Riot rolls back 'nightmare' Valorant update, will try again later this week

Earlier today, Riot rolled out the Valorant 1.11 patch that makes some balance changes and tweaks, tunes the in-game economy, adds a left-handed gun model, and—this is the big one—brings in the new character Skye, the Australian forest guardian with the magical petting zoo. A few hours later, though, Riot said that it's turned into a "technical nightmare," and so the patch is being rolled back and will be redeployed next week.

We'll redeploy later in the week once we can figure out a less disruptive time for the VALORANT First Strike Qualifiers (and have a solution, obviously). If you started the Skye character contract, you won't be able to progress until we patch again. [2/2]October 27, 2020

Redditor Solace1k theorized that the problem could be the cumulative effect of the problems on the First Strike tournament, the first official Riot-produced Valorant tournament, which began qualifiers yesterday. "Every minor thing that affects them could be a tragedy at that level," they said, which is a valid point. It also fits with Riot's tweet about finding a "less disruptive time," although that makes me wonder why Riot would drop a big update right after the start of a showcase tourney in the first place. It's not uncommon for FPS developers to protect the integrity of the competitive community when rolling out a new balance change or content update.

Riot confirmed that theory in an emailed statement. "The instability of this patch was particularly egregious because it impacted competitive integrity, so we're rolling it back until we can fix it," a spokesperson said.

The update should be rolled back by the time you see this, and life in Valorant will have returned to its previously normal state. The 1.11 patch notes, if you'd like to see what was and could be once again, are here.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.