Lotus moves to the main competitive VALORANT map pool

After the release of Episode 6 Act 1 in VALORANT, you have enjoyed all the new features brought by this update. On the other hand, many wonders if the new map, Lotus, is playable in Competitive and Unrated modes.

As you may know, the latest VALORANT patch brought a lot of new features, a new Battle Pass season, a new map, and more. But VALORANT is focused on the competitive mode, so the main design decisions have been made to facilitate this game area.

Lotus can be played in VALORANT’s competitive mode

After a week of exclusive queuing for the new map, Lotus, it is possible to play it in the Unrated and Competitive queue, but with a significant change in sound. While it has been a frustrating wait for those who loved the map from the beginning, this is parring for the course for Riot Games.

Each new VALORANT map will be tested in different game modes before being officially released to the map pool. This is done with the mission that players get to know the map and get used to it; thus, the game experience will be much better.

Usually, this happens for a couple of weeks before the exclusive game mode for this new map is removed. But this time, things have been a bit different. Riot, in the patch notes for VALORANT Episode 6, stated:

“The Lotus exclusive queue will only be playable in Swift play mode for one week, and then it will move into the rotation of competitive and unranked maps in Patch 6.01.”

VALORANT Patch 6.01

As part of the new patch released by Riot a few hours ago, one of the most notable features is that the two revolving doors on the map receive a volume reduction. This will make them much quieter than they were previously.

There is no doubt that this small but significant change is welcomed by players who could not hear their teammates and opponents when these doors were active. Initially, players could listen to the doors spinning from virtually everywhere on the map, plus an icon on the minimap indicated when they were in use.

How these revolving doors work

For those who have not yet tried the map or don’t know, the revolving doors are activated by pressing a button on either side of the door. This will slowly open and close after a few seconds, giving players on both teams a brief window or opening through which to shoot.

One of the revolving doors is at Site A, which leads to the A Three Room. The other door is at C, which connects the main B route to the main C route.

Patch 6.01 Notes

MAP UPDATES

LOTUS

• The volume for the rotating doors has been reduced while rotating. Please let us know what you think.
• The Lotus-only queue has been removed.
• Lotus will now be included in the map rotation for Unrated and Competitive.

MODES UPDATES

REPLICATION

• Replication has been removed from the Modes queue.

BUG FIXES

AGENTS

• Killjoy’s Nanoswarm (C) will no longer deal more damage to destructible objects than intended.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS

• Fixed a bug where occasionally the third-person flashed visual indicator on an Agent’s head wasn’t in sync with the actual flash duration. (i.e., Omen’s Paranoia [Q], Phoenix’s Curveball [Q]).
• Fixed a bug where the Spike would be invisible and attempting to equip the Spike would fail after changing from Defender to Attacker in a Custom Game and picking up the Spike.
• Fixed a bug where you were unable to plant the Spike after reconnecting to a match where you died while disconnected.
• Solved a bug that, while using the Marshall, prevented full reloading between shots if auto-scoping is enabled. Thanks for all the reports on this!

MAPS

Lotus

• There are several bug fixes for Lotus. Thanks to everyone who reported issues! Here are a few highlights:
• Boost exploit in the back of B Site has been removed.
• You can no longer get yourself stuck in the rotating doors
• Breach can now use abilities on both rotating doors.
• The destructible door located at A Link now has working vision cones.
• The Spike can no longer get lost in the back of A Site.
• Fixed a broken Spike plant spot on A Site.

Header: Riot Games