Competitive mode will be disabled with patch 1.10

The patch 1.10 is expected to be released tonight and patch notes should arrive soon. Ahead of the patch, Valorant's official Twitter account preferred to warn that ranked games would be unavailable at the start of Act 3.

Each new patch is a risk that server stability takes a hit. The Act 3 Patch will likely be the biggest patch for Valorant since its official release, so Riot Games expects to have to fix several bugs in the coming days. They have already spotted a few that can't be resolved until the patch is deployed.

Patch stability talk: we've already found one (rare) audio bug (on all maps) but want to get Icebox testing as soon as possible SO...

We're shipping this patch with ranked entirely OFF, beginning with NA/BR/LATAM in ~10 hours (downtime at 6am PT, back up around 9-10am PT) . .

- VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) October 13, 2020

Riot Games still wants to maintain its schedule so that players can discover Icebox, the new map, as soon as possible. By making the map available to the entire Valorant community, it should be easier to identify different issues, if any.

Riot Games is expecting the worst, therefore, competitive mode will be disabled until the developers feel the patch is stable enough. It should take a few days at worst.

However, it should be remembered that even if the ranked games and reactivated, Icebox will not be playable in competitive mode. The goal is to give players time to familiarise themselves with this new environment before risking their ranking. In addition, Skye, the new Agent of Act 3, will only be available from 27th October.