A brand-new VALORANT server is coming to Southeast Asia. Starting August 19, Manila, the capital of the Philippines, will receive its own dedicated server with the launch of Patch 11.04, announced Riot Games on Monday, August 11. This will be the sixth available server for the Asia-Pacific region, joining the existing hubs in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, and Mumbai.

The addition of the Manila server follows the steady growth of the Southeast Asian VALORANT community, particularly within the Philippines. Riot Games says the move aims to give local players a higher-quality gameplay experience.

Any Impacts?

Historically, most Filipino players have played on the Hong Kong server, which raises the question: will Hong Kong server be affected by the consequences of the creation of a new server — decrease in the number of players, queue time, quality of matchmaking and games...

According to Riot, server populations across Southeast Asia remain healthy, and Hong Kong should not suffer from the departure of its Filipino player base. Players in the Philippines will still have the option to remain on Hong Kong servers if they wish; Manila is an additional choice rather than a forced migration, designed to offer better ping.

The Manila server will also have no impact on Premier tournaments. Top-performing teams competing on the new server will be part of the Asia zone and the Challengers Southeast Asia league.