What are Halo-Style Map Rotations?



In Smash-Style picks and bans, both teams go through a process that leaves one game mode + map combination each game of a set (we'll just call these combinations Gametypes). This means that the players have direct control of what gets played. Halo-Style is structured differently, as the Tournament Organizer (TO) decides the Gametypes to be played every game of every round of a tournament and releases the list when the tournament is announced.



Each round of the bracket, the players must play the Gametypes they are scheduled to play, in order, until a team wins the match. There is no banning, no picking, no playing the Gametypes out of order. You play what you are scheduled to play. The list of Gametypes changes every round so that all of the maps and game modes are evenly used throughout the bracket.



This means that a different list of Gametypes is used for each round of a tournament like so:

first list used for Winners Round 1,

second list used for Winners Round 2 and Losers Round 1,

third list used for Winners Round 3 and Losers Round 2,

fourth list used for Winners Round 4 and Losers Round 3,

etc... etc...

When we arrive at Winners Finals, Losers Finals, Grand Finals, Bracket Reset, etc, we may use bigger lists for best-of-7's or whatever. It's flexible.











You can see how every match in each round of the tournament plays the same Gametypes in the same order. Remember that a Gametype here means a Map + a Game Mode, the letters here just represent different arbitrary combinations distributed evenly.



The method of creating these lists is arbitrary, but the point is to have all maps and gametypes evenly distributed throughout the tournament. You don't stack the same map or too many of the same game mode in one round.



Halo always had 2 Team Slayer (Team Deathmatch) maps and 3 objective maps (CTF, King of the Hill, etc) per round. Splatoon has multiple gametypes to distribute too.

Let's illustrate how this would look:You can see how every match in each round of the tournament plays the same Gametypes in the same order. Remember that a Gametype here means a Map + a Game Mode, the letters here just represent different arbitrary combinations distributed evenly.The method of creating these lists is arbitrary, but the point is to have all maps and gametypes evenly distributed throughout the tournament. You don't stack the same map or too many of the same game mode in one round.Halo always had 2 Team Slayer (Team Deathmatch) maps and 3 objective maps (CTF, King of the Hill, etc) per round. Splatoon has multiple gametypes to distribute too.

What are the Benefits of Halo-Style over Smash-Style?



It is more efficient - Because players do not need to go through the process of discussing, banning, and picking maps, there is much less downtime between games in a tournament. Long downtime between games was one of the few popular complaints about Booyah Battle 1.



It requires players to be good at everything - One of the traditional complaints about using Smash-Style picks and bans in a shooter is that it allows teams to avoid a portion of the game they are not good at. Halo-Style Rotations force these players to be successful at all maps and gametypes to succeed.



It preserves variety - Ink or Sink 1 and Booyah Battle 1 saw issues with variety. In IoS WF teams banned each others' preferred game modes and only Turf War was played, and in BB teams that won games forced the same game modes repeatedly. Halo-Style forces a variety of maps and game modes.



It supports a healthier meta - There is always talk about how good maps, game modes, etc are for tournaments. With Smash-style, it's hard to tell. Already in tournaments, popular gametypes get overplayed and taboo gametypes always get banned. This game is way too young to get banned and picked down to the same 5 maps every tournament match! How can we tell if the unpopular stuff deserves to be used if it always gets banned? Halo-Style doesn't have that problem, and it develops the meta more evenly. If time proves certain gametypes to be issues, they can be banned, but their inclusion can also be simply limited instead of outright banned from competitive play. It's a flexible system.

What Problems can Arise with Halo-Style Map Rotations?



Luck can be a factor - When players don't have any influence over what gametypes are chosen, they may randomly run into rounds where their best, or worst, gametypes happen to be chosen and the results of their match can be influenced by it. Of course, the answer is to simply be better at everything, but in reality teams have things they are good at and things they aren't as good at. Halo-Style Rotations can occasionally amplify that and it can affect tournament results.



It can give TO's too much power - This is actually a big problem that happened with Halo. MLG reduced the gametypes down to a select few and rejected everything else, separating tournament play too far from normal play and preventing all sorts of growth in competitive Halo. Although that's an extreme example, the personal biases of TO's can come through in their gametype selection and steer the competitive scene in a way that players can't control. Using Halo-Style Rotations demands wise and responsible TO's more than Smash-Style does.

Conclusion