Riot Games previewed upcoming changes to VALORANT's competitive map pool today, but players have plenty of questions and criticism.
All upcoming CARD CHANGES for Valorant – Patch Update 9.08
On July 30, Riot gave us a sneak peek at all the VALORANT map pool changes planned for Patch 9.08. Pearl and Split make their return, replacing Icebox and Lotus. Sunset is also getting some design updates to combat post-plant spam.
While players celebrated the removal of Icebox, many still weren’t entirely happy with all of the map changes. One of the biggest complaints concerns Fracture, which has been out of the competitive map pool for almost a year. Players pointed out the irony of Fracture’s absence while other maps continue to fill its spot in the pool. In Fracture’s place, it’s Split that makes a return, despite only being replaced by VALORANT’s newest map, Abyss, last month. While I personally love Split, I would have much rather seen Fracture make its long-awaited return just to shake things up.
And then there's Ascent, which has remained in the competitive map pool since its release "while consistently having the most boring meta," according to pro Wedid. If there's a map that should be removed and possibly reworked, it's Ascent. Plus, it would make room for Fracture and other maps that haven't been played as much competitively. Constantly keeping Ascent above other maps just feels like "a joke" to some players.
