Starcraft 2 news » New Ladder Maps for 2017 Season 1

Discover beautiful coral reefs, advanced space stations, or wholly unique battlegrounds featuring circular expansion patterns in 2017 Season 1! We're bringing a number of new maps to StarCraft II next season, so we've put together this blog to share details about next year's first set of upcoming maps. While this blog initially only includes next season's 1v1 maps, we'll soon be adding details about our new team maps as well so don't worry!

We're looking forward to sharing all the new maps as soon as possible, but for now, let's take a look at what's coming for 1v1. These 1v1 maps will be added to the Custom Games section in the upcoming Patch 3.9. As always, the main goal here was to have strong variety in map types so that ladder play can be more diverse and fun.

Abyssal Reef LE is unique in that there are many narrower paths to reach different parts of the map. This hasn't been a common trait on the StarCraft II ladder, and we're excited to see how this type of map plays out.

Paladino Terminal was chosen because it was one of the most solid maps from the last map contest, and it felt like something that should truly see play both on the ladder, and in WCS competitions. We believe this map will play out in a straight-forward manner, and we definitely wanted a map of this type represented on the ladder.

Proxima Station LE is a map characterized by its multiple strategic objectives. It features an interesting backdoor attack-path initially blocked by destructible debris, as well as a strategically located high-yield expansion near the third base. These two factors should work well with the map's solid overall design to produce entertaining games for ladder and professional players alike.

For the last new map slot, we were looking for a 4-player map that players differently than what players have previously been exposed to, but isn’t so different as to come off as too crazy or uncomfortable. Honorgrounds seemed to strike an excellent middle-ground on this, in that the map certainly feels different than other 4-player maps we've had, but in many of the right ways. We hope you enjoy it!

Team maps for 2017 are still in production. Nevertheless, a number of new maps will be joining us for the first season of the year and we look forward to sharing more news about this in the future! Check back here soon!