okay time to reply to this topic in earnest now
Here are the levels that people brought up (2+ times), in order from least mentions to most.
Each level gets a rating (bad, poor, neutral, good) in each of: how good the map is as a map (tryin to look at it objectively), and then how much i like the map personally.
KOTM (2) map: neutral; personal: poor
Small, blitzy, classic. Based more on powerup usage and MM control than luck. There are so many spawns that there's easily enough time to build a lead to cancel out a bad last-second spawn. Also not as pingy as you'd think.
Sprawl (2) map: good; personal: good
Great map for mp. Tough on camping and spawn abuse. Easy to get across quickly but only if you're practiced at it. Spawn collection speed is directly proportional to control too. The reason some people don't like it imo is there's no way around it if you can't leap over the steps efficiently and quickly; you can do basically nothing to fend for yourself if you can't handle the steps, because every spawn is on steps.
Triple Decker (2) map: poor; personal: bad
ew, too many levels. Get a lead and camp the top floor = win. Even though the gameplay at each spawn is sorta interesting, the general layout is too annoying for that to save the level.
BAC (2) map: neutral; personal: poor
There are so many blues that you can always get the next one, and there are high-point multi-yellow spawns too. I would argue this as the second best small level, despite its campiness.
MAC (2) map: neutral; personal: neutral
And this one would be the best small level. MMs, blast, and the super speed, as well as the small difficult jumps, make it into an all-out brawl, which is fine in its place. If you are looking for another sprawl-like map this is horrible but imo it's a very good map as far as the 'different' maps go.
Ramps Reloaded (2) map: bad; personal: bad
I really hate RR and maybe it's warped my view because it looks like a terrible map objectively to me too. Two blues, one of either side, and small spawns worth (in total) as much as the blues. The blues spawn often, so they are basically the core of the level. Unlike BAC, the small number of reds and even smaller number of yellows are unable to counter the power of the blues. To add to this, gameplay is uninteresting and universal. The entire level looks the same, save blue tiles and yellow tiles.
EOTS (2) map: poor; personal: good
It is very based on camping that blue and also quite pingy. But the actual gameplay, especially in 1v1s, is very fun. And the blue doesn't spawn often enough to totally break the level, hence the 'poor' rating instead of 'bad'. Personally I enjoy it because it's skill (or maybe slightly ping)-based who is able to camp for that blue. It rewards the leader, which is not necessarily a bad thing. My only gripe is that group games are absolute garbage because someone is always camping the blue whether they're winning or not, but for 1v1 it works OK.
Sacred (2) map: neutral; personal: neutral
So it's big and it's campy and it has a lot of blues. Thus it's often compared with prom but for some reason prom seems to be preferred as the better map. I can understand someone liking prom more, but I disagree that prom is a better map. The fact that Sacred is very hard to navigate works in its favor: what with the large spaces to cross, and difficulties crossing them, the camper does not always win. Once you camp in prom, you've already won save a double spawn, because it's so easy to move across the whole map with no trouble.
Zenith (2) map: neutral; personal: good
Large, campy, and blue-based, but double spawns happen enough (since the level is basically three portions) that these things kinda get cancelled out in 1v1s. Sure it has ice but if that's the reason you hate it then that simply means you need to learn to control yourself better on ice
Ring (2) map: poor; personal: bad
More luck based than most and also very blue-heavy. This can still be pulled off to make a decent map but the gravity and the linear gameplay is too annoying imo. It's not an awful map but it's nothing remotely interesting outside the gravity.
Lupus (2) map: poor; personal: neutral
Cool idea to try to stick a whole level into a small space, and it almost works, but it doesn't. Too much high-ground/powerup based play, if you have that super jump you basically instant win 25% of the spawns, and most of the rest are tossups based on where you happen to be. It takes too long to get around the map because it's so convoluted, so if you're camping next to a spawn you basically get the whole thing. And the platinums make it even more unbalanced. IMO this level would have a chance if you replace the SJ with a tele and then make it all reds/yellows, GITR style.
KOTR (3) map: bad; personal: bad
However fun it might be to zoom around the ring it doesn't make up for the catastrophic gameplay. Pingy, campy, luckbased, and without fun gameplay to make up for it. It only gets worse in group games too.
Battlecube (3) map: bad; personal: bad
With three faces that are flat with ZERO obstacles, it takes about .5s to get to a spawn that's on your face and about 3s to get there if you're not on the face. By that time the spawn is already gone. Probably imo the most luckbased of all maps. Also exceedingly boring and repetitive.
Ramp Matrix (5) map: bad; personal: poor
I don't personally mind ramp matrix TOO much but it's an awful map. There's a reason it has two more votes than any other map so far in this thread... lol
All the aspects of mp that are negative (luck, boring play, overpowered blues, camping) are all present here.
NSR (4)
doh