After Riot Games announced the new map, Pearl, that will be released in Episode 5 Act 1, the developer also shared that Split will be removed from the Competitive and Unrated map pool starting in the new episode.

Map Pool Changes

Riot Games developer Joe “Pearl Hogbash” Lansford, shared in a blog post the reasoning behind choosing to remove Split from the map pool.

Lansford shared that the team thinks that having seven maps is the perfect number for the game, as it can be difficult for players to learn and master all maps. Split will be removed from Competitive and Unrated gameplay until further notice, but players can still play the map in customs and alternate game modes.

Why Split?

Many players are asking why Split was the chosen map to be removed from the map pool. The factors that decided to remove Split were the time of release, planned updates, and what the map brings in terms of strategic variance. The Riot Games developer added that Split might be added in the future with a couple of changes, hinting at a rework in the future.. The map pool change will start with Patch 5.0 on June 22.

New Map Pearl Release Date

The new map, Pearl, will be added to the competitive map pool on July 12 (Patch 5.01). Prior to release date, there will be a temporary six-map pool.