VALORANT will have no ties with League of Legends whatsoever, says Riot

League of Legends affiliated items were reported to be featured in Riot’s upcoming tactical shooter, VALORANT, last week. 

Ultra Rapid Fire-inspired weapon skins, including a purchasable golden spatula-themed knife, were expected to be one of the highlights of VALORANT on launch. But according to Riot, this is no longer the case. 

IGN Nordic’s editor-in-chief, Nick Nijland, spread false information regarding URF skins in a video about VALORANT player progression. He later apologized for his mistake. 

“Riot has contacted me since and says that they are not planning to bring URF or any League of Legends affiliated items to VALORANT,” Nijland said. “They [Riot] want to make clear that VALORANT will have no ties with League of Legends whatsoever. This was a mistake by my part and I apologize for spreading this.”

Ultra Rapid Fire, or U.R.F. for short, is a featured League game mode that was first introduced for April Fools’ Day. The limited-time mode grants all players 80 percent cooldown reduction and removes ability costs.

The rumor came to fruition when a member of IGN’s staff, according to Nijland, had supposedly made a misconception about the skins. Instead of URF, Riot plans to introduce NERF skins to VALORANT, based on the Nerf Blaster foam-dart-shooting toy gun.

This means League champion skins will also likely not be a part of VALORANT in the future, despite similarities between champions Akali, and Ekko, and agents Jett and Phoenix. 

VALORANT is set to launch in summer 2020.