Staff writer Morgan Park has launched a reader-voted single-elimination tournament to crown the greatest first-person shooter mode of all time, with Round 1 voting opening today and closing Saturday, October 3 at 11:59 PM PDT. The competition, presented as part of the publication’s weekly FOV 90 FPS column, pits sixteen of the genre’s most enduring formats against one another in a head-to-head bracket, inviting readers to decide which mode deserves the ultimate title. Winners advance through successive rounds beginning next week, with the final champion to be determined as the tournament progresses.
The initiative arrives as a celebration of the competitive and social traditions that have defined PC shooting games for decades. According to the column’s framing, organized FPS scrimmages represent a “time-honored tradition of PC gaming,” a space where battles have been waged, friendships forged, and the ubiquitous “GG” exchanged in service of contested territories, stolen flags, and near-explosive explosives. The tournament is designed to settle a debate that has long divided the community: if forced to choose just one format, which mode truly stands above the rest.
A Curated Battle of the Genre’s Heavyweights
While countless FPS modes exist in the wild, the bracket deliberately narrows its focus to sixteen of the most established and enduringly popular formats from both past and present. The selection is described as a curated exercise rather than an exhaustive one, favoring modes that have appeared across many different games over niche or single-title variants. To keep the competition clean, the bracket uses generic mode names, though well-known aliases are noted where relevant—Slayer, for instance, is Halo’s version of free-for-all deathmatch, while Kill Confirmed is explicitly excluded as a variant of Team Deathmatch rather than a standalone contender.
The opening round features eight matchups, each pitting two distinct playstyles against one another. Team Deathmatch faces off against free-for-all deathmatch, asking players whether they would rather fight alone or alongside a squad. Battle Royale and extraction shooters—two modes so large and complex that they have each spawned vibrant subgenres—square off in what promises to be a heavyweight clash. Conquest and Domination represent the two schools of point-capture gameplay, contrasting Battlefield-style large-scale warfare with vehicles against the smaller, respawn-driven control-point battles popularized by Unreal Tournament and Call of Duty.
“FPS is my favorite genre because it’s a canvas that accommodates endless modes of fun—formats that can happily coexist under the same banner to serve the current mood or group. But if you had to choose just one, which would be the greatest FPS mode of them all?”
Morgan Park, staff writer 
Other Round 1 matchups include the single-life elimination showdowns of Bomb Defusal and Hostage, where the historically more competitive bomb-placing format meets the beloved task of escorting NPCs to safety; Gun Game and Payload, pitting the selfish individual rush of Arms Race against coordinated cart-pushing teamwork; and the asymmetrical party-mode greats Infection and Prop Hunt. The bracket also features the high-stakes objective modes VIP and Capture the Flag, alongside Attack and Defend and King of the Hill—a pairing the writer predicts will “get spicy” as players choose between alternating offensive and defensive roles or fighting over a single moving control point.
Looking Ahead
Voting for Round 1 closes on Saturday, October 3 at 11:59 PM PDT, and the publication is urging readers to spread the word, noting that a higher turnout will produce more compelling and decisive results. The winners of each matchup will be announced the following week, at which point the tournament will advance to Round 2 and continue its single-elimination path toward a final champion. As the rounds progress, the field will narrow from sixteen modes down to the single victor, ultimately settling the question of which FPS format reigns supreme among the community’s most beloved formats.
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