The active VALORANT map pool is headed for a big change and a new map set to join it will make its official debut hours before the Champions 2023 final.
The next VALORANT map will debut during the “Champions Gold Carpet pre-show” prior to the grand finals on Saturday, Aug. 26, according to an official Riot Games announcement detailing the events that will take place during the Champions finals weekend. During the pre-show on both Aug. 25 and 26, a “reveal of what’s to come at the dawn of Episode Seven, Act Two” will also be shown around 12:30pm CT.
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Players will finally get to see the new map for themselves after piecing together clues for some time. And for local fans in attendance watching Champions in Los Angeles this weekend, the new map is likely going to look very familiar. The hints and teases that have been released over the past few weeks all point toward the new map taking place in an L.A.-like setting.
Several prominent VALORANT influencers or leak accounts have already shared the map’s supposed name: Sunset. Outside of the setting, there’s not much in the way of available information regarding what the prominent map features will be. The VALORANT team released Pearl as a map with no unique features before adopting both a three-site layout and a rotating door gimmick for its next map release, Lotus.
Related: Latest VALORANT teaser hints at possible Los Angeles map coming around Champions 2023 final
Speaking of Pearl, though, that map as well as Fracture will be rotated out of the active map pool at the start of the next act, while the revamped and returning Breeze and the tentatively-named Sunset will be rotating in. Riot has committed to keeping a seven-map pool for the time being and has already rotated maps like Bind and Split out before returning them with a fresh look later.
