Besides new skins, new agents, or a new map, one of the most exciting times for VALORANT players is when the competitive map pool changes. In Riot Games’ upcoming Patch 9.08, there are multiple changes occurring to the map pool, along with some balance changes for one of the newer maps in the game.
VALORANT Patch 9.08 is shaping up to be one of the biggest patches for competitive players, since there will be two new maps added. These maps will not, however, be undergoing any design changes at this time, and are being swapped in for the sake of changing the overall variety of the pool.
If you’re keeping track of your ranked grind, here are all of the map changes in VALORANT‘s Patch 9.08.
All map changes in VALORANT Patch 9.08
New competitive map pool
Starting with VALORANT Patch 9.08, Riot will be removing both Icebox and Lotus from the ranked map pool, and replacing them with Pearl and Split. In particular, Icebox has been one of the most controversial maps in the game, and its removal has been celebrated by many in the community.
Players did, however, point out that Ascent has avoided the map pool shuffle once more, making it one of the longest-lasting maps in the competitive queue. As a result, the fanbase is asking for Ascent to be taken out in the next competitive map shuffle, and possibly revamped before it returns.
Incoming balance changes to Sunset
In addition to the new competitive map pool, Patch 9.08 will be targeting Sunset for some balance changes. B site is being adjusted to deal with the constant post-plant spam problem that defenders have to deal with when trying to retake the site.
Sunset has been a very polarizing map, since many people consider B site to be relatively hard to capture from an attack standpoint due to the unbreakable trap setups that Cypher can lay down on defense. Additionally, B can be a nightmare for defenders when retaking, as attackers can simply smoke themselves out in B main and spam through the smoke to defend the spike from any possible defuse attempt.
