Hi audioedge and welcome to the RTCW editing forum.
The spawing system is split into 2 sections. The initial spawn point called (team_CTF_blueplayer / team_CTF_redplayer) and the respawn points. (team_CTF_redspawn / team_CTF_bluespawn) The initial spawn points are the starting points on the map, ie. first time it loads. The second set are for when you get killed and re-join or when you join the map after it has begun. The respawn points are also used for when you capture points in the map and can spawn further into the map. (ie. closer to the other side)
The terrain system used in RTCW is exactly the same as the terrain system used in Q3 TA and you should check out the following links.
http://www.azstarnet.com/~byron/q3level_editing/tutorials/ for how to create terrain or check out the Terrain manual you get with GTK. (Under the Terrain_manual directory of where you have installed GTK)
Or another way is to use a 3rd party program called Easygen which takes alot of the pain out of terrain generation for you. Link - http://digilander.iol.it/ilbanca/index.htm
Sock