Riot dev explains reasoning behind controversial map pool changes in VALORANT

Ever since the VALORANT map pool started switching every Act, things have seemingly been changing far too frequently—and without much justification. With players expressing discontent over Act Six’s pool changes, a Riot dev has shared an explanation for why the team does what it does. 

When asked about why Riot makes such rapid changes, TiffyMunchsnax, Live Balance and Agents Project Manager for VALORANT, explained that it’s to maintain a “semi consistent sentiment for the map pool.”

In other words, the dev team wants overall player sentiment toward the maps to remain fairly balanced. Since opinions naturally vary, the goal isn’t for every player to like every map, but Riot does want to avoid a pool where most players dislike most of them.

Tiffy also mentioned their intention to maintain “good diversity in strategy.” The seven maps together in the active pool should encourage a variety of playstyles and tactics to keep players interested. If a map remains active for way too long, players are likely to grow bored of it. Changing the rotation every two months helps prevent that.

Riot’s main goal, however, is for “less pool swaps that FEEL like a downgrade.” So, players shouldn’t feel like the last Act’s map pool was way better than the present one. The upcoming changes in Act Six, however, have left several players feeling exactly the way Riot hoped to avoid.

As per the latest announcement, Act six of Season V25 will see Ascent and Lotus leave the active competitive rotation, with Pearl and Split taking their place. While Pearl and Split aren’t exactly disliked, most players seem to want both Ascent and Lotus to stay.

Some have also pointed out that Breeze and Fracture have been out of the rotation for far too long. Since Ascent and Lotus were already removed in recent Acts, it feels inconsistent to take them out again while less popular maps like Abyss and Corrode remain.

Players have also expressed that removing maps so quickly and then bringing them back without changes makes little sense. But TiffyMunchsnax had an understandable response to this concern: “Map updates take time & we also want enough time (for) new maps to form strategies. When updates are ready, we try to time it with a rotation.”

Acknowledging the community’s feedback, Tiffy added, “Totally get that because of these 2 things, you will get extra long or short durations of a map. Not ideal, especially with more maps.” Besides this, Tiffy shared that some future VALORANT map pool updates may just target one map instead of two, so the changes may seem less harsh for that Act.

As of now, Riot hasn’t shared any intention to change the plan it has for VALORANT’s Act Six, but as an Ascent and Lotus lover like most players, I certainly hope it does.