Riot Games Announces Valorant Closed Beta

Riot Games has officially announced a closed beta for its upcoming multiplayer tactical shooter Valorant. The game, which was initially revealed as "Project A" late last year, recently announced its actual name among other details. The "closed testing period" for Valorant is scheduled to kick off on April 7th, but there's a catch as it will only be available in certain regions at that time.

According to Riot Games, the Valorant Closed Beta will be available to players in the United States, Europe, Canada, Russia, and Turkey "with the possibility of a later rollout to more regions, pending developments with the current COVID-19 pandemic." Basically, the ongoing pandemic has shaken up Riot Games' plans for the closed beta.

"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," Anna Donlon, Executive Producer of Valorant at Riot Games, says in a statement provided alongside the announcement. "For now, we have to focus on the regions where we feel most ready, with more regions following in the months to come."

"We want to engage with players as globally as possible as quickly as possible," the statement continues, "and so we'll ramp up our player count as much as we can to test our infrastructure, but we won't be letting everyone playtest VALORANT until we're absolutely sure we can handle it in this newly uncertain environment."

Closed Beta access will seemingly be tied to a collaboration with Twitch, which will host various Valorant streams once said beta is available in a given region. Here are the steps necessary to actually get into the Valorant Closed Beta:

1. Register for a Riot account
2. Link your Riot account to a Twitch account
3. When closed beta activates in your region (EU and NA for now), watch specific Valorant streams highlighted on Twitch for the opportunity to be entitled for Closed Beta access

It's currently unclear whether this will be the only way to get into the Closed Beta, but it certainly sounds like it might be. Notably, Closed Beta progress will not carry over to the live game once it launches this summer, which isn't unexpected, and there's currently no timeline on just how long Closed Beta might last. Anyone that happens to actually buy the premium currency in the game during Closed Beta will received all of those points back alongside an additional 20% bonus. That said, Riot Games says that the store itself and pricing could fluctuate, and Closed Beta pricing does not necessarily reflect what it will look like when it launches.

What do you think of what we've seen of Valorant so far? Are you excited to check out the Closed Beta? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

Valorant's Closed Beta is set to kick off on April 7th. The five-vs-five, free-to-play tactical shooter from Riot Games is expected to launch this summer. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Valorant right here.