The developers at Riot Games have made an official policy in regards to when new Valorant Agents and maps will be eligible for competetive play.
On the official Valorant Twitter account, Riot has announced that there will be a two-week grace period for new Agents until they can be played in ranked queue, and the map pool will include the new map four weeks after release, so this means that the newest Agent in the game, Skye, will be available in competitive play on Nov. 9, and the newest map, Icebox, will join the rotation on Nov. 24.
The new policy means that Skye will not be eligible for the first official 128-team open qualifier tournament, First Strike, which starts Oct. 26. Barring any major gaming issues, Skye will be available for the second qualifier on Nov. 11.
Icebox will already be in the map rotation by when the regional First Strike vents begin on Dec. 3, so players will have about more than a month to practice in the new map to prepare for the tournament.
Related: Riot Reveals Plans to Stop Smurfs in Valorant
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