Cascading agent picks are coming to VALORANT

VALORANT players will see cascading agent picks in a future update to help prevent people from insta-locking agents. 

Players who instantly pick an agent before a match can cause issues with the team composition, especially if they select an agent without consulting their teammates. This is a significant issue that many players consistently complain about. But a new cascading agent pick system should help negate the problem. 

VALORANT designer Jon Walker revealed the new cascading agent pick system in today’s livestream hangout and discussed how it will help tackle the insta-locking issue. Players will select their agents one at a time and have a short period to make their choice. If they don’t pick, the next person in line will have the option to choose an agent and the original player will have another chance to select an agent later in the process. This new system won’t appear until Act Two or Three, but help is on the way.

The developers also revealed more information about Yoru’s updates and a muted word list during the stream. In December, Riot Games confirmed a Yoru rework was coming in early 2022, although not much else has been heard about the changes since then. The Yoru changes are reportedly coming in Patch 4.03. Patch 4.0 releases tomorrow, so fans will still have to wait a bit for Yoru to receive his update. 

A muted word list feature is also coming in the next patch, which will allow players to block certain terms in chat. This should help players filter the content they’re exposed to in matches and improve the overall game experience. The developers will use this data to see which words are commonly muted in each region to help detect toxicity and catch players trying to ruin the overall experience.