Number 10: Highpass

 
Highpass is a community-made KOTH map designed with the classic industrial desert style that can also be found in maps such as Badlands and Gullywash. It’s symmetrically mirrored and not as compact as other King of the Hill maps, surprisingly. It was included in the game with the Tough Break update in December 2015. It was also given an optimization patch in January 2016, along with some minor visual improvements. 
 
 
 
This map doesn’t give a dry and desolated feel, unlike other maps taking place in the desert (e.g Dustbowl, Gold Rush, Hoodoo etc.) which makes it feel refreshing in both aesthetics and originality. It plays really well and has some balanced sentry spots as well as Sniper sightlines. Aside from that, it’s very friendly for almost every class. Scouts have free space to run around and fight in, Soldiers have plenty of sky to rocket jump on, Pyros can take advantage of ambushing enemies in the indoors areas, Demomen have many places for sticky traps to their disposal etc etc. 
 
 
 
Overall, a very balanced map in terms of class versatility. However, it does have some problems regarding its control point. It’s just too open and has little to no cover for anyone attempting to cap it. Sniper have it a bit too easy on this one, as well as Engies. But it’s a problem that can be worked around my knowing where to move and not jumping on the control point completely unaware of what to expect. Check the balconies, take out sentry nests and jump erratically to avoid getting sniped. If you do all that, you won’t have trouble capping the point. 
 
 
 
 

Number 9: Gravel Pit

 
Gravel Pit is an official Valve-made A/D map with a special gimmick unique to this map (and also Junction). The gimmick itself allows BLU team to have the first two points (A & B) open instead of having to cap A so they can continue to B, like other A/D maps. BLU team can cap A&B at their desired order, that said, they still need to capture both so they can continue to the final point (C) and win the match. 
 
 
 
The map is designed so that RED can’t simply spawncamp BLU until the match ends or simply putting up 3 sentry nests on a single point (i’m looking at you, Dustbowl), all this due to the fact that RED will have a hard time reaching BLU’s base. “Why is this?”, you might ask. Well, the answer is that BLU has a high ground advantage compared to RED because of a tunnel that connects BLU and both control points, allowing BLU to just snipe enemies away from the tunnel exit, that lies quite a height above the ground RED has. Only rocket jumping Soldiers or sticky jumping Demomen can get up there. 
 
 
 
 
 
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Control Point C can be a pain to cap at times, but it’s still high up and hard to reach, so if you coordinate with your team and succesfully kick the team off the tower, you got the win in the bag. This map is very fun in community servers and casual too. It’s more balanced than it looks and plays really well. It gives off a perfect 2007 TF2 vibe that the other launch maps give. Everytime I load up here and stare at the laser gun on top of C, I feel like I just went back 13 years in time to old school TF2. It’s a shame I didn’t get to experience the game in its early days, it was a beauty. Oh good heavens, I got a bit side tracked there, let’s get back to rating maps. 
 
 

Number 8: Freight

 
cp_freight is a community-made 5CP map that takes place in a railway somewhere in the badlands (badlands as in the tf2 universe location), and thus has the typical desert landscape, with some brick buildings here and there. 
 
 
 
It was added in the 2010 April 28 patch. Freight is incredibly similar to Well, as it took heavy inspiration from it, from simple props and layout to replicating the underwater tunnels in their entirety. 
 
 
 
 
 
The indoors layout, albeit a bit dull and also cluttered with fake doors that may confuse people playing it for the first time. It’s routes aren’t really complex or anything, but it takes memorization to remember where to go at times (e.g last point, middle point). The design is very appealing, taking a break from plain cement and wooden boards onto painted brick walls that actually look fitting for such a map. Well also has brick walls in some parts of the map, but they look ugly as hell because they’re unpainted, so Freight might just have a visual advantage over Well (still a good map though). 
 
