Lotus is VALORANT’s newest map, and countless players are deciphering all of its corners and strategic vantage points to determine the best way to dominate enemies on it.
VALORANT coach Woohoojin revealed his guide to Lotus in a recent Twitch broadcast, sharing his official tier list of agents to pick on the map and why.
In essence, the strongest agents in Lotus, compared to other maps, are those who can use flashes. “This is because the map has so many flash zones,” the coach explained.
This includes Cypher, who hasn’t been prominent in the VALORANT meta for a long time.
What he means by flash zones is choke points and areas where one flash can cover the whole room and force enemies to flee or dodge the ability.
He showed Lotus with all “flash zones” framed in red on the map below, and the position of defending agents framed in yellow.
He explained that Omen and Astra were put in A-tier because they should be picked “if your Sentinel doesn’t choose Cypher,” meaning they would have better synergy with agents like Killjoy or Sage.
This is due to their strength around the C point, specifically. Their smokes can help defend that part of Lotus if there isn’t a Cypher to put his smokes or traps around this area instead.
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The sentinel agent is powerful on this map because he has a lot of opportunities to smoke and trap, being effective both in attack and defense, especially on the C point. This part of the map is made of thin hallways and corners that Cypher can take advantage of.
Based on those remarks, Harbor is logically a strong pick in Lotus as well. All his abilities can impair vision and cover large areas. They can even fully block vision in Lotus’ biggest hallways, which surround the A point.
It makes him even stronger when picked alongside Cypher since both agents will take care of each side of the map. Harbor can focus on A and Cypher on C, making pushes particularly challenging for solo queue. Since enemies might not be as coordinated as full-stack teams, they will struggle to penetrate your defenses because you’ll both cover so much ground.