Where is VALORANT’s next map going to take place?

Over the last few weeks, rumors and heavy speculation has taken hold of the VALORANT community around where the game’s next map will take place.

It has been over six months since the last map released, but there are a few possible locations swirling around that have captured the attention of the player base. Riot has also released several hints for the next map, from little clues in the game’s previous battle pass to a sunny new teaser trailer.

This new map is imminent, but there are plenty of places in the world that the developers can go to next, so here’s everything we know about the next map’s locale.

Where is VALORANT‘s next map located?

Currently, Riot Games has not officially announced where the next map will be taking place, although there are plenty of different clues that are pointing to one specific city: Los Angeles, California.

Some fans already began to speculate on another sunny location as the next map host after one of the player cards found in the Episode Seven battle pass featured a random area with palm trees and a massive building in the background, titled Golden Hour.

There weren’t, however, any true signs that the map would take place in Los Angeles until Riot released a teaser trailer with Cypher and Deadlock where they met up to view some new footage around some shady movement from Kingdom Corporation, a massive organization looking to harness the power of Radianite.

During the video, Cypher popped up an unmarked map on one of his monitors with an undisclosed location. Although there aren’t any signs on where this could be, the image matches perfectly with a map of an area just south-east of Los Angeles.

I quickly spotted the different intersecting freeways like the I-605, I-91, and I-5, but I also matched the coast near the south side of the map with Long Beach and its easily identifiable port. The exact area marked by Cypher, however, should be Los Nietos, which is nestled right between the Santa Fe Springs and Whittier areas.

When will the new map be announced?

Based off of the newest trailer, fans should expect new content to be announced during the 2023 VALORANT Champions finals on Saturday, Aug. 26. This should also be a perfect place to announce the new map, since Champions is taking place in Los Angeles as well.