The biggest winners and losers of VALORANT’s season V26 update (Patch 12.00)

VALORANT Patch 12.00 ushered in a new seasonal year on January 6, and it’s full of meta-stirring content and changes. From a significant overhaul of the game lobby UI to massive map reworks, Season V26 has it all, but some of its features are especially worth highlighting.

According to Riot Games, the VALORANT Season 2026 update sets the tone for the entire year. V26 will focus on combating stagnation and predictability, with changes that are both community-driven and game-friendly. But before everything else, let’s take a look at the biggest winners (and losers) of 2026’s first VALORANT patch.

One of the biggest VALORANT Patch 12.00 changes is the new weapon Bandit, designed to counter light buys without burning a hole in your pocket. It’s priced at 600 credits, sitting right in between the Sheriff and Ghost.

Unlike the Ghost, Bandit one-shots lightly armored enemies (125 HP) on their heads at up to 30 metres. This is great against enemies who like to buy armor in pistol rounds, or those who go light shields in anti-eco or bonus rounds. The Sheriff, at 800 credits, is clearly a more lethal choice, but it has limitations in fire rate, magazine size, and reload speed.

While many have already begun capitalizing on Bandit’s strengths, the community remains divided about its practicality. The Ghost is not only more cost-effective; it’s also more accurate than the Bandit. The Sheriff, on the other hand, has existed since launch, so players are more accustomed to it. Given Bandit’s recent release, it’ll take some time for players to understand its quirks. 

Breeze is back in VALORANT’s map competitive rotation after being inactive for over 1.5 years, and it comes with major overhauls to its sites and mid-section. Not just Breeze: Corrode and Haven have also received some interesting changes to counter unfair wall-penning trends.

Breeze was always considered an attacker-friendly map. In practice, however, it wasn’t friendly to either side, thanks to its large, sprawling design and the overwhelming number of angles it created. With VALORANT Patch 12.00, things have changed drastically, as Riot overhauled almost every section and angle on Breeze. The map, especially the mid section, no longer requires players to clear multiple angles at once to take space. It’s now far less stressful to play as a defender, while remaining versatile for attackers.

Coming to Corrode, the main wall-penetrable sections of its sites have been sealed off. On Haven, the wall-penetrable section of Mid-Window now features a breakable element to prevent unfair early round start kills.

Patch 12.00 also includes a set of VALORANT agent balance changes affecting Breach, Harbor, Sage, Vyse, and Brimstone.

The update targets Breach’s underperforming state by improving his flash’s projectile speed and the stun’s width, aiming to reward precision and team coordination better. Riot also identified Harbor’s persistent unpopularity despite the major Patch 11.10 rework, so his Storm Surge and ultimate are now stronger and more dependable. For Sage and Brimstone, the changes are minor, improving ability targeting and readability. Lastly, Vyse’s ultimate now has a larger radius.

The fandom has, time and again, spoken up about VALORANT’s flawed ranked MMR system and its inability to offer fair matchups. It looks like Riot has finally taken these complaints seriously and introduced a solution in the VALORANT Season V26 update.

Instead of the expected hard reset, which typically resulted in a drop of up to two ranks every three Acts, Patch 12.00 introduces a softer rank reset designed to reflect a player’s individual skill more accurately. Going forward, this change should ensure better matchmaking quality in VALORANT.

VALORANT Patch 12.00 has completely refreshed the homescreen layout, lobby screen, and social panel of the PC version. You can no longer change modes from the top of the lobby; there’s a separate queue select screen. The friend list now expands to a larger view, and there’s a unique tab for managing requests, too.

While the overall UI update is clean, VALORANT players aren’t usually fond of change, especially when the lobby design was already working just fine. The biggest switch is the game mode select functionality, which was previously much easier to access from the top of the screen. Nevertheless, the update fundamentally aims to improve the visual presentation of the home, lobby, and social features.

The first VALORANT 2026 update also introduces a new game mode called All Random One Site, a five-versus-five experience played across eight maps: Abyss, Ascent, Breeze, Corrode, Pearl, Icebox, Sunset, and Split. Each round, a random site is locked, and you and your team must fight for control of the remaining site and the mid section. You can’t pick your agent either, as the mode randomly assigns one each round.

All Random One Site isn’t a permanent game mode like Unrated, Spike Rush, Swiftplay, or Escalation. It replaces Snowball Fight, another limited-time mode that returned for the holiday season. It looks like Riot is finally answering the community’s calls for more casual content and greater potential for content creation in VALORANT.

Overall, the VALORANT Season V26 update is mostly a winner and lays the groundwork for what’s to come in the year ahead. The new pistol, Bandit, and the map reworks, coupled with Breeze’s return, are undoubtedly the patch’s biggest highlights. That said, the hidden MMR update is a crucial competitive change that must be followed through to improve the ranked experience. In the meantime, make sure you enjoy the fast-paced and unruly AROS mode.