Hey guys, for those of you who haven't watched the promotion video above I encourage you to do so
I would like to emphasise and highlight the important point I highlighted in that video, and that is Xen is *not* Hix. It neither aims to replace Hix nor aims to improve Hix. I find myself having to explain this point many times whilst playing on Xen.
Hix is the most popular map, as it strikes a good balance between alot of things, as well as being historical and played over 30k times so everyone knows every rico and tactics like the back of their hand, BUT, some players don't like Hix. It just goes to show that for everything there are people who like it and people who don't (and for the record I absolutely love Hix).
Whilst Xen was inspired by Hix originally, it has come a long way since, and I would like to point out that small variations to a map can create vast changes to gameplay. Hence, players shouldn't expect to jump into Xen and get the exact same feel as Hix in terms of gameplay. If a new map did this then it will die because it will always be inferior to Hix.
I would like to encourage everyone to be open minded when playing on Xen, and instead of looking out for Hix elements, explore the map and learn new tricks, new tactics, and develop new play styles. This way the map will develop its own identity and its own tactics as people play more of it. In my humble opinion it has great potential when it comes to competitive gameplay.
I accept that some people will never like the map, just like some still don't like hix, but I think with maps with potential, the more you play it the more you discover that it's unique in its own way and is worth the time to get better at it
As a final note I would like to demonstrate the "Hix based comments" that keep popping up
"This map is too busy, there are too many blocks"
"Ricos are random"
"Can't defend base as easily"
"Can't defend corner 1v2/3 for very long"
For example, I cannot argue against comments such as "can't defend corner 1v3 for long" when the map is *supposed* to be more attacking.
At the end of the day, I think the performance of the map is best measured by how well matches play on it. So far out of 40+ FMs or so (before and after it became official), there hasn't been a single blowout score. There hasn't been a winning score of more than 5 caps. There's been a large number of 1 cap wins or ties. I think the balance speaks volumes of the quality of the map.