It appears that VALORANT is already testing friendships.
One VALORANT player was surprised to see their disconnected teammate rejoin the match on the enemy squad, posting the bug today. This created an unfair four-vs-six scenario, giving the opposing team that advantage.
Though the handicapped team made a valiant effort, the six-player squad ultimately won the match in the final round.
It’s unclear what caused this matchmaking bug, which would be problematic if the tactical first-person shooter had a ranked mode. But one VALORANT fan shared their theory for the glitch.
“Maybe they abandoned as Attackers, disconnected, you switched sides, but the game still thinks they’re attackers?” the fan said.
If the player disconnected before half time and reconnected after, it would make sense for the game to potentially think they’re on the enemy team.
Riot has yet to address this matchmaking bug. But if it continues to be a problem, the dev team will likely hotfix it immediately.
Bugs and server issues aside, VALORANT’s closed beta debut has been wildly successful. The new title helped propel Twitch to a record-breaking four million concurrent viewers and 34 million hours watched.
While VALORANT has only launched its close beta at the moment, the official release is scheduled for summer 2020.