VALORANT LCQ to be played on new Deadlock patch

Update June 29, 7:53pm CT: Riot Games has since confirmed VCT’s Last Chance Qualifiers will be played on VALORANT Patch 7.00, but Deadlock will actually be disabled for the qualifying event. The new sentinel agent will still be available for teams to select in Game Changers though.

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Buckle up, VALORANT fans.

There is only about a month remaining until the biggest event in competitive VALORANT begins with the 2023 VCT Champions in Los Angeles. Before the festivities kick off in August, however, pro teams from around the world will be battling one more time in an attempt to qualify for the tournament at the Last Chance Qualifier—and that tournament may feature some carefully-laid traps.

The Americas VALORANT Players Association confirmed today that the LCQ will be played on Patch 7.00, which means that Deadlock, the game’s latest agent release, will be available for teams to draft and utilize during their matches. Additionally, players will have to prepare some new strategies due to the various changes that recently went into place over the last few updates.

One of the biggest changes that could shift the competitive meta is the recent nerf to ammo reserves, which saw both the Vandal and Phantom lose an entire magazine in Patch 6.11. As a result, players could see much less spamming through smoke, which was a strategy widely used by professionals at Masters and touted as “boring” by pros like NRG’s Austin “crashies” Roberts.

Related: How to build VALORANT’s most annoying stall team composition

Additionally, we could see the consistent rise of more visual and physical barrier usage, since they will be much more effective at impeding enemies from pouring into a chokepoint or retaking a site. Deadlock, Sage, and Harbor could be interesting agents to keep an eye on since their various forms of barriers could be crucial to holding down a site or pulling off a risky defuse.

Players can also no longer reliably spam locations where an enemy might be, since they risk running out of ammo for a full-on firefight. With these changes, teams must much pickier about where and when they are firing their weapon, and how they use their utility to flush out any opponents from their hiding spots.

VCT Last Chance Qualifiers will be kicking off in America and Pacific on Saturday, July 15.