Riot Teases New Valorant Map Coming Next Week

The next map for Valorant is called Fracture and it will debut in an update one week from today. According to interviews with Riot Games, the map provides gameplay unlike any other map in Valorant's lineup, while also advancing the "parallel universe" storyline that was teased a few months ago.

The map is shaped like the letter H, with the bomb sites at each intersection. Defenders spawn in the middle, and there are ziplines to help agents navigate quickly.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun quoted developer Joe Lansford as saying that the map started as a "What if?" scenario and was somewhat inspired by the Battle of Helm's Deep, when Aragorn and Theoden ride out of their defensive position to face the orcs head-on. "We really wanted to ask players to rethink some fundamental assumptions and give them unique problems to solve. For example, for whom is the neutral space really for?"

Polygon noted that the map "features two mirror versions of reality, which is essentially the set up for the game’s larger story." The teaser video hints at the duality of the map, and we'd expect there to be some intriguing easter eggs for players to discover.

Fracture goes live with Valorant patch 3.05 next Tuesday, September 8 as part of the Episode 3, Act 2 update.