VALORANT players agree Riot made huge mistake ‘gatekeeping’ new skin bundle

The newest skin bundle coming to VALORANT is the Champions 2023 bundle, which will be arriving in the shop starting Aug. 4. The bundle follows its predecessors from 2021 and 2022 by including both a rifle and a knife, but the traditional skin package has actually drawn ire from players this time around.

Skins in VALORANT are known for their special visual effects that transform the experience of a weapon. Unfortunately, unlocking the full VFX for the Champions bundle is locked behind not only a Radianite cost but by how many kills you can get too.

This mechanic isn’t new, with previous Champions bundles boasting glowing effects that were earned by topping the leaderboard in a lobby (2021) or earning 25 kills (2022). The 2023 edition of the classic VALORANT bundle uses this mechanic again, but this time players must get 30 kills in order to see every VFX effect.

VALORANT players are upset with this new 30-kill prerequisite for viewing the VFX, with one even making a post to highlight how they viewed the mechanic as “gatekeeping.”

“What’s the point of the VFX if [you’re] never gonna see it?” one player said. “Riot is getting too cocky with skins, I don’t understand the decision to gatekeep you from enjoying the product even after you bought it.”

Though the skin will reportedly have a glow mechanic that increases with every three kills on the board, the full VFX glow won’t activate until the player hits 30.

The VALORANT general fandom is rightfully upset, as getting 30 kills in a lobby is very difficult for the vast majority of players, and it doesn’t mean they’re bad at the game either. 30 kills a lobby, even in a long competitive match, isn’t possible for players who don’t have a playstyle that focuses on fragging out.

“It really does suck,” another player commented. “I frag out a lot but once you hit high Diamond/Ascendant and above, it’s hard to drop 30+. Happens but it’s rare, should just be like 20 kills, it’s VFX, FFS.”

Even if players do manage to get 30 kills, this will likely only leave them with the Vandal and melee weapon’s full glow for just a few rounds. Though for some Jett and Reyna mains, this might be possible in many of their games, it’s actually not always a good thing if you have a player racking up over 30 kills in every game they play.

VALORANT is, first and foremost, a team-based game, which is why when you are choosing a composition of various agents, you should have people in different roles. Sentinels and Controllers, for example, often play in a less aggressive style, since their job is to set up their teammates and watch flanks for enemies. If you have a Sage running into a site by herself to try and get kills, she isn’t really being a team player.

This means, naturally, players who choose to play agents with abilities designed to help them get kills (Duelists) should theoretically top the scoreboard, and players on more passive roles would be towards the bottom. VALORANT is about doing your job to help your team get the win, and having 30 kills in a lobby isn’t necessarily a determining factor of that success.

“As a controller main…when you only get like 15 kills, it looks boring,” another player said. “I don’t know why they do this, even motivates people to insta-lock Reyna or Jett even more.”

Players in the comments of the Reddit post on July 31 suggested the only time they may be able to see the skin’s full VFX would be in Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch modes, where the entire point of the lobby is just to get kills.

“I guess Deathmatch/TDM will be the place for me to view it,” one player said. “Definitely not gonna happen in an unrated/competitive lobby for me.”

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One player joked the point of the skin, being branded for VCT Champions, was “to play like a champion.” Of course, this is a joke, because star VALORANT pros don’t often get more than 30 kills in one match either.

The VFX bonus of the skin almost seems counterintuitive towards VALORANT’s main modes, giving players an incentive to get kills instead of working towards an objective together. Either way, the Champions 2023 bundle will likely be a popular choice next month since it is a rare limited item, but some other eager players might be turned away by the high likelihood they won’t ever see the gun or knife’s full VFX despite forking out cash.