I was one who defended upward when this was initially mentioned, mostly because it’s a map that has been consistently good for a long time and honestly doesn’t have much fault with it.
My opinion is still the same, but I do see the light of letting it be rotated out for a season. Speaking strictly on the payload maps, swiftwater and vigil have both seen very interesting changes to how teams play the map season per season.
For example on swift teams have adjusted how they’ve held second and third, we’ve seen first holds, we’ve seen aggressive fourth holds, and we’ve seen teams retake fourth while on last. Vigil has been a newer map now that has been consistently enjoyed, and teams are still settling in on how to play it and try new things all the time. Meanwhile for upward…well it just get’s played the same way, and you may say that’s the fault of the teams not trying anything new but really we’ve done most of what we can to innovate the map because it’s played EVERY SINGLE SEASON.
Product was rotated out for a season, no map should be immune to this, and I think upward is the least interesting payload map of the three. It also in invite has been picked the least amount for playoff games. I actually don’t think in season 8 it was picked at all.