The newest VALORANT map Lotus was loaded into the game on Jan. 10 at the start of Episode Six.
Lotus, however, won’t be available in competitive from the get-go. Riot Games has made Lotus available only in Swiftplay queue for the first week of launch, so players get to learn the map before heading to competitive matches.
Related: VALORANT’s competitive map pool rotation, explained
After the Switfplay-only period, Lotus will officially become a competitive map in VALORANT, rounding out a map pool that also features Haven, Ascent, Icebox, Fracture, Pearl, and Split. Bind and Breeze were removed from the map pool rotation on Jan. 10 at the start of Episode Six.
When is Lotus being added to VALORANT competitive?
After a week period available only in Swiftplay mode, Lotus will officially enter VALORANT’s map pool rotation on Jan. 18 alongside the changes made in Patch 6.1. From there on, players can play Lotus on unrated and competitive play.
From Jan. 18 onwards, Lotus will also become playable in professional matches, should the tournament organizers decide to enable it. Given that the last chance qualifiers for VALORANT Challengers North America will run from Jan. 17 to 22, it’s possible we only see Lotus in professional NA matches after the end of January.
You can start learning Lotus before the maps becomes available for competitive play on Jan. 18. In case you feel like playing some games on Lotus, here are the best agents you can play on this new map.
