Today, we look at VALORANT’s newest map, Abyss, from the meta side to the wacky stuff in it.
VALORANT announced a new map, Abyss, at Masters Shanghai, with a showcase match between Team International and Team China. The map featured a new spot or shortcut that has its own risk. Abyss comes with patch 8.11 as part of Episode Eight, Act Three, which will launch on June 10 or 11, 2024, depending on your time zone. There are a lot of things to unwrap, so buckle up.
Before we talk about meta stuff, let’s talk about the inherent risk of this map. This place featured one VALORANT that hadn’t touched before, which is no boundaries gameplay. In Abyss, you can fall off the map, which results in your death for that round, just like Fracture. There are many places on the map where you could fall if you don’t tread carefully, especially the edge of the map.
Yes, you can jump over it if you want.
This feature was something new in VALORANT and, personally, the best inclusion feature in a map entertainment-wise. The verticality offered in this map was also something that could make or break the map; as of now, it was one of the most varied in terms of vertical gameplay.
As with almost every map in VALORANT, Abyss was divided into three lanes: A and B, and the central area connecting both. The map, however, featured a verticality that makes the three lanes unique. The central area, in particular, had a spot where you can fall when you cross from one platform to another because one is higher than the other.
Imagine using Breach's ult to hold this bridge.
Both A and B have a little bridge that can be a shortcut to the spike site or, if you feel feisty, the spike site itself. The edges of both sites had little walls, so Agents with displacement or movement abilities like Raze, Omen, or Breach could take advantage of it, while more stationary Agents must be extra careful.
We haven’t talked about the verticality of the map. Like Icebox, this map featured varied heightened platforms that you could use to your advantage or disadvantage. However, the verticality might become something that wasn’t very popular with the community as it made it harder to defend, just like Icebox.
This map has the potential to become one of the most fun maps to play and watch in VALORANT to date, with how much room for creativity it provides. However, Abyss can also garner discontentment inside the community with how much verticality it contains. However, how this map would resonate with the community was a discussion topic for another day. Lastly, we want to show some easter eggs that we found on the map for the lore enthusiasts:
Check out our video playing around the map at our YouTube channel and drop a subscribe if you want to see more VALORANT content from us!
