Valorant players call out Riot for “greedy” new cosmetic type
riot gamesValorant just revealed a brand new cosmetic type and it’s already getting blasted by the community for being “useless” and a “money grab.”
Valorant has dropped its 10.00 patch, introducing players to the new Agent Tejo and many other in-game changes. One of the latest additions included in the patch is FLEX.
Not to be confused with the term that refers to players being able to hop over to multiple roles, this is actually a brand new type of cosmetic in the competitive shooter.
While that’s the case, many have been calling it“useless” and convinced it’s nothing more than “social experiment” to see how much players are willing to spend money in the game.
FLEX cosmetic explained
FLEX is essentially a cosmetic in the form of an object players can hold and interact with in-game. The way this works is that you’d equip the cosmetic on your Spray Wheel, which you can then whip out during the match to enjoy its animations or simply spam it.
It’s worth knowing, however, that the animations can only be seen from your view, and others won’t be able to notice them from a third-person view. Additionally, equipping this cosmetic won’t increase your speed, so it’s mostly for visual purposes.
Valorant players are fuming over new FLEX cosmetics
Since FLEX was first revealed, many players were quick to point out that this reminds them of Souvenirs from Overwatch — except, as one user claimed in a Reddit thread, the Winton one was “kinda amusing,” while these “random item” cosmetics in Valorant are “so uninspired and clearly a money grab.”
Many others have called out Riot for being “greedy,” introducing a cosmetic that can potentially lead to bundles getting more expensive.
“Soon they will be adding ‘Flex’ into skin bundles and increasing the price of the total bundle by 10%,” said one user.
Meanwhile, one player has been convinced that this “has to be a social experiment.” They wrote: “Either they want to see how stupid people are to buy this stuff, or their greed is getting out of hand.”
One of the most common complaints on social media, however, is that this cosmetic type doesn’t have an actual purpose, according to players.
“What if we made cosmetics that have zero effect on the game and are essentially just useless fidget toys? Holy s***t, that’s genius,” commented a user, who imagined this was the thought process behind it.
Another user didn’t even hesitate to say: “Next patch the phone will play TikToks, thus completing the brain rot cycle.”
So far, two FLEX items have been revealed: the snowflake and phone, the latter being one player can get for free. However, it’s clear that the community isn’t a fan of these.