Siege has been around for many years, and especially in its first few years, new maps were being constantly added. There’s a total of twenty-five maps in the game, making it one of the mainstream multiplayer shooters out there that has the most maps. These maps are featured in rotation which depends on the game mode that the user is queueing for.
Sixteen maps are included in the rotation for Ranked mode, seventeen for Quickmatch, Standard also has sixteen, with Deathmatch having the fewest which is nine. While most Siege maps are incredibly balanced, there are maps that are obviously not, and for that, they’re hated by players. But balancing issues aren’t the only factor when it comes to players' hate for these maps, and that’s what will be discussed in this article.
Reasons that make a map bad:
- Unbalanced
- Plenty of wasted space
- Doesn't have a lot of dynamic angles
- Too big or too small
- The design isn't aesthetically pleasing
5. Stadium
https://youtu.be/ctK6epnKuDY?si=8xeynsQInutFAO9Y&t=20
Stadium is a map in Siege that was first featured in the Tournament of Champions back in 2020. In Siege’s lore, Harry brought Team Rainbow to this stadium so that they can train and have matches against each other while the audiences on the stadium are watching. Now, spec ops doing something as overt as having airsoft matches in front of a large crowd may not make sense in the real world, but it was a fun concept nonetheless, and so is the Stadium map that accompanied it.
While this map is a fun concept because its interior design features prominent rooms from other Siege maps and the overall design of the building is unique, it’s one of the least loved maps in Siege because it’s unnecessarily big. It has so many spaces that doesn’t even see operator traffic in most matches, and since they put together rooms from many different original maps in Siege, it can be quite convoluted inside. Add that to the fact that the map’s lore doesn’t really make sense since Siege is a spec ops themed game, then you’ll have a map that not many will be looking forward to playing in.
What Players Hate About Stadium:
- It’s one of the biggest maps in Siege, but not in a good way, because it has a lot of spaces that don't see action in most matches, so they end up being wasted.
- There are at least two spawn points that can waste attackers’ time. The most prominent one is the one where attackers have to rappel from the top and come down on top of the building
- The map’s interior design comes from combining many prominent areas from different maps in Siege, and while it’s a unique concept, it causes the map to be quite convoluted.
- The map is quite unbalanced in favor of the defenders since there are many ways to kill attackers coming off from the spawn point and there’s a large glass panel where defenders can see the outside
4. Skyscraper
https://youtu.be/KYJiG3bWnJE?si=txUR6IfYtGMZWY_z&t=14
Skyscraper has the second highest ban rate among the maps that aren’t new. When I was looking at Siege’s map ban data, I didn’t consider the newer ones because they might only have high ban rates because they’re new and a lot of players haven’t got the chance to learn them yet. With that context, it was quite surprising seeing Skyscraper being in the list of the most banned maps because, not considering the rework, this map has been in Siege for quite a long time, and is actually quite aesthetically pleasing.
The map is set in Japan and is a building on top of a skyscraper that features traditional Japanese architecture. So for aesthetics and being lore-friendly, it’s a good map. However, many players do not like it because it’s quite unbalanced. Like Studio above, it heavily favors defenders because there are a lot of spawn peek and run out spots that defenders can use to have the advantage over the attackers. Even its interior design favors defenders because inside the map, there are some vantage points where defenders will have the high ground and can easily frag attackers infiltrating from the first floor.
What Players Hate About Skyscraper:
- It’s one of the most unbalanced maps in Siege because it favors defenders with its many spawn peek and runout spots, and the most annoying experience in Siege comes from being killed right after you spawn
- Many of the best spots for attackers can really only be reached by rappelling but by doing so, they leave themselves vulnerable to runouts, which makes this map one of the riskiest for attackers
- Its interior features some vantage points that defenders can take advantage of as high grounds for fragging attackers who are infiltrating the mission building from the first floor
- This is one of the oldest maps in Siege that have been reworked to fix balancing issues, but a lot of players feel like the rework didn’t do its job, and some even feel like it made the map worse.
3. Theme Park
https://youtu.be/TlKYkF0GcSw?si=AaX1639VwhfMENbU&t=1530
Like Skyscraper above, Theme Park is an old map that has been reworked and both of them are part of the map rotation in Ranked matches. The old Theme Park map received a rework because it was very unbalanced and it had an annoying part in its middle portion where there was only one passage towards the next part of the building, at least in its interior, and that presented a lot of problems to players. However, even after it’s gotten a rework, Theme Park still has one of the highest map ban rates in the game.
