Olivia R. July 1, 2020
Riot Games has removed Haven from Valorant's competitive queue map pool after finding a game-breaking exploit.
Valorant tweeted that Haven will return to the rotation as soon as the developer is "confident it's fixed."
For the past week, players have been aware of a game-breaking exploit in Haven while playing with Reyna, the first-person shooter's newest agent. On the C site, players can use Reyna's Dismiss ability to clip through some of the platforms located in the back of the map. This allows the vampire-inspired agent to essentially vanish beneath the map.
While underneath the map, Reyna can safely plant the bomb without being interrupted by the enemy team. At that point, it's a free round for Reyna's team.
To achieve this, Reyna must be carrying the bomb onto the C site. She must then kill an enemy while near the boxes located on the left side of the site. From there, the Reyna can use Dismiss to clip through the elevator and become all but untouchable.
This exploit takes a lot of specific circumstances to achieve, but since it's possible to replicate and it's a potentially game-breaking, which led to the decision to ban Haven from the current map rotation.
The exploit is expected to be fixed very soon..
Valorant players complain about Reyna
While some Valorant players were pleased with Haven being removed since attackers have what some consider to be an "unfair advantage" due to its three separate sites, most players turned their attention to Reyna instead.
In response to Valorant's official tweet on the matter, players called for Reyna to be banned rather than Haven.
People on Reddit asked Riot to disable Reyna as well.
A lot of fans point to Reyna's flash ability as the reason for their disdain. Unlike other agent's flash abilities, Reyna's can't be avoided by turning around. There's no way to dodge it, leaving her opponents to start immediately spraying in an attempt to damage the Reyna once they're inevitably blinded.
One player noted that the short time it takes Reyna to administer the flash leaves opponents "as good as dead." They recalled a Reyna flashing through Brimstone's smokes. In fact, Brimstone's smoke basically became the "perfect cover" for Reyna, leaving him to duel with her blindly or to back off immediately.
People had similar concerns about Raze in the closed beta. While many agents have an ability kit focused on utility and strategy, Raze's kit is pure damage. Damage-focused agents like Reyna have continuously been called "OP" since other agents aren't so specifically built for combat.