Breeze to replace Sunset in VALORANT Season 26 Act 1 map rotation

Breeze will finally be making a return to the VALORANT competitive map pool with the patch 12.00, a year and a half after its removal in the 8.11 update.

The tropical map will replace Sunset, as revealed by Riot Games alongside the announcement of Season 26 Act 1 Premier schedule.

Since its release back in August 2023, Sunset has been removed from competitive play only once, making it one of the obvious choices to rotate out this time.

The next competitive map rotation is expected to take place around January 7th, based on the in-game countdown and will feature the following maps:

According to an update shared by the VALORANT Gameplay Product Lead Coleman ‘Altombre’ Palm in October 2025, the team has been ‘investigating some updates for the map;’ however, these changes are yet to be revealed.

That said, players who want to play on Sunset can head to other modes, such as Swiftplay and Spike Rush.

In addition to this, it is currently unknown whether the new map pool will be implemented at the 2026 VCT Kickoff starting from January 15th.

After the long-awaited return of Breeze, most fans have welcomed the change to the competitive map pool.

“omg happy new year, took us long enough to get here,” said G2 Gozen’s IGL Michaela ‘mimi’ Lintrup.

Breeze has been G2 Gozen’s strongest map so far, with the team enjoying a win rate of over 80% on it.

“clove chamber jett reyna sova in every breeze ranked game in 2026,” stated Shopify Rebellion Gold’s IGL Melanie ‘meL’ Capone. 

However, Evil Geniuses player Bao ‘bao’ Nguyen expressed his disappointment with the updated pool.

“Worst map pool of all time and it ain’t even close,” he said on X (Twitter).

Moreover, players can also expect new agent balance changes hitting the game with the upcoming update, as recently announced by Ryan Cousart, Live Balance Designer for VALORANT.