The big 5.0 update for Valorant brings a new map, Pearl, removes an old one, Split, and changes the competitive tier system.

　　For the two weeks after Pearl goes live, Valorant will offer a Pearl only playlist. After those two weeks, Pearl will be folded into both the Unrated and Competitive modes. The map Split is also temporarily being removed from Unrated and Competitive map pools.

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　　The other significant change is the addition of the Ascendent rank, found in-between the Diamond and Immortal ranks in competitive play. The patch notes cite concerns about the spread of players across ranks, especially in the lower tiers. An additional rank will assist, the notes claim, in defining the skill level of each rank and properly distributing players. In kind, the rank-determining MMR targets for all ranks below Immortal have been moved down, to make room for the incoming tier. In addition, the seasonal reset will be less harsh than before and after this patch, because players are being moved up into the Ascendent tier.

　　The rest of the patch encompasses some bug fixes. For example, weapon equips will no longer occasionally show the incorrect seed animation, the channeling bar will update as normal if a player disconnects and then reconnects to a match, and Jett cannot equip a weapon during Tailwind.

　　You can find the complete patch notes below or on the Valorant Website.

　　

MAP UPDATES

PEARL

NEW MAP: Pearl goes live!Pearl-only queueThis queue is a standard, Unrated mode that will give players a chance to practice the new map before they see it in Competitive play.Pearl-only queue will be available for 2 weeks, then after that Pearl will enter Competitive.

SPLIT

We are temporarily removing Split from the map pool in Unrated and Competitive queuesThere are reasons! You can read more about our decision in our map pool update article.

　　

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

NEW RANK: Ascendant

Added an additional rank above Diamond, below Immortal, called “Ascendant.”We believe our lower ranks have a few too many of you, especially Bronze and Silver. When we were looking at rank distribution, we realized that if we were to move some of you up and out of those lower ranks, it would overpopulate Platinum and Diamond. So by adding a new rank we can better distribute you across ranks, keep the prestige of high ranks, while helping better define the skill level of each rank.Moved the rank MMR targets that determine rank down, due to the addition of the new Ascendant rank, for all ranks below Ascendant. Moved the ranked target for Immortal 1/2/3 and Radiant up.These are the cut-offs that say “You should be X MMR to reach this rank”. MMR targets determine your RR gains and help push your rank to match your MMR.This means players will go up in rank, if they are below Ascendant.To align with our expectations of what it means to be in the highest ranks of VALORANT, Immortal+ players will find it harder to climb back to their previous episode rank. This means Immortal will also have a smaller leaderboard population in all regions.Due to the seasonal reset, you may not see a rank increase at the start of the Episode without putting in some work; but the reset will be “less harsh” compared to the last Episode reset. So because we are pushing the player base upwards to fill Ascendant, the reset will not hit you as hard.Next time we reset ranks it will probably push you down more than this Episode’s reset. Please remember that the “less harsh” reset is unique to this Episode because of the introduction of Ascendant.Grouping restrictions for Ascendant are 3 ranks above or below the Ascendant ranked playerThis fits in with our Platinum+ rule set for grouping.The highest placement allowed has increased to Ascendant 1 (previously Diamond 1)Five stacking 25% RR penalty now starts at Immortal 1 (previously Diamond 3)Solo/Duo/5-stack restriction now starts at Immortal 1 (previously Diamond 3)Remember, Diamond 3 and above could previously only solo, duo, and 5-stack. This restriction now begins at Immortal 1.By adding another rank we were able to push the Five Stack penalty and Solo/Duo restrictions into Immortal. This makes it more straight forward, Immortal is where the leaderboard starts and because of this we try to hold players more accountable for their standings.Due to a naming clash with the new rank, we’ve renamed Sage’s tier 8 Agent Contract unlock—the new Sage title is “Dauntless”Renaming this title was not something we chose lightly, but after talking about the title we felt like it was a chance to give the title more meaning to Sage and her personality/theme.

BUGS

Maps

Fixed a bug on Haven that was preventing players from using their spray on a wall in A GardenShout out to @eminakob for passionately pointing out this bug

　　

Agents

Fixed a bug where Jett could equip a weapon during TailwindFixed a bug where Agents revealed by Sova’s Recon Bolt or Fade’s Haunt would sometimes briefly appear in an incorrect location on the minimapFixed a bug where the scope visual effect would sometimes disappear when aiming with Chamber’s Tour De Force

Game Systems

Fixed a bug where using an Ultimate point orb or defusing the Spike at maximum range could cause channeling and progress bar animations to flickerFixed a bug where the use channeling progression bar does not update if the player disconnects and reconnects during the matchFixed a bug where some weapon equips could play the wrong equip speed animation, which could visually misrepresent when you were able to fire. Some situations impacted by this bug were:Cypher exiting SpycamCapturing Ultimate point OrbsCanceling and completing Spike plant

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