The frustration around VALORANT’s Episode 8, Act Three map pool is apparently not limited to the competitive rotation, with players now slamming the tac shooter’s latest Team Deathmatch map for being too unthoughtfully designed.
The Issues with the Drift Map
In a Reddit post on May 16, a player highlighted the blaring issues of the Drift map, stressing that its excessively ranged playground is useless for warming up. “Why am I warming up my aim shooting players so far away that the gun is not even accurate anymore? Then you just get peeked by 5 people from up and below,” their post reads.
Mixed Reactions from the Community
While you can always take Drift’s side lanes to wrap up on your enemies, the player notes that flanking is usually frowned upon in casual VALORANT modes like Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch—and it doesn’t help much with warming up your aim either. “TDM used to be fun before this map was added, now it’s just an instant tilt when you load up into this map,” they concluded.
Of course, the community couldn’t agree more. “I fucking HATE that map, and I practically AFK when I get it,” one particularly emotive comment reads, summing up a lot of players’ thoughts on Drift. Another comment ironically noted how it’s based on Breeze, one of VALORANT’s most-hated competitive maps in rotation.
Strategies for Dealing with Drift
Some players shared how they tackle Drift’s quirks with utility. “I play Viper so I can ult and make the map smaller,” one player wrote—and it makes sense. Another player revealed their strategy for free kills: Play Omen to deploy one-way smokes on the boxes near enemy spawn. They aren’t fond of the map either, but strategic execution helps them get past it. Then again, players usually don’t prefer picking controllers in Team Deathmatches, with most instalocking duelists.
A Different Perspective
While most comments spoke against Drift, a few suggested players who focus too much on kills are responsible for its bad reputation in VALORANT. We can’t completely disagree. Team Deathmatch isn’t meant to be just gunplay; it also involves utility. Drift’s design forces players to use utility and meaningful strategies, so it doesn’t fit those who like to run it down.
While the competitive pool receives a regular refresh, considering there are only four Team Deathmatch maps in VALORANT, Riot is likely not updating the alternate mode’s pool anytime soon.