Riot knocks back Valorant player demands for Competitive map selection

Being able to select the maps you want to play in Competitive has been a much-requested feature from Valorant players. However, Riot have knocked back those demands, citing matchmaking issues.

One of the biggest complaints in the Valorant community right now is how diverse the map pool feels right now, or rather the lack of diversity. Even though there’s four maps, it feels like you can get queued up on the same map for three, four, or five-plus games in a row.

This led to the players demanding a map selection system, specifically for Competitive. Valorant players were hoping for a system like CS:GO.

In the Valve FPS title, you can select the maps you queue up for in Competitive from a pool of around a dozen. While there’s more maps in CS:GO, many players thought there was no reason it couldn’t apply to Valorant.

However, Riot saw it differently. Valorant’s developers noted that they don’t “have plans to enable map specific selection,” stating they want to keep the queue times low, and the games fair.

• Read more: Riot to nerf Raze to increase “counterplay” in Valorant Patch 1.04

“From a Competitive perspective, we really want to ensure we’re able to not only put players in fair matches but do so in a reasonable queue time,” senior producer Ian Fielding said in a July 16 blog post.

“Splitting up matchmaking into separate map pools would reduce the overall players in our matchmaking pool, which not only slows down matchmaking, but makes it more difficult for us to produce fair matches.”

The news hasn’t been well received by the community. While the feature has been discussed before, this is the first time the devs have straight up said no. Players have been suggesting possible solutions that could be implemented in its place.

“No one wants to play the same map three times in a row. If there won’t be an option to pick maps, how about having the option to just ban a single map, leaving three maps in the pool,” said Don Haci on Twitter.

This system above would work similarly to Siege’s map ban system, which is set to be implemented later this year. When players queue up for a Ranked game, they’ll have a choice of three maps. Each team will ban one, leaving the final map as the battleground for that match.

• Read more: Riot admits Sage “out of control” and will be nerfed next patch

With Riot planning on releasing more maps for Valorant, the possibility is definitely not off the table. However, it’s unlikely we will see any change in 2020.