Riot reveals plan to revert Valorant First Strike Global Finals patch
Riot GamesValorant Patch 1.11 threw Future Earth into absolute chaos for pro players and casual gamers alike. But Riot Games has revealed part of their plan towards running First Strike’s Global Finals in the wake of the 1.11 madness.
[jwplayer 8PwVutNz]
Patch 1.11 will be etched into the history of both Valorant and Riot Games alike. Described by Valorant devs as being a “nightmare,” the disruption caused by the patch has clearly influenced developers’ decisions to release less patches until December.
This chaos, however, couldn’t have come at a worse time. The patch was released and then repealed right in the middle of the regional qualifiers for First Strike.
This left a lot of fans curious as to which patch players would be competing on, whether there would be a patch change midway through some tournaments and how this impacted competitive integrity. Well, in the latest instalment of Ask Valorant, Valorant Esports Strategy Manager, Riley Yurk, has explained how this will work with the upcoming First Strike: Global Finals.
Riot GamesFirst Strike Global Finals: Which patch will pros play on?
Yurk describes the current status of the First Strike as being ‘Tournament Realm-lite’, referring to the idea that the patch has been altered in pro play to remain the same throughout the event, but there is no private tournament server… Yet!
He states that “we were planning on using a separate patchline (consider this Tournament Real-lite) for the main event, but ended up launching this early to allow tournaments to continue on the same patch they started on. This has allowed us to keep esports on a separate patch from live and is something we’re bringing back globally for the First Strike main event Dec 3-6.”
So while games will all be on the same patch, it is currently speculation as to what exact patch this is. What has been made clear, though, is that Skye and Icebox will no longer be disabled for the main First Strike event, which begins December 3.
Due to the redeploy of patch 1.11, Skye will be available for esports events that begin after November 16th.
Icebox will be available for esports events that begin after 11/30. In most regions, this will be the First Strike Main Event that begins on December 3rd.
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) November 4, 2020
In addition to this, the latest Patch (1.12) was very esports driven, so the likelihood is that Riot will implement 1.12 for the main First Strike event.
However, we’ll keep you updated as further details emerge regarding the final decision about the First Strike patch, so watch this space!