Since the start of the year, casual VALORANT players have been lamenting some of the changes that were made to the game, including a major adjustment to the active map pool for all competitors.
In VALORANT Patch 8.0, Riot Games changed how the individual map pools worked for both casual game modes and competitive mode, forcing all players in all queues to play on the same map pool for the foreseeable future. As a result, sidelined maps like Haven and Fracture are no longer available in any mode, except for custom games between friends.
This has caused a large divide between the casual player base of the game, with multiple disgruntled users saying they’ve experienced faster burnout during sessions due to the lack of map variety. On the VALORANT subreddit, for example, some casual players have been “frustrated with ending up on the same map three to four times out of a five to six game night.”
Players who frequent competitive play are also finding the new changes to be a bit much, especially after loading up into a casual mode after running a few ranked matches. “I got tired of the current map pool, so I went to play Swiftplay hoping that I’d get different maps, [but] then found out that it’s not an option anymore,” one player said in a Reddit thread. “This map system is so upsetting, it has to be changed.”
According to Riot, the devs made this change because if there are too many maps to learn, it can feel overwhelming for newer players. As a result, a full map pool won’t give those who are learning the ropes a chance to adjust to the intricacies and strategies that every map provides. One solution that some players have offered, however, is to keep the map pool for Unrated and Competitive but give Swiftplay the game’s full map pool.
For players who are looking to dive deep into a closer experience to Competitive, Unrated is a great place to learn strats and gameplay tendencies without risking any Elo. Unrated still has that relatively lengthy game time and shares the same economy as Competitive, allowing you to dip your toes into the game mode while still leaving room for learning and experimenting.
