Now that we are just one week away from the start of Valorant's Episode 8 Act 3, Riot has started to share some details about what we can expect this time. Along with those announcements, a few leaks about what appears to be the next skinline bundle have also crept up online.
We have gathered all the information known so far about this upcoming season so you can prepare accordingly for its arrival.
Release date
Valorant's Episode 8 Act 3 is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, April 30. However, the exact time will depend on your time zone, and the season will start a day later for some countries.
A brief maintenance period will take place before the start of the season and it will last around 4 hours. The servers for North America, LATAM, and Brazil will go down at 6:00 am PT and come back up at 10:00 am PT barring any issues.
On the other hand, the European servers will go down at 4:00 am BST on Wednesday, May 1, and should return at 8:00 am on that same day.
New map
The first teaser for this new map came through a Player Card from Episode 8 Act 2's battle pass. The cosmetic has an image of what appears to be some underground ruins, giving us a clue about the map's location.
New Map Teaser Card | #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/5JKbiy3FYp
— Valorant Updates (@ValorantUpdated) March 2, 2024
A few days later, an unreleased promotional image of the map was leaked by Impossible_Ad1362 on Reddit, revealing that the map will be titled Bastion. The user was apparently testing a crawl bot on the game's official website and it discovered the following image among the files.
NEW MAP BASTION LEAK | #VALORANT
Could be a normal or TDM map. pic.twitter.com/euwsaIVXLe
— Valorant Updates (@ValorantUpdated) March 18, 2024
It is unclear if this will be a traditional or TDM (Team Deathmatch) map, but the image does give us a better idea of the overall setting.
We wouldn't be surprised if the map is scheduled to be released in the middle of the season, just like what happened with Clove in Act 2.
New pink bundle
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 believe the skinline will arrive in the shop once the new season begins.
The cosmetics are flower-themed and the account compares them to the Spirit Blossom skins we saw in League of Legends, where the items were mostly pink and purple.
These are the weapons that will receive a new skin with this upcoming bundle:
- Operator
- Phantom
- Sheriff
- Judge
- Melee
The melee will be shaped like a kunai and will feature its unique animations. This is not the first time we see a kunai in the game, with one of the most notorious being the one from the Valorant Champions 2023 bundle.
If this is indeed the launch bundle for the season, Riot will most likely release a trailer to showcase the cosmetics before their arrival.
Premier updates
Riot revealed through the official game's account on X (formerly Twitter) that the Premier mode is getting three major updates at the start of the season. Here is the list of changes with a short description of each one:
- Promotion: Teams that win their Playoff bracket this stage will be promoted at least one division at the start of the next stage. The top 2 contenders teams in each zone will get the opportunity to make it into 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 stage.
- Playoff qualification: Playoff qualification threshold is now 600 Premier score for all divisions.
Once we know more about the additions coming with this season, we will be updating this article to add all the missing information.
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