Arena

The original Last Team Standing map, and one of the most popular; Arena is a wide open circle of sand, with plenty of ruins and wooden walls for cover, encircled by stone walls and empty stands at the foot of a volcano.

Stats

• Map file: lts_arena (formerly pvk_arena)
• Mode: Last Team Standing
• Author: Jahhur and YeeHaa
• Release Date: Beta 2.0 (February 2008)
• Theme: Not specified
• Timer:
• Sudden Death Timer:
• Pick-ups: Food (x2) and Armor (x3)
• Stage Hazards: Lava (Sudden Death, only)

Overview

Arena is seen as the ubiquitous Last Team Standing map. Its round layout both balances teams initially, and stops them running away from enemy players. In the middle of the arena there are two floors: the upper one and the lower one; the upper floor has more props that help protect players from ranged attacks, while the lower one houses more pickups.

Sudden Death makes things hard for players under the central area by filling it with rising lava. The lava stops once it reaches the upper central area. Large rocks also begin to fall from the sky.

Presentation

As both the new and the original maps' names suggest, the teams fight within a typical Roman colosseum. It is unknown if the map is set at an urban location or in a ruin, although the huge volcano suggests a reference to the Roman city of Pompei. The stands are empty and the gates are closed, denying players any escape. While the upper floor looks crude and decayed, the lower floor is richly decorated, despite the darker lightning and the suspicious lava pond in the center.

History

Arena is a reimagining of a deathmatch map from Pirates, Vikings and Knights called Colosseum. The early version of Arena (then a deathmatch map) had completely different spawn areas than those seen in the map's current state; each team had its own room, much like the gladiators of the Roman Empire. Once the player exits the room it would reach an upper platform outdoors with a gate specific for each team that leads to the arena; once the player steps into the arena it couldn't go back to the gladiator's room. With the introduction of Last Team Standing mode, the gladiator rooms were more simplified and were moved to ground floor; to prevent any player that refuses to go to the arena, poisoned gas would be triggered to kill the coward and the idle ones. The Beta 2.3 update removed the gladiator rooms altogether and since then all players spawn inside the arena. The lower level was also added in the same update, providing newer gameplay mechanics. The poison trigger would later be reused in Gravedanger.

In the original Sudden Death mode, while the rising lava was present, there was also a murder of crows that descended from the sky to attack players in a fashion similar to that of the Captain's Parrot. The crows were later removed for being more distracting than an actual threat for players; as a result the lava was programed to raise higher and faster.

Recent updates have caused the wooden walls to be destroyed by the lava during Sudden Death to prevent players from jumping on them and evading attacks until the round ends in a draw. The Sudden Death timer was tweaked in recent updates as well.

Despite these layout changes, Arena's presentation and visuals has barely changed in over seven years.

Trivia

• A common bug makes players turn into ice if they die in the lava during Sudden Death. The bug was reportedly fixed in the Beta 3.1 update.

Gallery

Beta 2.0

• 

  Arena's loading screen (Team Deathmatch)
• 

  The Pirates' gladiator gate.

Beta 2.1

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  Arena's loading screen (Last Team Standing)
• 

  One of the spawn rooms from Arena.
• 

  The poison gas in action.