 

Number 7: Snakewater

 
Ah, yes. cp_snakewater_final1, also known as the one of the most popular competitive 5CP maps. Introduced during the Two Cities update in November 2013 
 
 
 
“(…) It is not is a city, because this is the Two Cities Update and we’re announcing a second city tomorrow. So for the record, Snakewater is more of a mill town than a city” 
-Two Cities update announcement 
 
Anyway, Snakewater is a very popular map amongst the TF2 Pro community, and it sure does show. Everytime I get in a Casual match featuring this map, I get crushed by an Iron Bomber demo who sits atop the leadeboard since the first 60 seconds of the match. That or an Exquisite Rack soldier. The map even got its very own achievement pack! The map itself is incredibly well designed, and while open forest settings aren’t my cup of tea, there are other things in the map that really click with me. The deteriorated walls surrounding the last point, the radio towers on the background, the Gorge-style buildings. Now that I think about it, Snakewater reminds me a lot of HL2: EP2’s White Forest, hmmmm 
 
 
 
…oh, I’m sidetracking again. 
 
Snakewater also features a big space indoors, not limiting Soldiers or Demos from their full capabilities. Mid is always fun to play in, as Sniper sightlines can be easily blocked by using cover around the point plate. I am fully convinced that this map would be wonderful on KOTH. Not much to say, just looks great and plays really, REALLY well. 
 
 

Number 6: Landfall

 
Landfall is the only CTF map I actually enjoy due to its appealing looks and actual fair gameplay compared to the Engineer/Sniper supremacy on most other maps (e.g Turbine, 2fort, Well). 
 
 
 
I am not saying that having class versatility makes the map instantly good, it’s also that it’s more fun to play overall and benefits teamwork instead of just rushing to the Intel as scout and capping because the other team is being spawncamped into oblivion by 4 demomen. That or just having 5 engineer’s ruling the entire basement forever. That’s not teamwork, that’s just letting a set amount of players all playing a specific class to overwhelm players unfairly and win the game out of overly offensive/overly defensive gameplay. 
 
 
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Landfall instead ACTUALLY incentivates you to defend better, not to defend more. This is due to many things, such as sentry guns being more vulnerable, having less effective sentry spots, less sightlines etc. These classes aren’t completely worthless either, they’re just not an instant win button in this map. Shown to the right is a poorly drawn sketch representing how a soldier can easily spam rockets toward an intel-defending sentry without being in its range, something that isn’t possible on a lot of CTF maps and thus leads to other maps being basically heaven for braindead turtle engies. This is just one of many things Landfall does great and other CTF maps don’t. 
 
 

Number 5: Standin

 
Standin, released during the 2013 Summer Event along with Process, has got to be the most unique Control Points map I have ever played. It has this cloudy, depressing atmosphere that can even be a bit refreshing after so many maps set in broad daylight or dusk (dusk is also good just a bit redundant). 
 
 
 
The entire map isn’t all dark and grey either, there’s also a few fully lighted, industrial indoor areas that have great contrast with the map’s aesthetic. But setting isn’t the only unique thing this map fashions. The game play mode is one special to Standin, named “Domination” Control Points. Domination basically requires either team to capture 3 neutral control points and to own them all at the same time to win the match. It sounds like a hard task, but it actually plays out pretty interestingly. 
 
 
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Most of the time, both teams aren’t big enough to defend or attack all 3 control points at once, so many times 2 or 3 players will be guarding or capturing one of the points for maximum effectivity. If you’re lucky, only a single person will be in charge of the point when you arrive, and you can have an epic 1v1 fight to decide who gets the point! 
 
 
 
The three C’s required to win Standin are: coordinated, communicative and competent. If your team is all of those things, you got the match in the bag, mate. The map also has a single achievement that requires you to win 139 exact rounds in the map. There’s like 2 servers that run Standin and everyone on Casual leaves when it gets voted, so good luck with that. 
 
 

Number 4: Junction

 
Oh my, I’m gonna get some words for this. Let’s start by saying cp_junction_final looks really good and is the only TF2 map to ever be set on an underground facility. I personally love the abundance of props, doorways and corridors that make the map feel more lively. 
 
 
 
As much as the lack of vertical mobility can be a bit annoying, it doesn’t make soldiers and demos as useless as the community makes it to be. They’re still great for area denial and can use balconies and stairways to get high ground and are still quite viable. Junction is also the only map other than Gravel Pit to feature the 3CP A/D sub-gamemode I love so much. 
 
