Valorant devs are hard at work in tweaking all aspects of competitive play in Valorant. From Agent and bug fixes to new features, Valorant seems to be getting the special treatment in Q1-Q2 2022.
There is plenty of new things coming our way. Let’s recap the most notable new additions to the game coming this summer.
Valorant 1v1 Arena & Pride Bundle
The latest additions to the game will be a new 1v1 Arena Game Mode and an upcoming bundle for Pride Month.
First up, in a letter published today, Riot Games outlined how they will celebrate Pride and what’s in store for the 2022 season.
“All of Riot’s games will be celebrating Pride with their own unique content. Most of the content will become available tomorrow, June 1. You can expect new icons, new trails, new player cards, and plenty more across our games. Also keep your eyes out for celebrations in many esports leagues as regional broadcasts and events will see Pride throughout.”
The Arena Mode has been hinted for a while now, and Valorant leaks finally sourced a photo showing the content in development. Based on how far down the line in development it looks, we can expect the game mode to release with Act 5.
Valorant Map rotation finally gets fixed
After much complaining, Riot has come clean that they implement a fix that would lower map repeats in ranked play. The new and improved “deterministic queue” will weigh the maps played across all 10 players in a lobby and decide on the map that has been played the least.
Riot boasts a 0.06% triple map repeat across the month of April. We shall no longer get triple Fracture into an instant ALT+F4. Furthermore, only 8 unlucky souls saw the same map 4 times in a row last month. Talk about bad luck eh. Fun fact, 2 out of those 8 are serial queue dodgers that avoided specific maps (for the other 6, sorry about the insanely bad luck).
Valorant Replay System flip-floppyness
After numerous calls from the community regarding a replay system for Valorant, has finally shed some light into their stance for a replay system. The community had been enraged when a recent “Ask Valorant” revealed there were no plans for a replay system in the immediate future. Riot has since backtracked on this, with a Valorant developer clarifying that while the dev team does want in-game replays, they are taking longer to develop than expected.
Ultimately, this means Valorant will eventually get a re-play system, but don’t expect it anytime soon.
Valorant Partnership System expanded
Riot has been quietly contacting various top teams to participate in the early stages of the partnership system. The intention is to turn Valorant Esports into something mirroring the current League of Legends Esports scene with the creation of regional partner leagues.
Currently, the partnership system is set to begin at the start of 2023 with three international leagues. However, as Valorant continues its rise, these leagues will likely increase as talents rise and more promising teams emerge.
League 1
- North America
- Latin America
League 2
- Europe
- Russia
- Turkey
- Middle East
- Africa
League 3
- South East Asia
- Korea
- Japan
- Oceania
Much needed Valorant Agent fixes on the way
Patch 4.11 will bring some more quality of life improvements and sticky ability “disappearances”.
- Devs will once attempt attempt to fix Yoru and Dimensional Drift.
- Jett ultra speed Tailwind boosts have been fixed. No longer will Jetts fly go across the map.
- KAY/O’s resurrection mechanics have been fixed. There was a bug that made his ult and Sage resurrect completely bug out each other.
- Toxic Screen, Nanoswarm, Cyber Cage will no longer just disappear from the map.
Raze Blast Pack fix prompts surge in pick rate
Raze mains would have noticed that there had been an issue with the double satchel jumping feeling klunky and not going as far. Riot confirmed this was an unintentional bug, and have since introduced a hotfix to resolve the issue. Fortunately, Raze was not a victim of yet another nerf, which has seen her pick rate plummet since the start of the game.
The new quality of life improvements should not impact the pick rate of the Agents being targeted.