It’s official. Valorant is set to launch on June 2. Here are the details shared in the video and accompanying blog.
The video (below) shares some basic launch information, but the blog itself goes into much greater detail. The game is set to launch on June 2 in “most of the world” which includes OCE. The blog also outlines what the team has learned from beta.
The team addresses their Vanguard anti-cheat technology which has been controversial to say the least. They even outlined a $100,000 bounty program for people who found flaws and exploits in the system. They recapped how the team included a feature to disable Vanguard until needed.
They also directly ask if Vanguard has been effective at tracking and discouraging cheaters,
“Now the real question: has Vanguard been effective at tracking and deterring cheaters? Well… yes to the first, and not yet to the second. With VALORANT being the grand unveiling of Vanguard, we’ve gotten a lot of inputs that help us understand what cheats - and forms of cheating - we can effectively deter with the platform. But during closed beta we’ve held off on deploying the second half of our tech, our auto-banning systems, because we needed this time to understand what to action on, especially when it comes to hardware bans.”
They specifically outline how this will be different at launch, with it being more aggressive, more widespread, and automated to detect cheaters and ban them. The team also discusses disruptive behavior and tools to curb it. To that end, the team outlines the following points to deliver:
- Clear community expectations for all VALORANT players
- Improved automation to handle reporting including:
- Automated chat analysis for blatant violations of our community code
- Automated analysis of reports and escalation of common offenders for punishment
- 72 hour team chat restrictions for behavior violations
- 72 hour team voice restrictions for behavior violations
Finally, what about servers? They point to elements outside their control, like ISPs routing players to incorrect data centers. However, they directly cite their short-term roadmap of getting new servers in Warsaw, Madrid, London, Atlanta, and Dallas. They state their dissatisfied with the latency in Colombia, Argentina, and Eastern Europe, so they’re looking at more options.
