When is the Valorant beta? The latest teases of Project A’s gameplay look promising, but you never know how good a game is until you try it. Valorant blends CSGO-style gunplay and weapon economy with Overwatch’s ability-based character system. You can probably see why a few people are keen to check this one out.
If you’ve been out of the loop, though, Riot has been teasing Project A since League of Legends’ 10th-anniversary stream. Now we know that it’s called Valorant, and new details are starting to emerge as we approach the Valorant release date. We’ve gotten a glimpse of the Valorant characters and their abilities, and Riot has shown off some of the Valorant system requirements, too.
Thankfully, we don’t always have to wait for a game to release before we can check it out, as it’s fairly common for developers’ to run a beta to test things out, and to see if more tweaks are needed. On that note, here is what we know about the Valorant beta.
When is the Valorant beta?
The Valorant closed beta started on April 7 and is running for an unknown amount of time. Riot has said that it would prefer to keep it as short as possible as it aims to release the shooter in the summer fully – all that could change depending on player feedback, however.
So, how do you get into the Valorant beta? All you have to do is watch designated Valorant Twitch streams.
If you’d like to get involved, make a Riot account if you haven’t already and link it to a Twitch account. Once the release date comes, watch a Valorant stream, and you’ll be in with a chance of joining the Valorant closed beta.
Riot Games has issued the following notes in response to confusion from players who haven’t got a Valorant beta drop yet:
- Once you’ve passed a certain threshold of a couple hours watched on those streams (it’s roughly 2 and we are tracking by total Valorant stream view time), you’re eligible for a Closed Beta entitlement drop.
- That said, everyone else who has watched at least a few hours of streams is also eligible, and we have limited slots on our servers.
- Yesterday at a rough count we saw peak viewers at 1.7m+ on Twitch, but there were definitely more who came in and out during the day. All of you are eligible for a drop and a few of you may even have woken up to one in your inbox.
- Speaking of which, aside from server outages (when we pause new entitlements), throughout the day and night, we are constantly taking everyone who’s eligible for a drop and we give a percentage of them closed beta access.
- The selection is random to give fairness, but we give a higher ‘weight’ to those of you who have more hours watched of Valorant streams. This weight gives you a higher chance at being selected but it’s still not guaranteed.
- Hours watched also has diminishing returns, so please don’t burn yourself out trying to marathon Valorant streams.
The beta is only on offer to players in Europe, Canada, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. Riot has mentioned that it’s open to extending that further, but it’ll depend on how the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds. You should also keep in mind that your progress in the beta won’t carry over to the main game. Any Valorant Points you buy, however, will do, plus 20% on top of it.
If you’re asking yourself can I run Valorant, then check your setup against the Valorant system requirements.
And there you have it, that’s how you can join the Valorant closed beta. If more details come out, we’ll be sure to update this guide to keep you informed.