Valorant dev responds to calls for replay system

Valorant’s closed beta has taken the tactical shooter genre to new heights, but Riot is already making headways towards improving the game post-launch by integrating a fully-fledged replay system.

Valorant is a tactical shooter like no other. After mitigating certain elements that have plagued first-person shooters for years (such as peeker’s advantage), Riot has pledged to maintain competitive integrity via their novel netcode and server infrastructure.

So with everyone on a level playing field, players have never been so dependent on making the right tactical choices inside the server. And that’s exactly where a replay system fits the bill.

In essence, a replay system would give players the option to go back and watch demos of their gameplay to analyze and improve from, allowing them to view various perspectives when rewatching a match.

The concept itself has been done in rival titles with CS:GO’s ‘GOTV’ and Overwatch’s in-house replay feature — so the foundation of what ‘works’ is already there for Riot to build from.

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Fans have a glimmer of hope that a replay feature will be coming to Valorant post-launch, after one player made their request on the Valorant subreddit.

The post garnered some attention from the community, and after some suggested it would be live at launch, one Dev clarified things. “We won’t have replays at launch (sorry!),” the Riot dev stated. “Definitely going to be there at some point soon… and not seven years past launch like League!”

In terms of any esports features (like in-game major tournaments) that will be included, the dev simply acknowledged that they haven’t nailed down the full specification of the system yet, when prompted about whether it would boast GOTV-esque features.

“Can’t commit to any specific feature list yet, but they sound like features that would be possible once we have the core replay system” the dev explained.

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As for an expected ETA post-launch, the dev explained that they can’t provide a timeline, but hinted that elements such as esports observing tools and killcams might make an appearance once the system is eventually pushed live.