That is because this map generally favors attackers, and in some objective spot choices for the defenders, it’s even more apparent. A good example of that is the Coke Stack and Drug Lab objective spots. The Coke Stack is very vulnerable from its external window as well as the Toilets Area, while the Drug Lab is very exposed from the Arcade angle and it’s hard to defend against vertical plays. Even the two objective spots on the second-floor which are more balanced still generally favors the attackers because of external windows and hatches.
What Players Hate About Theme Park:
- Most of the objective spot choices in this map generally favors the attackers, so it’s an unbalanced map. Those objective spots can be very exposed due to wide angles from other areas.
- The Coke Stack which is one of the 1st floor’s objective spots and the Bunk area which is one of the 2nd floor’s, are very susceptible from the windows and it can be hard to counter attackers that are using them
- The two objective spots on the second floor have rooftop hatches near them that attackers can use to suddenly drop down into the mission building and catch the defenders off guard when they’re focused somewhere else
- The Throne and Armory objective spots have three breachable walls and if the attackers breach those walls, the objective spot will be very exposed and it will be almost impossible to defend
2. Yacht
https://youtu.be/IHJCL4uht0g?si=CDdF2QgY99622j_F&t=47
Yacht is one of the most aesthetically pleasing maps in Siege and yet it’s one of the most hated. That’s definitely because it’s one of the most unbalanced maps in the game, which is why the devs saw fit to not include it in the Ranked map rotation. This map generally favors the attackers because for the defenders, there really aren’t a lot of spawn peek spots, and on the other hand, for the attackers, there are a lot of long angles from the outside due to the ship’s platforms that they can use to keep strafing the defenders inside who are exposed through the windows.
There’s just so many ways to skin the cat so to speak for the attackers in this map, and they can keep harassing and frustrating the defenders inside while being safely outside on the ship’s decks and balconies. With that said, aesthetic and architecture wise, this map is among my favorites due to its uniqueness. It’s basically a ship and its interior is basically the mission building. It really fits Siege’s spec ops theme and can make you really feel like you’re on a special operations mission.
What Players Hate About Yacht:
- It’s one of the most unbalanced maps in the game because it generally favors the attackers due to all the ways that defenders can be exposed from the outside, mainly because of the abundance of windows on the objective spots
- The many windows of the mission building are hard to defend because attackers will have platforms to stand on and move around while strafing and harassing the defenders inside
- There aren’t a lot of effective spawn peek spots for defenders to take advantage of. There are, but they can also be easily spotted due to the almost all-white backdrop from the outside.
- Even with only five players, it can be very easy for the defenders to feel surrounded when the attackers are all pushing from different angles; they can do so because of the said external platforms on each level.
1. Tower
https://youtu.be/UvfWSMXLlZ4?si=FsIcbWcOG9GBmq7r&t=98
Ever since Tower was added to the game and to this day, it remains the most hated map in the Siege community. I, personally, do not hate it. I love it for its aesthetics and interior design, but the fact is, no matter what kind of Siege forum you go to where the community gathers and they talk about maps that they hate, Tower will always be the most mentioned. While it’s really aesthetically pleasing and it has a unique interior design, it cannot be denied that it heavily favors the attackers, so it’s probably the most unbalanced map in the game.
First off, it’s impossible for the defenders to perform spawn peeking because attackers respawn at the top floor where defenders won’t be able to see. The paths of attack that attackers can use to infiltrate the mission building are also not susceptible to spawn peeking. In particular, the middle area of the map that attackers can use to enter the mission building provides them with platforms that give them an unfair vantage point over the playable area on the second floor which makes roaming for the defenders extra risky, and them attempting to exchange fire versus the defenders on the platforms will have them at a clear disadvantage.
What Players Hate About Tower:
- It’s the most unbalanced map in the game because it heavily favors the attackers due to the map design providing the attackers platforms upon entering the map via the middle portion which gives them the high ground
- This is the only map in Siege where it’s impossible for the defenders to perform spawn peeking because the attackers respawn from the top platform of the map which is impossible for defenders to see through windows
- The attackers can also choose to enter through the many windows on the side of the Tower but even through those windows, it’s almost impossible for defenders to spawn peek them because whole on the windows will be noticed first by rappelling attackers
- The map design creates the illusion that it’s big, however, the playable areas, especially outside the objective spots are actually very small, making it very hard for roamers to be effective and making it one of the smallest maps in the game.
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