The Game Plan: TCSG's Guide to Map and Tank Meta in Tournaments (Part 1)
Welcome to The Game Plan! You probably already know that every map is different, and needs to be played according to your team’s particular strengths in order to triumph. In today’s feature, Haku from The Coalition – Singapore gives you some insight into the tournament map-picking process, and some of the maps best suited to specific play styles!
On the very surface of the game – Random Battles in World of Tanks – the game plays differently at different tiers: The view range changes quite substantially, but the camouflage rating changes as well. The level of damage you can expect to take relative to your HP pool often increases as you go up tiers, which allows for a much greater margin of error. These factors make the maps play differently, without even taking into account what tank you are using. A lot of the meta in Random Battles is trying to juggle the various things your tank does well or poorly with the map you're on and whatever your teammates are doing, no matter how silly or intelligent.
However, in tournament formats, where teams of 7 battle on a set of predetermined maps for victory, there are many maps, with differing locales and differing strategies required for each map, which in itself requires different map-specific tactics to achieve your strategy. Getting favourable maps for your team to play on is a mind game all by itself with your opponents.
For instance, TCSG favours aggressive, in-your-face plays, akin to barbarians, relying on the shock of the charge to throw the enemy off and keep them on the back-foot. Such a philosophy favours closed corridor maps with many possible paths, allowing the team to minimise exposure to the enemy, which in turn minimises the chances that they can be shot at, preserving their hit points for the eventual charge against the enemy. This would be maps like Mines and Ruinberg.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Team Efficiency favours slow, methodical approaches to games, staying on the defensive and chipping away at the enemy’s hit points before counter-attacking in force. Maps with good defensive set-ups, like Himmelsdorf and Steppes, are thus natural choices for them.
The third option is for teams that possess all the technical and mental attributes required to excel in any situation thrown at them. These teams are equally adept at playing in any position, and as such transcend tactical instruction, be it defensive or offensive. EL Gaming is one such example.
This season, the match schedule was a complete round-robin format; each team fought every other team twice in the season, one where you would have the first option on what maps to ban and play, and another where the opponent picked first. This negated the phenomenon of the first-mover advantage (and is an interesting topic all on its own, but to go into more detail here is digressing), allowing teams to get an equal stab at each other.
Stay tuned to see TCSG’s top picks for each tank class!