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:
Map Updates
New Map Pearl
- This 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 queues
- There 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 Immortal1/2/3 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 player
- This 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
- Fixed a bug on Haven that was preventing players from using their spray on a wall in A Garden
- Agents
- Fixed a bug where Jett could equip a weapon during Tailwind
- Fixed a bug where Agents revealed by Sova’s Recon Bolt or Fade’s Haunt would sometimes briefly appear in an incorrect location on the minimap
- Fixed 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 flicker
- Fixed a bug where the use channeling progression bar does not update if the player disconnects and reconnects during the match
- Fixed 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 Spycam
- Capturing Ultimate point Orbs
- Canceling and completing Spike plant
- Fixed a bug where the use channeling progression bar does not update if the player disconnects and reconnects during the match
- Fixed 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 Spycam
- Capturing Ultimate point Orbs
- Canceling and completing Spike plant
In case you aren’t up to speed with all the festivities around Valorant’s new map and everything coming in Episode 5, check out our recent trailer reveal article. Stay tuned throughout today as we’ll be revealing a host of other new upcoming Valorant features and content coming to the game soon.
