Ascent

"*sighs* This poor place. It clings to life. A city after my own heart"

- Reyna (Match Start on Ascent)

Ascent is a launch map that was also the fourth map to be released in VALORANT.

Summary
"An open playground for small wars of position and attrition divide two sites on Ascent. Each site can be fortified by irreversible bomb doors; once they’re down, you’ll have to destroy them or find another way. Yield as little territory as possible."

Map Features
Ascent is a map set in Italy that features a large, open middle area that both teams can skirmish over. Mid is a playground for diverse ability use and successfully controlling the area opens additional routes for Attackers to both Spike sites.

The map's 'unique' feature is mechanical doors leading into sites. Each site has one door (A Link for A and Market for B) that is opened at the start of each round. Players can use a switch on the site side of the door (Next to the door on A and on a table in Toolshed on B) to close or open the door. These doors are impenetrable while closed, but players can damage the doors to eventually destroy them, leaving the doorway permanently open.

Trivia

 * Map coordinates at 45°26'BF" N 12°20'Q" E in San Marco, Venice, Italy.
 * The map contains landmarks from this location such as St. Mark's Campanile and St. Mark's Basilica.
 * The B site for Ascent appear to be similar to the Practice Map's Bomb Plant Practice.
 * Ascent was the first map ever made. Its later release date than the Beta maps was likely due to the map going through a lot of iteration.
 * At Mid Bottom, there is a park bench themed after Tahm Kench from League of Legends. It is most likely a reference to the "Unbench the Kench" meme.
 * Ascent is a part of Venice that rose out of the ground after a spike detonation. The lead-up and fallout of this event have been shown in the cinematic DUELISTS and DUALITY, respectively
 * It is presumed that a Mirror Jett was able to plant and detonate a spike in Venice.
 * Before the existence of the Mirror Earth was revealed, Jett had a scrapped quote talking about how people thought Venice was her fault, alluding to the fact that it wasn't Earth 1 Jett but the Mirror Jett who had caused the disaster.