Riot Games has officially announced that the long-awaited closed beta for Valorant, a brand new hero-based tactical shooter, will launch on April 7, exclusively for PC. At least initially, the closed beta will be limited to players in the United States, Canada, Europe, Turkey, Russia, and CIS countries. According to Riot, the plan is to make the beta accessible to more regions “if possible, pending the volatile logistics of launching a beta effectively during a global pandemic.”
Over this past weekend, Riot held an exclusive alpha test of the game with a variety of different pros and streamers, which would explain why quite a few of them were conspicuously absent from Twitch and other platforms the past couple of days.
Sorry for not streaming this weekend, doing some dope content creation for my YouTube channel! I'll be back and gaming live tomorrow! 🙂
— Michael Grzesiek (@shroud) March 29, 2020
This weekend I had the honor to be absolutely slammed in @PlayVALORANT by some really excellent gamers. I need to practice OH BOY.
I'll be showing the games on stream this FRIDAY at 10am PT and you can potentially get beta access by watching (through Twitch drops)! 😄 pic.twitter.com/k7Q8J8pcfL
— Anne Munition (@AnneMunition) March 30, 2020
The embargo for this test will be lifted on Friday, April 3, and video footage of the test will be shown by those who were able to participate. According to Rod “Slasher” Breslau, it’s important to note that streamers will be showing the aforementioned footage captured from that test, and won’t be streaming actual live gameplay.
pros and streamers who participated in the alpha test event will be streaming their footage on April 3rd, they will NOT be streaming live gameplay https://t.co/LzOVoy18v7
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) March 30, 2020
For the rest of us, there are a few steps that should be taken in order to get access to the closed beta. First, you’ll need to register for a Riot account if you haven’t already. Next, you’ll need to link your Riot account to your Twitch account. Finally, you’ll need to watch specific Valorant streams that are highlighted on Twitch.
On a final note, Riot says that progress achieved in the closed beta phase will not carry over to the final version of the game, stating that “it’s better that everyone’s progress begins at the same starting line.” Also, any Valorant points you buy during the upcoming beta phase will be refunded at the launch of the game with an additional 20% bonus attached to it.
The closed beta will go live at 2 p.m. CET/6 a.m. PST on April 7, with the official launch still slated for sometime this summer.
