On May 21, Riot Games announced a game rotation for the VALORANT game modes Replication, Escalation and Snowball Fight. The modes will rotate on a two week cycle, along with the game’s patch cycle. Replication will leave the game on May 26 and either Escalation or Snowball Fight will take its place. Players will find out which mode will be in the game in the patch notes for each cycle.
Our Modes producer @pwnieride has an update on our VALORANT game mode plans after Replication leaves the rotation. https://t.co/PJcQruJ949
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) May 21, 2021
The rotation is similar to Riot’s other title, League of Legends, which has multiple game modes that cycle throughout the year. The announcement also stated that Riot would keep a close eye on the number of players and how they react to the rotation, as well as other modes that may be added.
“Our approach to game modes is similar to our rotation plan — we’ll pay attention to what you think, so please let us know if you want anything special to come back or stick around,” Lisa Ohanian, VALORANT’s Senior Modes Producer, and Jeff Landa, VALORANT’s Communications Associate, said.
Game mode rotation and new modes
The introduction of a game mode rotation begs the question: Why not keep all game modes available in VALORANT? According to Riot, this would slow down all queues across game modes, including Unrated and Ranked. This would make finding matches hard and put too much pressure on the game’s backend.
VALORANT will not only have those three game modes in the rotation, as new game modes are just on the horizon.
“We have some ideas … but frankly we’d like to pay attention to how you feel about this approach first and make sure that we factor that in,” read the announcement. “So please, let us know your thoughts!”
The rotation begins May 26 as Replication leaves the VALORANT queues and the next mode returns with the next patch on June 8.
