As you queue into various games ofValorant, you might commonly come across the Lotus map, which can be quite overwhelming because of the extra site. Instead of defending the normal two sites, you have to defend three sites in this map, which makes it almost impossible to prevent a spike plant without good defending agents like Clove.
This map also incentivizes long-range combat on two of its three sites, which might not be your cup of tea. Thankfully, if you place Clove’s smokes in the correct position and at the right time, you’re able to decide the range you want to battle enemies at.
Main Purpose
Catching off anyone who tries to aggressively enter A Site
If you’veplayed as a defender on the Lotusmap before, you likely already know that the A Site has a chance of getting attacked far more than the other two. This is mainly because the attackers have relatively fewer angles to clear while also having an open area to themselves along with multiple entry options.
To prevent this push proactively, you can place two smokes in the middle part as soon as you hear the enemies pushing. This will make them a little more wary to go through while also giving your team an opportunity to place an agent near the box on the right.
Defenders
Making it far more difficult for attackers to rotate back to A Site
The push-preventing smokes mentioned above are mostly good only if the attackers attempt to push A site at the start of the game. However, if they head over to a different side first, you can go for an aggressive approach on A and place your agents deeper into the attacker side to prevent any rotations.
This can be done by blocking off A lobby and walking up to the Rubble area. Once you’ve managed to get a teammate in this position, you can safely leave and help other members on a different site.
Finding an entry into A Site and getting a plant
While it might be easier to access A Site for attackers on Lotus, it’s still not easy to get a plant since you can be peeked at from three different angles at the same time. To reduce this risk, you cansmoke off A Stairsand Tree before entering so that you can clear the site and A Top using utilities from other members of your team.
Once you get a plant, you can either attempt to clear Tree and play post-plant on-site or back off and take long-range fights against the enemies. Keep in mind that the place you’d want to plant the spike will significantly differ based on your approach for post-plant.
Preventing entry to B Site
Things are quite chill when you’re tasked with defending the B site on Lotus since the enemies have to go through a choke point to enter here, which usually incentivizes them to not try it. However, you may make this even worse for the enemies by smoking B Main and A Link if you’re not sure about the enemy’s location on A.
Moreover, if you don’t get pushed at the start on B, you can use an aggressive approach by using the smoke on B Pillars, which allows your teammate to camp behind the box on Main and hold a cross angle with you.
Attackers
Getting the spike planted on the B site to start the post-plant phase
If choke points don’t scare you as an attacker and you still want to enter B site, the best way to do so is by smoking off B Upper and C Link since you can usually tell if an enemy is there on A Link by hearing the destructible wall break. Once the smokes are down, you can clear the close angles with a flash and get an easy plant.
Depending on the enemy positions, it’s usually better to play the post-plant in B Main and C Link so that you can hit enemies from different angles. Your team would also want to save a ton of utility for post-plant since enemies can come from various angles on B.
Preventing attackers from entering the C Site
The C Site follows a similar pattern to B even though the attackers don’t necessarily have to go through any choke points. To defend this site, you can simply smoke off C Main one after another, which can lead up to a total of 42 seconds of smoke if you don’t need to use one anywhere else.
This usually forces attackers to wait the smokes out since they’d have to check three different angles as soon as they get past the smoke. However, you can also go for an aggressive approach by smoking off C Lobby to get access to the orb and place your teammates in unexpected corners.
Getting access to the C site and planting the spike
As mentioned above, it’s not quite as easy to enter this site as an Attacker, and the best smokes you’d want to do are shown in the picture above. These smokes prevent defenders from peaking at any off-angle and give you an easier passage to clear the site and get the plant.
However, if you want to plant in the corner of this site so that you can defend it from C Main, you’d want to smoke off C Link instead of doing it up close on your right. This will increase the amount of angles you’ll have to clear, but the post-plant can be much easier.