 
 
 
Why do people hate this map so much then, if it has so many redeeming qualities? Well, it’s quite simple. People just don’t know how to properly deal with Junction’s quirks. BLU will always blame the map design for losing 3 times in a row instead of analizing how to correctly take down a sentry nest. It’s simple. Demoman+Über and BOOM, RED sentry nests are no more. Demo has got to be the most braindead counter to Engineer in the game, and the Über just helps increase that advantage. Wrapping up the gameplay topic, this map is really fun to play in if you know where to go, because nobody else does, so you will have fun being a ninjaneer if you comprehend Junction’s layout, the most undecipherable thing known to man. 
 
 

Top 3

Number 3: Hydro

 
The most experimental map in the most experimental gamemode is of course, tc_hydro. Hydro is a Territorial Control map, which means that trying to understand is most likely to cause a severe stroke. 
 
 
 
 
Hydro was released as launch map and like other launch maps, it’s a time machine to 2007 TF2. I don’t think I can explain Hydro gameplay-wise without taking up the whole section, so I’ll just skip to the design and aesthetics. Hydro was, to say the least, very ahead of its time. TF2 was very simple back at launch and Hydro’s complexity is definitely not very fitting with it. Nowadays, we’re all used to all sorts of things. Rockets, robot massacres and grappling hooks. Some can be very strange or plain ridiculous, but Territorial Control existed in a time where wacky gamemodes like these weren’t heard of yet, and Hydro was misunderstood and forgotten. 
 
 
 
Hydro’s design was definitely something else. Its powerhouse-ish look fits it well. The water areas and canyons also have a positive effect on Hydro’s aesthetic as a whole. Overall, very interesting gamemode, avant-garde in all ways and also a ton of fun with friends. 
 

Number 2: Doomsday

 
sd_doomsday is the most lore-packed TF2 map to date and is also a really good first impression for a gamemode like Special Delivery. The most interesting detail about this map has got to be the insane amount of lore-alluring content on it. For example, BLU’s spawn contains a bulletin board filled with references to the TF comics and the TF2 universe in general. RED’s spawn has a projector room behind it showing a newspaper article with even more references to the comics. And even better yet, there are a few out of bounds areas with hints toward the Mann vs. Machine update, such as a room with BLU spy reviewing a map with markings referring to MvM maps and also some pictures of MvM robots behind him. 
 
 
 
Aside from the secrets, the map is also really well designed. The objective is to pick up a briefcase containing australium, which you have to carry all the way to the rocket, where you’ll step on a lift that goes progressively higher until you get to the tip of the rocket and you succesfully place it inside it. The map has some buildings in the middle and both mining and sewer tunnels that both lead to the australium case, which is surrounded by 2 medium building left and right. The map fits all classes and it’s wackyness makes it 4 times more enjoyable that it should be. 
 
 
 

Number 1: Badlands

 
I was undecisive of wether to place KOTH or Control Points Badlands here, so I just put both of them in the same spot. Badlands was released as an official remake of TFC’s Badlands in February 2008. Later in 2011, the KOTH version was released with the Hatless Update. Badlands design is just brilliant. The well-decorated and cozy spawnrooms, the balanced and open control point, the supply placement, everything just works. As much as I have played the KOTH version more, the Control Points version is also really good for what I’ve heard. The dusk setting is so oddly familiar and the overall feel of this map isn’t matched by anything else on this game. Not much more to say, just an incredible map. 14/10 
 
 
 
 

Honorable Mentions

 
Maps that are still high-quality, yet did not make it into the list 
 

cp_powerhouse

 
 
 
7/10. Looks good but too stalematey 
 

cp_gullywash_final1

 
 
 
8/10. A bit forgettable but looks awesome. The perfect sentry spots rub me the wrong way though 
 

pl_hoodoo

 
 
 
6/10. It looks cool andshouldplay well, but it really doesn’t 
 

cp_mountainlab

 
 
 
8/10. Great design but last point is too hard to cap 
 

cp_sunshine

 
 
 
8/10. Visually stunning but lacks detail and gets stale quick 
 

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