Riot Games announced today that the closed beta for its upcoming PC team shooter Valorant will start on April 7.
To be eligible to participate in the test, players first need to link their Riot account with their Twitch one. Then they need to watch specific Valorant streams that will give out access to the closed beta. Usually, people just have to sign up for a beta test by submitting their email to a website or something, so this is a bit of a more creative (or maybe you could call it elaborate) process.
The full version of Valorant will release this summer. For years, Riot Games has focused on League of Legends. Now it is expanding to new genres with the recent digital card game Runeterra, this free-to-play shooter, and an upcoming fighting game.
Valorant is a character-based, team-based shooter, similar to Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch. However, Valorant will have more a tactical approach, akin to something like Valve’s Counter-Strike.
The beta will be available in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Russia, and Turkey. Riot hopes to bring the testing to more regions, but current events may make that difficult.
“Our plan was to bring the Valorant closed beta to as many players around the world as quickly as possible, but the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted those plans, compromising a wider global rollout,” notes Valorant executive producer Anna Donlon. “For now, we have to focus on the regions where we feel most ready, with more regions following in the months to come.”
