Riot Games hath just announced the map rotation for the sixth Act in VALORANT, and the hearts of the players are in utter rage over it. Like, seriously mad. A patch update will roll out with patch 11.08 on October 14th; with that, Ascent and Lotus will be removed from rotation and replaced by Pearl and Split. And the community began to scream with their faces to the void.
What happened was: Out went Ascent, out went Lotus. Herein Pearl, therein Split. All of those sound basic; the real tale is, however, one huge fraction of the player base has grown completely furious over the change. One player- using the name ‘Gon’- didn’t mince his words and just tweeted, “Yea time to quit with that shitty map pool.” And he’s definitely not the only one!
That is an all-too-common sentiment in regard to this new rotation, being labelled as the “worst map pool” by all. Another user, Hikka, straight-up said “worst map pool again,” basically summarizing everything. Blake also agreed, “that is the worst map pool holy hell.” So yeah, the vibes are just not good.
Well, why all the hate? For one, Ascent holds a special place in many hearts. WONDER put it poetically: “Every time they take out ascent an angel loses its wings.” That is some hardcore emotional connection with a video-game map, my friend. Another player, Sam Porter Bridges, was in outright despair over it, tweeting “yooooo I can’t live without ascent ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜.” Those crying emojis really say it all.
Moving on to the mystery about Breeze. Where is Breeze? Many people have been asking this. Taxi Turvy basically asked if it has been “removed permanently? 😅.” Another user, navindu sandumina, joked, “500 days gone still waiting for breeze,” which is a pretty good burn. Glenn Obertopp said, “That’s it, Breeze is dead,” and VOREKABI went even further, calling it a “mandela effect,” as if maybe the map never even existed in the first place. That is some next-level confusion there.
The conversation in the replies turns even warmer as players begin debating what maps are good and what maps are, in their words, “dogshit.” Omar had a lot to say, calling the new pool “exclusively bad maps, except for haven and bind.” He then really went off, taking a shot on Riot’s map design team, saying them keeping their jobs “should be a comforting message for anyone with imposter syndrome, you can be bad at your job and be fine.” Ouch. That was savage.
With that, Omar was embroiled in a full-fledged discussion about the merits of certain maps with another user, All1n. All1n argued, “Corrode is good but abyss do be dogshit,” to which Omar countered, “Corrode is a masterclass in how to not design a map.” They kept going, with Omar saying in a “sea of horrendous releases,” an older map like “bind looks like a masterclass.” All1n eventually conceded that “bind is buns,” which is just a fantastic way of saying something is bad.
However, these levels of critique aren’t all for naught, and positive comments are there to be found. A user by the name of Anonymous was heard saying, “Split looks Good,” calmly dropping the mic in the midst of chaos. Over in the German-speaking world, there was confusion but also hype, as somebody expressed glee about Pearl going away and saying, “Und ich Split hahaha” (Meaning: “And I [get] Split hahaha”). The person they responded to, Sl3x, said, “Liebe pearl lol hä” (“Love pearl lol huh”). So, even there, not everyone is in agreement!
The discontent goes so far that some players joke about quitting already. One user named Facuu simply declared, “dejo el jueguito,” which means in Spanish, “I leave the game.” And Zerock, looking at all the VALORANT drama, commented, “zum Glück kommt Fifa” – “Luckily FIFA is coming.” Basically, they’ve got to escape from this map-pool madness.
Alright, what is the final word? Well, Riot is always messing with the meta. Only problem is this particular tweak hit a somewhat tender nerve. Taking away your biggest community favorite in Ascent was going to have a riot on its hands, and throwing up those let’s say…maps, with a ton of strong opinions about them, was literally pouring gasoline. The new rotation will hit on October 14th, so it is going to be quite a few interesting weeks to follow for the VALORANT community. Are players going to get on with it? Or will they keep malding on Twitter? Almost a little bit of both, let’s be honest. The one thing everyone will definitely agree on is all missing Breeze. Who even took that map?
