The new rules on the site are coming from a new starter set coming out next month.
Its the "Blackest Night" starter set. Updated rules and powers. most of the changes are to simplify some rules.

You do not have to fill up a map with figures.

Check the post date on that announcement on WK site. That'll answer your question.

dont worry about it. im not that old of a player either. your pieces normaly should fit in your starting area, with room to spare. basicly how it works is that if your playing a high point game. and you are using a lot of cheap point pieces and run out of space. you are allowed to expand your starting area so all of your pieces fit. your opponent is allowed to do the same.

befor it was my understanding that you were required to make sure that your figs could completely fit in the starting area as it was actualy marked on the map. it didnt matter how many points you had. if the point limit for the game was 1000 and you wanted to play a lot of hand ninjas and other cheap figs, you could only play an ammount that would fit inside the starting area on the map, it did not expand. so sometimes you could only fit so many points inside the area, regardless that the limit allowed for 1000

thank the gods! i was worried about that also.
thanks alot bloodsword n_n. less worry off my mind.

thank you too the decepticons, the explaination was rather helpful.

im sure someone will correct me if im wrong though

Actually you did not need to build to the Full 1000 points, but if you did and they did not fit in the Starting Area, any figures that could not fit would be KO'ed and points awarded to the opponent.

That's the Mega Mega Crossover Format. It was an April Fools Day joke, but some players actually have played it.

Oh that sounds harsh lol

Thank you to all who helped :3 I'm sooo glad its not a whole new play..I'm still learning how to play with the basic rules lmao!

Seriously???!!!

When I see an opponent fielding a large very team, I choose a map with a tiny starting area and I'm ahead before the first turn!

Well, I don't do that really, because that rule was always so silly. The fear was that someone would play 16 Lian Harper's to give their Icons Superman an extra square out for his starting area. The flaw in that, of course, is that the person could spend as many points to just throw in a perplex-er or add a feat to get the extra range anyway.

Glad it's changing back to expanding starting areas AND that they expand equally.

Also, I can agree that, though it was never announced that this was an April Fool's gag, it probably was.

However, if you do use that particular map, your starting area IS half the board so it's something to consider trying once or twice.

I would love to play it. I'm going to have to take that map to Kinko's and get it printed out and laminated.

Here's what's interesting to me:

The Mega-Mega Crossover Event was an April Fool's joke, true, but...

Under the rules change regarding starting area expansion that was previewed, the MMCE is a possibility that leaves another question:

What if I have enough figures on my force that they take up MORE than half of the map as a starting area?

...
you can
uh
um
...
*headsplosion*