting games (like Trap vs Rogue or some hour long games with ravens and ghost), but wasn't that balanced. I like Winter's Gate but it didn't get played that much since it's small and pros were prejudiced against the slow zones after Turbo Cruise (despite Winter's Gate using them much better). Which leaves Terraform which was quite good and has a snazzy layout and Foxtrot Labs which was a beautiful two in one map that was rather underappreciated. It's another close one for me, but I like Terraform at little bit better.
Also I feel there should be a separate poll to determine the worst map in each group. You might not get votes just because you're an obscure map like Grand Lagoon. That's different from actively being hated like Secret Spring or Daedalus Point.
I applaud your thorough analysis. Well done.
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EPT
