What we learned from DrLupo’s interview with VALORANT developers

Popular streamer DrLupo sat down with two of the most important people from VALORANT’s developer team, executive producer Anna Donlon and game director Joe Ziegler.

While Donlon and Ziegler had some information they could not reveal publicly at this time, they spent about an hour talking with DrLupo about the game and some of their plans for it.

Here is a list of topics discussed during the interview, divided into a few sections.

Related: How to know if you’ve gotten a Twitch drop for VALORANT’s closed beta

General

• The closed beta will run until an undisclosed date during the summer.
• No confirmed launch date, but a release sometime during the summer is still planned.
• An open beta is unlikely.
• More than double of the entitlements will be released on April 7.
• Monetization will be mostly cosmetic-based and will not include loot boxes.
• There are no plans for macOS and console support, although Donlon said she wouldn’t say ‘no’ to platform expansion in the future.
• Extensive lore will be released eventually.
• Those who participate in closed beta will get some reward.
• API will not be made available until at least launch.

Gameplay

• Ten Agents will be included at closed beta launch.
• There will be at least four maps.
• There are plans to release more Agents and maps throughout time, but there are no plans to add more weapons.
• Riot is committed to 128-tick servers.
• A fog of war system will be used to hide players from hackers across the map.
• Riot will implement hardware bans for cheaters.
• If a cheater is detected in a game, the game will end and be forgiven for everyone else involved.

Competitive matchmaking / esports

• VALORANT’s rated mode will not be included at launch, but it will be added a few weeks after launch
• A solo player can play against a premade team of five.
• Community tournament guidelines are coming soon.
• There will be custom match support.
• The game will not have LAN support at launch.

Settings

• FOV is locked at 103.
• 4:3, 16:9, and 16:10 resolution will be supported, but not 4:3 stretched.
• At least three types of colorblind modes will be supported.
• There will be no aim assist.
• There is one type of mouse sensitivity.
• There will be no mouse acceleration.
• VALORANT will have some level of controller support, but it will not have aim assist.