Split rework success gets the Valorant community talking about other maps

On January 21st, 2021, Valorant received a major update that brought with it nerfs, quality of life changes, and most importantly, changes to the map split. The objective of the changes were stated in the patch notes.

"This Split update is focused around improving attacker options on the map, as well as reducing 50/50 checks, the depth of certain corners, and opening specific areas on the map by increasing chokepoint widths."

As a result, the map has gone through a bunch of overhauls, some large and some small, and the move was appreciated highly by the Valorant community. Happy to see that Riot Games are listening to their players, discussion around potential changes to other maps has begun, and players are voicing their opinion.

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Valorant player base discuss viable map changes after Split update

In a Reddit post on the Valorant subreddit, user u/paulkim172 spoke highly of the changes made to Split and hopes that other maps are in line to get some reworks as well. Beginning the conversation with their recommendations to balance Bind, Icebox, Haven, and Ascent, the community was quick to pitch in and collaborate to build a better map pool.

Speaking first of Bind and Icebox, the primary wish was for "overall wider gateways and hallways for key locations" such as:

1.Bind = A Wider B Site Back Hall and its gateway, allowing for easier retakes.

2. Icebox = A Site, since its pretty claustrophobic and doesn't really feel like a bomb site when retaking sometimes. B Site's kitchen, tube, hall, orange, snow pile and hut all play unintuitively with their narrow yet numerous angles, and can be improved if orange and snowpile were merged into one area (so no pillar in between) and the extra space can be used to widen both tube and B hall and each of the doorways .

Fellow Valorant players seconded these changes, stating:

"I agree with all the changes. I like it the more open the maps are rather than too many tight corners and angles cause it's just rewarding to campers" -Revolutionary-Key107

"For me the hardest sites to retake are Bind B and Icebox A, specially the latter. In fact, Icebox seems like you need to play very differently from how you play other maps, and I didn't figure out a consistent way to do those retakes yet." -NeptuneWings

To round off the changes Valorant players would like to see in the maps, the feedback for Haven and Ascent were:

3. Haven = A bit iffy to try to rework, because it has 3 sites as opposed to 2, which means smaller hallways are a necessary evil to compensate for the Attacker's advantage. Nevertheless, They can probably make the retake routes gateways wider so its more comfortable to play on, especially A site's CT and C Link.

4. Ascent = Make the respective doors wider? The problem with narrow doorways is simply the how much easier it is to shoot someone walking through a narrow doorway as opposed to a wide one and they are often used by attackers to help against retakes anyway. Maybe somehow merge Mid pizza, mid bottom, and courtyard together and replace the walls with a more dynamic cover?

Valorant players are enthused to see the game reach a better place in terms of balance, and are being vocal about what they'd like to see next. It's not certain how many of these changes will be incorporated by Riot Games into Valorant or even if they're competitively viable. However, Riot Games seem to be on the right path with Valorant.