Release date, new map, skins and everything we know – SiegeGG

Episode 8, Act 3 of Valorant is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, April 30th. However, the exact time depends on your time zone and in some countries the season starts a day later.

Before the season begins, there will be a short maintenance period that will last approximately 4 hours. North America, LATAM, and Brazil servers will shut down at 6:00 a.m. PT and come back up at 10:00 a.m. PT, assuming no issues occur.

On the other hand, the European servers will be shut down at 4:00am BST on Wednesday May 1st and should return at 8:00am the same day.

New card

The first teaser for this new map came via a player card from the Episode 8, Act 2 Battle Pass. The cosmetics show an image of what appear to be underground ruins, giving us a clue to the map's location.

According to the ValorantLeaksEn account on X (formerly Twitter), a new bundle with pink variants is coming soon. Given the timing of this leak, we expect the skinline to be available in the shop as soon as the new season begins.

The cosmetics have a floral theme and the report compares them to the Spirit Blossom skins we saw in League of Legends, where the items were primarily pink and purple.

These are the weapons that will receive a new skin with this upcoming bundle:

• operator
• phantom
• sheriff
• Judge
• Close combat

The melee fighter takes the form of a kunai and has unique animations. This isn't the first time we've seen a kunai in the game. One of the most infamous is the one from the Valorant Champions 2023 bundle.

If this is indeed the starting pack for the season, Riot will most likely release a trailer to showcase the cosmetics before their arrival.

Riot announced via the game's official account on X (formerly Twitter) that Premier Mode is receiving three major updates at the start of the season. Here is the list of changes with a brief description of each change:

• Financial support: Teams that win their playoff round in this phase will be promoted at least one division at the start of the next phase. The top two contender teams in each zone will receive the opportunity to advance to a Challengers league.
• Top 32: Qualify for the Invite Division in E9A1 by being one of the 32 teams in your zone's Contenders Division at the end of the phase.
• Playoff qualification: The playoff qualification threshold is now 600 Premier Scores for all divisions.

As we know more about this season's additions, we will update this article to add any missing information.