Valorant closed beta starts on April 7, requires Twitch account to access

Who doesn’t love a good hero shooter? Boy howdy, I sure do! Hundreds of hours in Overwatch, even more hours in Apex Legends and absolutely none in Counter Strike. Not that CS: Global Offensive is bad, it just lacks that personality and character (literally) of a hero shooter. I like having different characters interacting and bantering, it makes the game feel more alive and energetic if that makes sense. I’ve had my eye on Valorant ever since it was announced because it actually looks super cool. Counter Strike with quirky heroes instead of a humdrum military flavour? Sign me up for that beta! Which, now that I mention it in this totally natural segue, is starting as early as next week! April 7, to be exact.

While we don’t know the full scale of the beta or how long it’ll last, Riot released an official statement regarding the closed testing phase over on Valorant’s official blog. What’s a little weird to me is how Riot is placing a very clear emphasis on prospective players’ involvement with Twitch. “When closed beta activates in your region, watch specific Valorant streams highlighted on Twitch for the opportunity to be entitled for closed beta access,” reads the blog post. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just thought it was interesting. Uniting two hemispheres of marketing, I guess, and feeding them into one another.

Unfortunately for us, the beta for Valorant won’t be super easy for South Africa to access as it will only be available in the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Turkey. Anna Donlon, executive producer on Valorant, specified that the beta was initially meant to launch worldwide but due to the, you guessed it, global pandemic those plans were unfortunately dropped to a much smaller scale. “For now, we have to focus on the regions where we feel most ready, with more regions following in the months to come,” said Donlon, in an official statement to The Verge.

Last Updated: March 31, 2020