1 year 10 months ago
Valorant Episode 5, Act 1, kicks off next week, introducing a brand new map called Pearl, as well as the usual new battle pass and premium skin bundle. But there’s more than just new content coming, as Riot Games has now unveiled Patch 5.0 which introduces a host of interesting changes to the game. Most notably, there’s a brand new rank being added to Competetive called ‘Ascendant’ that sits between Diamond 3 and Immortal 1.
Today’s Patch 5.0 notes explain:
“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.“
The notes go on to highlight that those who finished last season below Ascendant (Iron 1-Diamond 3) are likely to experience a bump up in rank, while those above will find it harder to work their way back toward the rank they finished this Act. That said, it’s less severe of a reset this time around as it was for Episode 4. The maximum rank you will be able to achieve after placements is Ascendant 1.
Beyond the new rank, there isn’t really much to Patch 5.0, except for the fact that Split is being temporarily disabled for both Unrated and Competitive due to a host of bugs. You can read more about why in Riot’s dedicated map pool article.
Here’s the full Patch 5.0 notes: