Cathedral

Cathedral is a popular Last Team Standing map set in the cavernous main room of a ruined, collapsing cathedral. Presumably somewhere on a mountain.

Stats

• Map file: lts_cathedral (formerly pvk_cathedral)
• Mode: Last Team Standing
• Author: Jahhur and YeeHaa
• Release Date: Beta 2.1 (July 2008)
• Theme: Medieval
• Timer:
• Sudden Death Timer:
• Pick-ups: Food (x1) and Armor (x3)
• Stage Hazards: Botomless pit, pillars and blizzards (Sudden Death, only)

Overview

Like it's older brother Arena, Cathedral has a round layout. The raised sides of the map get lower towards the center, creating a bowl shape. The bottomless pit serves as the only environmental hazard outside Sudden Death, with a narrow path across it tempting players to tempt fate. Pickups are scattered around the map's decaying masonry.

Since the Pirates' spawn is located at a lower level than both the Vikings and the Knights' spawn, there are two staircases on both sides of it leading to the other teams.

Cathedral's Sudden Death features an avalanche of collapsing pillars. Should a player avoids the pillars, the doors on the edges of the map are blown open with the freezing force of a wicked blizzard (watch it, those doors can deal minor damage) forcing players to the middle of the map. Finding a safe spot is hard.

Presentation

Players face each other inside a decaying Gothic cathedral supported (barely) by massive pillars (for about one minute). The wreckage on the floor is proof of the building's extreme disrepair.

History

The map's original release was less detailed and lit differently. During Sudden Death, the wrecked pillars would fall unrealistically slowly; in a later update the physics of the pillars were improved to increase concussions per minute (CpM).

In Beta 3.0 the map's visuals and layout were tweaked. The map was illuminated more naturally, and new props were implemented. The staircases were introduced as this time.

Trivia

• Since the falling pillars lack a specific pattern, sometimes a particularly giant piece of pillar can block the Pirates' spawn area and render it impossible off-limits, ending the round in a draw. The stairs from the Beta 3.0 update indirectly fixed that issue.

• The creator of Cathedral, Jarhhur, also created another popular LTS map, Arena.

• Due to the high difficulty of forcing a player to die from the blizzard, the achievement “Otzi the Iceman” has so far only been achieved by 4.3% of all players. Despite that, it's one of the most-achieved map-themed achievements, alongside "Got a Crush on You" (also Cathedral) and "Sand Blasted" (Sandstorm).

• Like in Forgotten, braziers could cause instant kills to anyone who steps over it during a jump. It is unknown in which update it was fixed.