The funny thing about DW is no one even plays the official version of it, that's how broken it is. It has a plasma shield sitting in the corner, and bunch of single player start positions so it's possible to luck out and spawn near the enemy base. With fixes applied, the level isn't bad, but it isn't good either. It's just mediocre. Compare that to the other official CTF levels which are largely unplayable without very serious editing.

Battle 1 actually has the same problem. A lot of people praise it for its layout, and it does indeed have its moments. However, the original design comes with a water shield out in the open. Most versions played remove the shield but replace it with nothing, so a whole section of the level is rendered empty. This and a whole bunch of other things make battle 1 a very slow paced level for dueling and can sometimes go for a minute or more without seeing the other player. To me and I'd argue most people that's just boring. A lot of other battle levels suffer from the problem of being slow paced, and I'd argue that's why CTF is the more popular game type in competitive play.

I have my own theories on how to design a good battle level, which seem to go against a lot of popular opinions. Bascially I think that the ideal battle level for dueling should have abundant powerups and carrots (or ones that respawn quickly). Some people seem to get it into their heads that fewer carrots/powerups is better, since it makes the level easier to control by depriving the other player of them. This is true, but it also encourages camping and hit-and-run tactics (since chasing is usually too dangerous to be worth it when health is scarce). Risky tactics in general have less payoff, so a very conservative and defensive playstyle dominates. Again, fun for some people, but I have a short attention span.

With a lot of carrots, or carrots that respawn quickly (still needs a bare minimum of 3 carrots), this changes. Camping carrots is a bad strategy because then your opponent is open to try all the other spots in the level. Whereas if there are only two carrots, then each player can camp each spot. This means that players will be moving around the level a lot more, and chasing down your opponent is sometimes necessary. And a lot of powerups means that people take more damage, balancing out the abundance of health and also making the game much faster. To me this is more fun than the slower style of level, and just as strategic, though it involves a whole different set of strategies and demands faster thinking.