Riot shuts down VALORANT agent instalock app in crushing blow to Jett mains everywhere

Dappr games developer Julian Dunskus is going to delist the Recon Bolt companion app for VALORANT on July 20, according to a Discord screenshot posted today by Twitter user shah.

The app was originally a way to check your competitive rank changes but has evolved, now allowing players to instalock VALORANT agents from their phones.

“Remember those bad news from two months ago? Well, it’s gotten worse,” Dunskus wrote on Discord. “I’ve officially received a cease and desist letter from Riot, threatening to take me to court if I don’t take down the app & its GitHub page.

“It’s hard to describe how disappointed I am that things have turned out this way, but Riot has shut down all attempts from my side to have a conversation about this and figure out a way forward together.”

Instalocking is the practice of FPS players in character-based games immediately locking in a character for a match, regardless of what the rest of the team is doing. The Recon Bolt app allows players to lock in their agent choices from their mobile devices, giving them the ability to do it on the go and to lock in faster than a human possibly could. 

This is often problematic for a few reasons. Primarily, it can completely throw off the party’s balance, leaving you in a four-duelist comp or, more rarely, without a duelist at all. For new players, it can mean being locked out of the only agent you’re familiar with. Instalocking also just kind of communicates to your teammates that you have no interest in their input or what they might want to do. The practice forces other players to either fill in the missing roles or start instalocking themselves, creating a vicious cycle in competitive queues.

Riot has previously warned players about using third-party apps that pull information hidden by the game client, and many in the VALORANT community have previously suggested ways to fix instalocking, so it’s not surprising that the company has come after Recon Bolt.

Come July 20, all you Jett one-tricks who have gotten used to getting your way might have to start learning some other agents.