The Introduction of the New VALORANT Map in LOCK//IN Tournament
The second day of the VALORANT LOCK//IN tournament witnessed the competitive debut of the game’s newest map. The map, called Lotus, was added to the ranked map pool on January 18. In today’s match between Chinese team FunPlus Phoenix and Karmine Corp, FunPlus Phoenix chose Lotus as the first map of the series.
The selection of Lotus was unexpected, considering it is the most recent addition to the map pool and there may not be many in-depth strategies developed for it yet. However, FunPlus Phoenix saw this as an opportunity to take Karmine Corp by surprise.
However, FunPlus Phoenix’s tactic did not go as planned. They were defeated by Karmine Corp with a score of 13-6, and Karmine Corp’s controller player Ryad “SHIN” Ensaad topped the scoreboard. Despite playing as Viper, he achieved an average combat score of 288, as reported by VLR.gg.
Both Karmine Corp and FunPlus Phoenix utilized two controllers on the Lotus map due to its numerous spots where smoke can be deployed with long lines of sight towards A. The compositions of both teams were similar, with Viper, Omen, Killjoy, and Skye being the common picks. FunPlus Phoenix chose Fade as their initiator, while Karmine Corp went with Sova.
Karmine Corp secured victory against FunPlus Phoenix by winning on the Lotus and Pearl maps.
Lotus was initially added to VALORANT in January of this year with Swiftplay, but it was introduced to the ranked map pool a few days later.
The map is the second in the game to have three Spike sites. It also features a few new gimmicks, such as rotating doors scattered around two sites and a breakable wall between the B and A sites.