When will Valorant Map Lotus be added to Competitive?

With the start of the new year, there will be a new patch and episode for Valorant players to test next week. There will be many changes in this patch, including a big change to the map pool. Two cards in particular exit unrated and competitive queues while two others enter the fold.

Breeze and Bind are the two cards that leave the game. Meanwhile, Riot Games decided to bring Split back and created an entirely new map called Lotus.

Lotus is a highly anticipated card as it will be the first addition since Pearl’s release in June 2022. The long gap between map releases is typical of Valorant, so it’s always nice to see another one join the map pool.

So far, one of the biggest pieces of information about the map is that there will be three locations. This makes it the second map in Valorant to have more than two locations, the other being Haven.

With the new map being released on Tuesday, many Valorant players are wondering when they can play this map in competitive mode.

Riot usually limits a new map to non-competitive queues to help everyone get used to it. Although there is no official release date for Lotus to be queued for competition, it will likely follow the same timeframe as previous card releases. Players should keep an eye out for Lotus in the queue a few weeks after the initial release on January 10th.