Valorant Confirms Highly Requested Feature
There are few things more frustrating than when you're stuck in a game that you know you can't win. Having to finish a match that is going catastrophically wrong can not only be kind of humiliating, but discouraging and not very fun. This is especially true when the reason that you're not winning is because someone else decided to just drop out after the match had already begun. That seems to be the thought process behind the latest feature being added to Riot Games' tactical shooter, Valorant.
In an interview with ESPN Esports, Joe Ziegler and Anna Donjon of Riot Games were asked if there was any chance that a "surrender button" of some kind would be added to Valorant. In other words, players want the option to forfeit a match that has been compromised by people leaving a match mid-game.
According to Donlon, a surrender option will be implemented in the game "very soon after launch." This is great news for people who are already chomping at the bit to play Valorant in a competitive setting.
Ziegler added that Riot is also actively working on reducing the number of players that go AFK (away from keyboard). Ziegler mentions that Riot has "actually gotten a lot more severe on AFK punishments," but they recognize that the problem hasn't been done away with completely. To that end, Ziegler says that Valorant will be adding an option for teams to vote on whether or not they want to complete a reduced match or forfeit.
Several Reddit threads have popped up from frustrated gamers who want a surrender option to be added to the game. These are people who are mostly enjoying the game, but are irritated by the issues that have arisen from not being able to leave a screwed up match. As one Redditor wrote, "I'm understanding this is meant to be a competitive game, but it's a free one. It's no fun and no use playing in a 8-1 5v4 game because someone played one round got mad and left."
There also seems to be a bit of confusion as to why the game wouldn't introduce an option for surrender right from the get-go. After all, Riot Games' League of Legends has a similar option, so why wouldn't Valorant? Then again, since the game has been in beta testing until now, it's worth remembering that none of these matches were truly being ranked competitively. In other words, while it's frustrating for the overall experience not being able to opt out of a match at this time, it wasn't exactly hurting anyone's standing in the Valorant community.
Still, it has been pointed out that it's generally frowned upon to exit mid-game. As one fan tweeted, you run a risk of having your account flagged or banned if you do that too often. This particular Valorant player apparently had two people leave during a match, which left their team at a severe disadvantage. It's a frustrating predicament to have to soldier on against unfair odds just to keep your account from being suspended.
This isn't a practice that's solely limited to Valorant or games of its type, either. Grand Theft Auto Online will actually put people who quit in the middle of jobs too often into a kind of probationary status. They're sent to lobbies for Bad Sports, where they'll have to deal with cheaters and hackers as penance for letting their teammates down one too many times.
Though the game only just now launched for PC, Riot has been working on the game all throughout its open beta to ensure its quality on launch date. Not only is there a clear effort to listen to player feedback in this instance, but Riot has placed a heavy emphasis on combating cheaters and hackers. In an effort to make sure its anti-cheat software is the best that it can be the company is offering $100,000 to any hackers who can crack it. This anti-cheat software, Riot Vanguard, has come with its own brand of controversy, however. Some people have taken issue with the fact that it is running at all times, which is something that doesn't seem to have been changed.
Still, it's clear that Riot is attempting to position Valorant as the next big thing in tactical shooters. Streamers like Pokimane are already theorizing that it could be "the Overwatch killer" that gamers have been waiting for. In the meantime, it's exciting to see that Riot has been making tweaks here and there to make the experience as good as it can be. Hopefully players won't have to wait too long for this new feature to be implemented.