Valorant Pearl Map - Release Date, Sites, Layout and more

Riot Games has unveiled the latest Valorant map that will replace Split in the competitive and unrated queues when Episode 5 starts: Pearl. Featuring an underwater city that accentuates Valorant's mixture of avant-garde tech with more of a quaint design, Pearl is inspired by Portuguese architecture.

The addition of Pearl will break a streak of nine months without a new Valorant map. The last one to be added, Fracture, debuted back in September, with a massive content drought in the middle due to Riot Games shifting focus to balancing available content rather than keep adding more.

This new underwater city was revealed on a special Valorant stream on 16th June and as we mentioned, it will come alongside the new map rotation system to avoid clogging the map pool with the addition of a new one. Let's break down everything you need to know about Pearl.

Valorant Pearl map Release date

The newest Valorant map, Pearl, will join the tactical shooter when Episode 5 Act 1 starts this upcoming 22nd June.

Pearl will replace Split in the newly announced rotation system that will apply to unrated and competitive queues. However, before Pearl joins both queues, there will be a special playlist dedicated to the map so players can familiarize themselves with it, which will be available for two weeks.

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Pearl will then be available in ranked on 12th July.

Valorant Pearl Map Layout and Sites

ValorLeaks has shared a top-down view of the map similar to one that will potentially be seen on the Pearl mini-map. Take a look at it down below.

As you can see, Pearl features your two sites standard setup. Developers confirmed there will be no "gimmicks" like teleporters in Ascent, making a map you'll have to be smart about traversing due to its sheer size and scope.

The mid section of Pearl features plenty of entrances converging in a single area, leaving plenty of room for lurkers to take a wide variety of angles while entering a site. It's all mere speculation at this point, but defenders will have to pay close attention to these and coordinate appropriately to avoid any surprises.

We've yet to fully see the architecture of the map itself and what kind of layout each area has but it certainly seems like dominating the middle portion will give both defending and more importantly, attacking teams a massive edge in terms of space control.

If you want to keep up to date with Valorant tier lists, skin collections, and more, check out our dedicated section for more coverage of the ultra-popular title.

Featured image courtesy of Riot Games.