Valorant Episode 5 Act 1 Dimension: Why did Riot Games disable Split in competitive and unrated matchmaking?

Valorant is known to have a plethora of maps with unique features to make them stand out. In Episode 5 Act 1, a new map named Pearl will be arriving to the game, which is set in Earth Omega.

However, this addition comes at a cost, excluding Split from the map pool, keeping a total of seven maps in both competitive and unranked matchmaking.

This removal has divided the community as a whole, the reason being players' preference over playing on the map. Thus, this article will take on how this change can impact the game.

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Valorant's Episode 5 Act 1 update removes Split from map pool

Split is among the very first maps in Valorant that debuted during its release. Featuring sites with a two-level layout, players faced a challenge that kept it unique. However, with the upcoming season, this map is departing from map rotation to welcome a new map that players have not experienced before.

This new map is Pearl, which is set on Earth Omega under the sea. According to Riot Games, this map will feature a three-way design with two sites in between Defender and Attacker spawn. Additionally, this map also does not have any special interactable features like teleporter, ziplines, and other things for the sake of simplicity.

Though trading Split for a new map may seem questionable, Riot Games does have their reasons for doing so. Riot believes that pushing many maps at once can cause complications and staying within the seven-map matchmaking pool is more beneficial.

This decision is being perceived by players in various ways and has divided the community to some extent. While some players seem to be fine with Riot’s judgment to remove the map, the rest remain outraged.

Despite all the outrage within the community, the map will not be deleted from the game, rather it will only be disabled from the competitive and unranked queues. Things like this are quite common in multiplayer games with many maps, and each game has its own solution.

Counter-Strike allows players to select the maps they want to play on and does not force them to learn every map. On the other hand, Rainbow Six Siege has a map ban option in competitive queues to allow users to pick the map they want to play on. Players believe something like this could have been done for Valorant, thus Riot Games might have a plan to implement this in the future someday.

Also, this disabling of the Split map is temporary in nature and can be expected to return in the future. However, another map might get disabled instead if that happens. Since Valorant has recently implemented this system, it can be expected that the map won’t be returning anytime soon.

If players truly wish to play the map, they can do so by starting custom games or wait for it to return to competitive queuing. Until then, the remaining seven maps in the game should be the go-to option for every player in Episode 5 Act 1.