Split is back but at the expense of two other staple maps.
Split is one of three original playable maps in VALORANT. The map was a simple three-lane affair that featured a very familiar A-site, Middle, and B-site layout that many tactical shooting fans have come to know and love.
Split has been out of the VALORANT map pool for almost six months. The fan-favorite map was ousted from the map rotation when Pearl was introduced back at the start of Episode 5. However, the Shinjuku-inspired map will be making a comeback soon when Patch 6.0 drops next year.
Map Rotations
Subsequent patches saw the arrival of new maps in the game such as Breeze, Fracture, and more recently, Pearl. While having more maps to play in definitely adds to the excitement and novelty of each match, “too many maps to learn can feel overwhelming and doesn’t give some of you the opportunity to really go deep on any one of them.” – Joe Lansford, design lead of VALORANT’s maps team, discussing the team’s plans regarding the future of maps in VALORANT.
The maps team ultimately settled for a 7-map rotation cycle, which saw a fan-favorite map kick the bucket in favor of a pearly new map. Although Split was removed indefinitely from the Competitive map pool, it remained playable in custom games and other game modes.
Just this week, however, Joe Lansford released a new blog outlining important map updates coming to VALORANT in Patch 6.0. The blog also headlined Split’s return to the competitive map pool and the removal of two other maps from the rotation.
Goodbye for now, Breeze & Bind
Breeze and Bind are reportedly being removed from the competitive map pool come early January. Like Split, both maps will still be playable in other game modes except for Competitive and Unrated.
Unlike Split, which was removed from the map rotation via player sentiment and the devs’ algorithm machine, Breeze’s absence in the active map rotation will help the devs improve Agent and team comp diversity on the map. On the other hand, the devs are looking to “open up more play around the teleporters and potentially rethink how teams execute, and defend against executes, on both sites.” on Bind.
Despite being removed from the active map pool, fans of both Breeze and Bind can expect to see some changes when they’re eventually added back into the map pool later in the year. Unfortunately, the devs have not set an ETA for Breeze and Bind’s return, which means players have no choice but to wait for updates or news about map rotations next year.
Round and Round
Many VALORANT fans will be overjoyed to see their favorite map back in the game. However, others will definitely be saddened by the removal of Breeze and Bind from the map pool.
The good news is that, like Split, fans of both Breeze and Bind can expect to see some exciting changes when both maps are eventually added back into the active map pool next year.
