I think Valorant has made quite a stir these last few weeks. The beta version for Riot’s attempt at a Counter-Strike killer has only been available to a very small number of players and has been doing the rounds for a few weeks now. Yet despite these factors, it’s nearly constantly sitting in the “Popular” and “Most Watched” categories on Twitch. Given the game’s popularity at this stage, one can only imagine the spike in players when the floodgates eventually open in about a month. Looks like the beta for Valorant was more successful than Riot had intended, prompting the game to be released in June of this year, alongside a bunch of new features.
In a video posted by Riot last night, producer Anna Donlon and game director Joe Ziegler teased fans that Valorant won’t be released in the next few months because it’s actually jumping to 1.0 in two weeks, with the official launch of the game slated for 2 June 2020. The beta version of Valorant will end on 28 May and will unfortunately include full account wipes and resets so hopefully players haven’t become too attached to their favourite skins. The full release of the game will bring with it a new Agent, map, game mode and other additions that have yet to be confirmed yet one would imagine that there’ll be a bunch of new cosmetics to unlock.
Oh, and that huge influx of players will hopefully not be a problem. Riot has confirmed that in the next couple of weeks they’re rolling out loads of new servers across both the United States and Europe to deal with what should be a tidal wave of new players that have desperately been clamouring for access to Valorant. Riot has also stated that while the beta went better than expected, there are still a few issues that need to be ironed out such as the game’s lacklustre reporting system for unpleasant teammates or the implementation of an anti-cheat system that isn’t constantly active on players’ PCs. We’ll just have to see how these issues are addressed come the start of June.
Last Updated: May 22, 2020
