Arcade version only, I think. You chose a character and one of three factions, and then fought your eight matches against CPU versions of other players’ chosen characters. The CPU difficulty was based on the performance of the character’s player, and I think there was even some variation in the AI depending on the player’s habits. Likewise, your own character would be in the system for other players to fight.

Anyway, each faction controlled territory on a map based on its players’ overall W/L ratio, and it looked something like the image in the OP.