Arena

The RED spawn on Lumberyard, one of the first Arena maps to be introduced into the game.

“

I say this to you with the unvarnished factualism of plain talk: I love Arena Mode. — Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865

”

Arena is a game mode added during the Heavy Update in which teams RED and BLU are pitted against each other, in a battle to the death. The goal for both teams is to kill all of the opposing team's players, with no respawning during rounds. If both teams survive one minute of fighting, a control point will unlock, allowing a team to win by capping the point.

Gameplay

See also: Arena tips

Arena maps are designed to keep the class diversity of Team Fortress 2 while focusing goals around combat between two teams. Whereas other game modes lean towards a broad, overall strategy for the team, Arena concentrates on the specific tactical choices the teams make in a single fight.

Arena features smaller maps that play out more quickly. The round ends once either team has no players left in the arena, or when the control point has unlocked and been captured. Rounds tend to be very fast and highly competitive, with an emphasis on a team's class makeup and plans to counter the opposing team's class choices. Arena mode is suitable for smaller matches such as three-versus-three, while still comfortably supporting huge knockdown twelve-on-twelve brawls. There are usually very few, if any, Health kits, and even then they are often far from the main action, near stage hazards, or both. This forces teams to rely more on Dispensers and Medics.

Players may have to sit out to keep team numbers balanced if they were on the losing team, but players on the winning team never have to sit out the next round.

The First Blood critical hit buff is unique to the Arena game mode, and can be used to give the player an advantage against the enemy team.

Strategy

Main article: Community Arena strategy

Maps

Main article: List of maps

Arena maps carry the arena_ prefix; community maps are identified with italic font.

Name	Picture	File name
Badlands (Arena)		arena_badlands
Granary (Arena)		arena_granary
Lumberyard		arena_lumberyard
Nucleus (Arena)	160px	arena_nucleus
Offblast		arena_offblast_final
Ravine		arena_ravine
Sawmill (Arena)		arena_sawmill
Watchtower		arena_watchtower
Well (Arena)		arena_well

Related achievements

 Scout

First Blood Get the first kill in an Arena or Competitive match.

First Blood, Part 2 Kill 5 enemies with the First Blood crit buff in an Arena match.

Update history

August 19, 2008 Patch (Heavy Update)

• Added Arena mode.
• Added maps: Badlands (Arena), Granary (Arena), Well (Arena), Lumberyard, and Ravine.

February 24, 2009 Patch (Scout Update)

• Added map: Watchtower.

May 21, 2009 Patch (Sniper vs. Spy Update)

• Added maps: Sawmill (Arena) and Nucleus (Arena).

August 13, 2009 Patch (Classless Update)

• Added map: Offblast.

October 18, 2010 Patch

• Fixed the Holy Mackerel hit triggering the first blood event in Arena mode.

June 28, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a problem with Arena mode first blood CritBoost not removing itself at the correct time.