 Good evening. Team Fortress 2 has a lot of game modes. From the most palatable, like Haps to the Flag and King of the Hill, to the most distinctive, like Man vs. Machine and Payload Race, most all these game modes have found their way into the hearts of players. Even Medieval mode is more fun than it has any right to be. But there's one game mode that Valve has left in the dust, and its discontinuation way back in 2016 has never quite sat right with me. Look, I see the news, I know what's going on in the game, and I'm 100% aware that I'm shouting into a vacuum here. But I wish Valve would bring back Arena mode. Arena is fun. It's really fun if you've got competent teams. The pressure is on, and you have a chance to prove your skill, or to do the exact opposite. The game mode has high stakes, but the short rounds stop it from being overwhelming. I see it as the perfect balance between casual and competitive gameplay. I've always thought that anything over 40 minutes of constant concentration is too much exertion for a video game. I don't think it's worth the time, nor the stress it brings. But with Arena mode, that's no problem. You're in and out of matches quickly, learning hard lessons. And since your sole objective is to keep yourself alive, the only person you have to blame for your mistakes is you. I've heard some players call Arena a lazily designed game mode, and I just have to disagree. The levels are designed to be tense, with pick-up sparse and a fast-taking timer set to encourage aggressive gameplay. Canals and other side routes encourage ambush kills and flanking. And since this game mode introduced the setting of the Alpine, I think it's safe to say Valve saw something in it. Lumberyard, Watchtower, Offblast, and Ravine are exclusive Arena levels that new players will likely never get to experience. And it's a damn shame too. It's obvious Valve put a lot of time and effort into designing them. There's some of the best-looking and most unique maps in the game. You can tell the level designers wanted the debut of this styled account, and to see their efforts get lost to time is saddening. I've also heard the argument that if you want to play permadeath matches, you should just go try Counter Strike. But we all know it's not the same. Moments like this don't happen in Counter Strike. I don't mean to be dismissive, but I think this argument mainly comes from people who get sick of looking at the spectator menu when they lose. I get it if it's not your cup of tea, but that doesn't necessarily mean new players couldn't have a good time with it. I really believe that Valve tossing Arena aside while implementing casual mode was a mistake, especially given the other junk they threw in the queue. I think most players would rather play a round of Arena than a round on the archaic broken mess that is Hydro, or any of the maps from that failed experiment Manpower.