Valorant Snowball Fight has been the FPS game‘s premier Christmas mode since it was released back in 2020, but for the first time since its inception the fun-filled festive fiesta looks like it won’t be returning this holiday season.
Oh the weather outside is frightful, but my dear it’s even worse for avid fans of Valorant’s festive Snowball Fight – doesn’t have the same ring to it, eh? An elaborate Christmas extravaganza, players are tasked with firing snowballs out of a large cannon-like weapon (Sova is holding it in the image above) and taking out the enemy squad in snowy style.
A plethora of different upgrades are on offer throughout the match, encompassing everything from Rapid Fire which grants an infinite magazine and increased fire rate, to Skates that speed up your character.
While the Recall Event Pass and all-new Cryostasis skins have been added to Riot’s flagship shooter, the Snowball Fight mode remains on the bench, and will likely do so for the rest of the Christmas season given that the big day is less than a week away. New Valorant patches also drop biweekly on Tuesdays, so the odds of another update ahead of December 25 look unlikely.
The most plausible reason for this is the introduction of the new Swiftplay mode, which looks to cut down normal unrated matches to five rounds. This is still very much in its infancy and was only introduced in the last patch, so may explain why Riot doesn’t want to upset the balance.
My concern is that Snowball Fight ends up like League of Legends’ Winter and Harrowing Rifts (if you like my ramblings, be sure to keep an eye out for something on that very topic coming soon). Both modes were eventually scrapped when Riot added the Cloud, Earth, Infernal, and Ocean dragons onto the game, which were accompanied by environment-changing mechanics that the devs claimed made reintroducing the festive Rifts too difficult.
Snowball Fight certainly needs an overhaul as it feels a little outdated nowadays, but it’s still very much a valid mode that injects just a little bit of extra festive fun into the game. Riot could go down the Overwatch route of decorating certain maps for Christmas, but having the mode there for those who want it seems like the best call to me.
While we lament the loss of Snowball Fight, it’s worth checking out our list of the best Valorant crosshairs and codes so that you can pop heads in Swiftplay. We also have a breakdown of all of the Valorant ranks to give you something to aim for when practicing in both unrated modes.