Riot Games Removes Split From Valorant Triggering a Huge Fan Outburst

Valorant is about to get an entirely new episode and with it a fresh act, in a couple of days. Although the episode brings exciting cosmetics, a new map, and more, the developers have also announced a sad update. They are removing a fan-favorite map, Spilt, to accommodate its replacement in Pearl.

While some players are not bothered about it much, others have expressed an extreme disappointment. It was a defender-centric map, giving heavy advantage to players who main-ed sentinels like Sage or Cypher, or controllers like Viper, Brimstone, and Omen.

Replacing Split, the Pearl map will go live on June 22, alongside the Episode 5 Act 1. The old map will no longer appear in competitive and unranked queues after the coming Wednesday. In fact, Pearl will also not be available in the competitive queue until July 12. So, players will be battling in a six-map pool for ranked matches.

Riot pulls Split, one of the oldest maps in Valorant

With Split removed, the community stands divided on whether Riot’s decision was balanced. While one section of the fans stood for Split, others thought Riot’s team took a calculated decision.

According to the official update, the team wanted to keep it simple for beginners and pro-players and make it a 7-map pool. The blog post from Joe Lansford, the lead designer on the Map team, reads:

“The team thinks seven is a nice sweet spot that offers both variety and mastery. You don’t have to spend all your time learning new angles, lineups, and strategies.”

Lansford also revealed that the decision to remove Split was also based on several factors.

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“Player sentiment, time since release, past and future planned updates, what the map brings in terms of strategic variance, as well as where Pearl fits into all of it,” he explained.

Fans upset with developers removing Split map

No amount of explanation can numb the pain of a Split fan in Valorant at the moment. A majority of the fandom wanted Riot to take out Fracture or Breeze. Split was a perfectly good map, in their opinion.

Split ended up trending on Twitter as well for obvious reasons.

We feel sorry for those who had lineups!

It’s true!

Split, no doubt, sided with the defense but with a good controller on the offense, the game would naturally balance out. Moreover, other maps in Valorant also tend to favor one side of the battle. The result depends on the agents that a team picks and on how well the players execute a plan.

That said, the officials have a point of their own. Having eight maps may become overwhelming for players as well as for the map-queue system. Moreover, Riot has promised to bring Split back later in time, probably with some rework. Until then, Pearl’s the new action!

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What do you think about Riot Games removing Split from Valorant? Let us know in the comments!