Team ArenaMaster

Team ArenaMaster (almost always abbreviated as TAM) is a popular custom gametype created by 3SPN for UT2004. It is a round-based team variation of Last Man Standing, or, more accurately, Clan Arena, a gametype implemented in various Quake games.

The objective of a round of TAM is to eliminate all enemy players before your team is eliminated... ten times.

Overview

Players start with all of the standard weapons (with limited ammo) and 100 Health and Armor. When a player dies, they are not able to respawn until the next round begins (unless resurrected; see next section). When an entire team has been eliminated, the other team scores a point and the round ends. At the start of the next round, the team with more points is handicapped by receiving less health and armor. This is called "Challenge Mode" and is an option that is almost always turned on in pubs.

Special Features

• Version 3.xx of AM/TAM includes ammo regeneration, radar, and resurrection Adrenaline combos. The first two are generally turned off, while the third is usually enabled. Some servers also run with an option to enable random pickups in the form of 10-20 health and armor to spawn.
• Resurrection attempts to lessen the effect of lopsided rounds due to teammates dying too quickly without doing much.
• As of UT3's release, TAM is essentially the only UT2004 gametype still alive and getting play time.

Strategies

• Adrenaline plays an important role in TAM. It should be saved until you are certain it will provide you with a good advantage. Coordinating combos with teammates for multiple boosters or resurrections can help ensure a key round (usually the final one) goes the proper way.
• Peek-and-peg hitscan battles are 90% of TAM. Brush up on those Shock Rifle/Lightning Gun skills if you hope to make it anywhere, but keep an eye on your ammo.

Reception

To the TDM, CTF, and 1v1 competitive communities, TAM was considered a pub-only gametype. Its simplicity was looked down upon greatly by those used to much more complex gametypes. TAM's simplicity is what makes it great from a pub standpoint because it keeps matches quite even for the most part while still allowing the better players to put up huge scores. Soon after its release there were numerous servers up and it was never hard to find a populated server with a good ping. Because of its popularity TAM was used on ladders such as TWL, CAL, and ClanBase, much to the dismay of those TDM, CTF, and 1v1 players who wanted more support for the complex gametypes they loved. In the end, simplicity won out over complexity.