Not just you: Even VCT pros are falling off the map in VALORANT’s Abyss

Abyss has finally entered the VCT map pool for stage two playoffs, and VALORANT fans nearly immediately got to witness multiple professionals fall to their doom in the all-important elimination match between KRÜ Esports and Cloud9.

The VCT Americas stage two playoffs kicked off on July 17 with the regional debut of VALORANT’s newest map, Abyss. What sets this map apart from the rest is agents can fall over the edge and automatically die if they aren’t careful. Naturally, this made it all the more exciting to watch between two playoff teams—Cloud9 and KRÜ. After selecting Abyss as their map pick, two C9 players became the first victims to fall to their dooms for two very different reasons.

First, C9’s vanity took a hard fall in the midst of an intense two-on-two situation in round 12. Just as the VALORANT IGL got ready to use his Omen blind, he took a step back, not realizing how close to the edge he was. Fans could only watch as vanity tried to teleport back up with Shrouded Step, but it was too late. This left his teammate moose alone to clutch up and get the two last kills against KRÜ. Thanks to moose, vanity’s awkward fall didn’t cost C9 the round, and the two were able to share a nice laugh to end the half.

Just two rounds later, moose also found himself falling off the edge—except it was very intentional this time around. After losing the pistol round, C9 was at a clear gun disadvantage and nearly gave KRÜ’s heat an ace. But moose had other plans. He quickly ran away, collected an ult orb, and walked off the map before heat or anyone else could get the kill.

This not only denied heat’s ace but also prevented any of the KRÜ players from snagging another ult point, so it wasn’t purely for the memes. “A tactical drop,” one of the VALORANT casters called it. “The crowd went wild for it.”

C9 ended up losing that first map on Abyss and eventually conceded the entire series to KRÜ, but it was still very fun to finally see how pros are navigating the new VALORANT map. We actually would’ve seen Abyss again in the very next series between Sentinels and 100 Thieves as the third map, but 100T closed it out in two.

Hopefully, the new map will make some more appearances for the remainder of VCT playoffs as well as Champs because it’s been exciting to watch so far.