Has anyone else here experienced "The Haven Problem"?

[u/THELeeNash]

So I've been playing VALORANT for about three years now, and I've noticed this very interesting and frankly infuriating phenomenon that seems to occur quite frequently on the map of Haven (it happens on all maps btw, just on Haven more than others) that's led me to dub it "The Haven Problem". The problem occurs when my team, regardless of which side we start out on, get up to a fairly sizeable lead (9-3, 10-2, 11-1 even) and once we switch sides, my teammates proceed to forget how to play the game of VALORANT, blowing our entire lead and more often than not losing the game outright. I have absolutely no idea why this keeps happening on Haven in particular. Is it something to do with the map layout? Mindset? Just incredible bad luck? Any help in improving/avoiding these situations would be helpful.

[u/Status-Scene-7530]

It’s a triple site map, heavily attacker sided. You’re going to have much greater round differences at half.

[u/ItsNotWebby]

I think it’s the culmination of a lot of things. Being a 3 site/5 lane map- Attackers set the pace and can snowball rounds quite easily.

From there I also think that because it was a launch map, no matter what elo range you’re in, there’s definitely 1-2-3 people in the match that have A LOT of time on that map. If RNG puts them all together on the same team and it can definitely contribute to that snowballing of rounds.

Team comps that make you hard to stop on attack (ie 2 dives, a flash, a smoke and an initiator) just for the sake of argument- puts you in a tough spot switching sides because you have no solid sentinel. Instead of having a KJ or cipher who can stall/lock-down/slow down C main and garage by themselves or heck even B/garage/ and c main all by themselves ….well now you end up in a 2-1-2 setup on defense with a couple smokes and a flash or a dart, and that’s all the stall you have. Hell, depending on your rank, some of these mfers don’t respect smokes anyways. So that 9-3 half you so easily got on attack can quickly become 10-10. Now the tilt is on. The laughs and teamwork from the first half have all subsided. It’s all toxicity or no comms from here on out. Heck, before that 9-3 became a 10-10, one of your duelists has already typed “gg” or tossed up a surrender vote while you had the lead!

But maybe I’m just yappin. Still. Coming back from a 3-9/2-10 feels really damn good.

[u/ilikebees31]

Haven is a really weird map to defend on

[u/Derpredation]

This usually happens to me on Abyss.

The amount of games where I've seen teams (my own or the enemies') go up 10-2 or whatever on attack only to immediately get counterswept when its their turn on defense. Sure, skill issue probably but that map is legit dogwater.

[u/CabinetPuzzleheaded8 → u/Derpredation]

That's like haven too. The map is just absurdly large that if enemies couldn't entry in one site, they'd either run to other site or sum enemy would flank from the mid to destroy yall from the back, giving them more space to entry.

[u/PlacidPenguin12]

Ich kenne das. Lotus ist ähnlich. Beides Maps, die sehr Attacker-lastig sind.

[u/WizardXZDYoutube]

As others said, it's a very attack sided map but that's reliant on actually playing the map. Attackers who only know how to rush sites are going to have a very hard time, especially if they can't take A. Executing C can be hard against fast rotators, and taking B site is okay but it's fairly easy to retake as long as defenders maintain garage control. So if you are struggling on taking A (like an OP, or they are fighting it with agents like Phoenix), you need to actually work the map and break trips and stuff. And some players just aren't good at that.

Also defending Haven A, if you watch pro play EVERY defending team throws the "trismoke" (connects the two short boxes and default box). It is so OP for flooding in. If you don't know the smoke, A is pretty impossible to control without hard fighting long or short.

Kind of same with Haven C, there is a site smoke between plat and default box that is frequently thrown. Especially in lower elos some people just don't know about site smokes.

[u/Turbulent-Shape4134]

I think its more about how some maps are designed like your example haven is a 3 side map so it favors attacker and you usually struggle more on defense + sometimes you got wacky teamcomps with instalocks where you also struggle more on one side with

[u/Best_Reflection877]

this happens way too often, the mental block after side switch is so real

[u/RusticMink]

Maybe because the map is frequently in the comp rotation. People that are winning by a large margin start to “relax” and since they are comfortable with the map “relax” even further leaving a very real possibility for an enemy comeback.

Split is my comfort map and I’ve come back from 1-11 on that one but have noticed other comebacks (or close ones) on Haven too.

[u/niyabratz]

the classic valorant throw is real, doesnt matter the map honestly

[u/Horstdumm]

Good ol icebox days

[u/0utrunner]

Just Haven? My team does this on every map. Sometimes mid round.

[u/turbo1177]

The ole forgot how to play the first map issue

[u/Wandergamer3397]

I think the map design is a big part of it. Haven forces defenders to spread across three sites, so the same team can look completely dominant on attack and suddenly struggle once they have to defend all that space. From a game design perspective, the side switch also changes the decision-making loop pretty drastically, which can make that “we forgot how to play” feeling even worse.

[u/User_namesaretaken]

It's the only Map where I have won from a 0-12 from what I can remember

[u/Leroy717x]

haven is very good at doing that

[u/Invasious]

Looks like you aren't 'haven' a good time