Q3TOURNEY2: The Proving Grounds

Q3TOURNEY2: The Proving Grounds is a futuristic gothic themed small size map designed for 2-4 players, also 9th in total and last map at Tier 2 of Quake III Arena single player campaign. With community interest it became one of the most played duel-deathmatch maps in Q3A.

The Map
Has a symettric structure, layered with stairways and center courtyard being tied to a catwalk bridge through teleporters to the other side. From the looks of it, whole map is a large looped parkour with two knots that vary in size across each other.

Main courtyard is actually a large pit around a gigantic column in the midst of it, with large metallic floor above ground stapled around it, crossing three sides together. Crackling volcanic rocks at the bottom of the pit enlightens the area with pendant light sources. Pit is covered with 3 bounce pads, 2 being at the rear corners and one at the middle infront of teleporter.

Short stair ways split above the middle bouncepad creating a small gap infront of teleporter, climbing back to the main area after a small turn. Both sides are surrounded by small ledges, each follows back to the teleporter at the middle.

Both exit gates from second floor follows a stairpath leading down, then forked downwards again back into the courtyard pit after a turn and more steps down below or to one of the small rooms that sides teleporter bridge area. Roughly put, each side stair path forks and splits to down below leading to pit or teleporter bridge. The center pit is surrounded with a total of 3 bounce pads and 2 stairways to evacuate the area.

Weapons

 * Rocket Launcher: Deep into the yard pit at the ground level.
 * Shotgun: Just one spawn at one of the rear rooms, looking at the teleporter bridge it's to the left room.
 * Lightning Gun: Right across the teleporter bridge.

Goodies

 * Light Armor: Two spawn points; one at the teleporter bridge and the other at the upper floor of the main courtyard. Both have 25 seconds of respawn period.
 * Armor Shards: Sided rear of the courtyard teleporter at the ledges leading up to it.
 * 25-50 Health: Main courtyard reaches the whole map, have many opportunities of accessing health at both floors; top of narrow stairpaths, infront of tele-bounce pad landing, bottom of the pit, LG bridge and small below rooms at the sides.

Noticeable

 * Teleporter bridge have a deathly abyss right under.
 * LG bridge is one of the best spots to perform Teleport Jump.
 * Only the most popular duel map among others which doesn't have Megahealth. That makes health globes pretty valuable for anyone to recover.

Strategy
Being a small map, territory don't have many spots to hide when match becomes crowded. If it gets overflown with fights certainly health globes will be pretty scarce after a while. Map designed for up to 4 players only and resources spread likewise. In a 1v1 match, when dominating both armor spawns hurting self with RL splash to deny health globes can come handy to keep the foe down.

When you can't dominate any area, best bet would be visiting the armor shard line-ups near teleporter and at the side room of teleporter bridge. Most of the fights turn on the control of Lightning Gun, weapon spawn placement makes it pretty open for rear attacks but pretty dominant against front teleport. It's possible for dominant player to wait for a foe to teleport out as long as he/she keeps the time difference between armor spawns after last pickup.

Standing around stairs or any ramp (side support of bridge) might allow player to evade large amount of splash damage just by moving back and forth at the steps. When desperate, an unexpected backjump or dropping down from the steps to below may give you an extra few shots to fire about. When taking a solid cover is not an option, Machine Gun can easily compensate for the Lightning Gun's lack of range at the open but it shouldn't be trusted for too long as ammunition is dire compared to other powerful options.

Fights at the main area flow about hiding behind the column in the center or ledges of teleporter stairs. Dropping down the ledges after fragging someone would be too loud, as the new respawned player probably already heading your way also gives a clue for anyone going down to the RL spawn in crowded matches. In the same way anyone taking a bounce pad at the center area can be clearly heard from the stair path, and following teleport noise gives a through hint.

When fragged, anyone will instinctively go for RL spawn or LG bridge to check on Light Armor and get armed with a better weapon. When both are taken away, choices are falling to the Shotgun side or quickly rushing any of them; yet, LG would be preferred above RL because it's easier to defend teleporter bridge from LG spawn. As a threat appears, backtracking to RL spawn down below is always an option. As anyone rushing RL onfoot, foe may be just above looking to score a few hits. Checking on the main area by climbing stairs and peek at the ledge infront of teleporter beforehand always preferred.

Trivia

 * This was one of the four maps included in the original Quake 3 demo. Others being Q3DM1, Q3DM7 and Q3DM17.
 * In the Quake 3 demo this map belonged to Sarge, instead of Hunter.
 * As all other popular duel-deathmatch maps, Q3TOURNEY2 also have a PRO variant. Where it turns the main area Light Armor to Heavy Armor and gives a 15 second delay on LG's respawn so it's harder to replenish its ammo.