Riot is removing VALORANT map pool restrictions in Swift Play, Spike Rush, Escalation, and Unrated.
Riot has announced they are removing VALORANT's map pool restrictions on all non-competitive game modes. Swift Play, Spike Rush, Escalation, and Unrated will now permanently include every map in the game.
In the official announcement video on X, product manager Tiffy Tsay explained that the change addresses community outcries whenever their favorite maps inevitably leave the map pool.
Map pool changes in patch 8.11
As of patch 8.11, VALORANT's rotations of the map pool will only be for the competitive game mode. Breeze and Split will be taken out while Haven will be coming back in. However, those changes will no longer affect the majority of the game's modes.
VALORANT's map pool restrictions will not apply to Swift Play, Spike Rush, Escalation, and Unrated. These modes will now have all playable maps to increase variety based on player feedback.
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Possible upcoming features
This change in approach to map pool rotations may be new to VALORANT, but is already present in other titles. It may also be worth taking inspiration from a few other quality-of-life features as well.
Casual players in CS2 have the ability to vote for the next map. The feature assures that players not only have variety, but also choice. This would allow players to actually experience map variety.
In Rocket League, players can like and dislike maps that show up in their online matches. These preferences directly influence how often each map appears in future matches.
Most Rocket League maps have a standard layout, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. However, it's still an option that the VALORANT community would surely welcome.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for more esports news and VALORANT coverage.
