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An enthusiastic gamer who bumped into the intricacies of video game journalism in 2021 and has been hustling ever since. Obsessed with first-person shooter titles, especially VALORANT. Contact: [email protected]","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/the_pomegranate_girl\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sharmila-ganguly-403902118\/","https:\/\/x.com\/g1_sharmila"],"url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/sharmilaganguly"}]}},"raw_content":"VALORANT is all set to welcome its eighth Episode, promising loads of new content besides the usual balance updates that follow. Being the first seasonal update of 2024, I\u2019m sure you are excited about Episode Eight, Act One\u2019s launch, so here\u2019s everything we know or are expecting from it\u2014so far. What to expect from VALORANT\u2019s Episode Eight, Act One? While Riot is yet to confirm the rumors, commencing in the second week of Jan. 2024, the first Act of Episode Eight will purportedly introduce a new sniper rifle to VALORANT\u2019s weaponry and a brand new weapon collection featuring what\u2019s arguably the most uniquely designed melee skin so far, as well as return a revamped Icebox to the competitive map pool. Let\u2019s dive into further details, shall we? VALORANT\u2019s Episode Eight release date According to the in-game timer, Episode Eight, Act One will start on Jan. 9, 2024, for the Americas region\u2014a few hours after the long-running Episode Seven, Act Three ends. For servers in the Asia-Pacific and Europe, the update should go live in the wee hours of Jan. 10.\u00a0 Rumored VALORANT weapon Outlaw all set to break laws Rumors of VALORANT getting a new sniper rifle began a while back, but reliable leaker ValorLeaks has claimed it\u2019s set for launch in Episode Eight\u2019s first Act. Expected to be priced at 2,400 credits, the Outlaw is reportedly a double-barrel sniper rifle featuring a mean damage potential and accuracy that\u2019s in between the Marshal and the Operator. Based on the leaks so far, the Outlaw is designed to cater to those who would prefer the role of a sniper over an assaulter in a full-buy round, but without having to break their economy.\u00a0 Competitive map shuffle might mark Icebox\u2019s return, Haven\u2019s exit VALORANT\u2019s competitive map rotation pool has a seven-map rule, so besides adding new maps every once in a while, Riot also shuffles existing maps based on how the meta flows. According to recent leaks, Icebox will reportedly make a return in Episode Eight, Act One, and to accommodate it, Haven will make an exit.\u00a0\u00a0 While the community\u2014especially Fnatic fans\u2014is happy about Icebox\u2019s return, Riot\u2019s move to potentially remove Haven instead of the \u201cboring\u201d Ascent map has left many players confused and annoyed. The map shuffle is still a rumor, so Riot might announce something completely different as Episode Eight\u2019s launch nears.\u00a0 Rumored Kuronami bundle containing a ravishing melee skin VALORANT receives a brand new weapon collection at the start of every Act, and thankfully, Episode Eight, Act One will not deviate from the trend. In fact, based on the leaks so far, you\u2019d want to gear up for a rather amazing set of weapon skins, as well as a dreamy melee skin this time. Episode Eight\u2019s weapon collection is reportedly named Kuronami, featuring skins for the Vandal, Spectre, Marshal, and Sheriff. While the Kuronami weapon skins in their leaked form show incredible promise, none is as thrilling as the collection\u2019s melee\u2014Kuronami No Yaiba\u2014with its chained, double kunai knife animation.\u00a0 Ranked reset is going to be a hard one For those unaware, new Episodes hard reset our VALORANT ranks as opposed to the soft reset that new Acts bring. At the start of Episode Eight, Act One, your rank will be hard reset, and you\u2019ll have to play five matches to unlock your new rank. Since it\u2019s a new Episode, the rank you unlock after the five matches will be a couple of ranks lower than what you achieved in Episode Seven, Act Three. \u00a0 So if you finish Platinum Three in Act Three, you can drop to as low as Silver in the new Episode. Try to win as many matches as you can out of the five to unlock the highest possible rank. New battle pass, agent changes, bug fixes, and more Like always, Patch 8.0 is expected to bring some changes to agents, maps, and other experiences, as well as bug fixes.\u00a0 It will also introduce a new battle pass for players to complete and earn non-animated weapon skins, player cards, sprays, Radianite Points, and more. Here\u2019s an interesting tidbit about Episode Eight, Act One\u2019s battle pass: it\u2019ll reportedly have a player card, which is a teaser for VALORANT\u2019s Agent 25. We\u2019ll update this story as and when new information is revealed.","apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/VAL_1-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1080600"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1080625,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080600\/revisions\/1080625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1080608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1080600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1080600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1080600"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=1080600"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=1080600"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=1080600"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1080600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

• Rokurou