Summary: Vanguard continues to perform well, Map Rating introduced, Performance Score updated, positive updates for Karon, Ascent and Split removed, Karon and Bind added, plus other bug fixes.
Hello everyone.
This is Kenny. In this patch kicking off V26 Act 6, we bring you several exciting updates. Please see below for details.
GL HF GG!
All Platforms
General Updates
As a new initiative to increase transparency regarding the measures we take against players engaging in toxic behavior, we plan to publish penalty-related statistics more frequently going forward. The numbers in the graph above summarize players who received VALORANT account suspensions of three days or longer during Act 5.
Breakdown of account suspensions during the Act 5 detection period (August 18 - October 1):
- Over 171,000 cheat users
- Over 54,000 bot users
- Over 76,000 rank manipulators. Including boosting (boosters, boostees), hitchhiking, and win trading (win traders). See below for details.
- Over 74,000 cases of malicious behavior and toxic communication
- Over 288,000 cases of AFK (away from keyboard) and gameplay abuse
- Over 14,000 cases of stream sniping (stream abuse) or instant pick tool usage
We know there is still much work to be done, and we will continue to keep you informed as we progress.
Your reports help us improve our tools and detection methods. Please continue to report issues within the game. Thank you!
Agent Updates
- Fixed an issue where Killjoy's Alarmbot projectile would not play destruction VFX and sound effects when destroyed by moving doors.
Client Updates
- Added new matchmaking and custom game lobby screens and mode selection screens.
- Added a navigation bar to the Career page for easy access to pages like Rank Legacy, Accolades, and Map Rating.
Competitive Updates
Map Rating:
A metric to objectively determine if your favorite map is truly your best map.
- Map Rating is a rating on a scale of 0 to 500 with letter grades from C to S, showing how well a player adapts to specific maps over time.
- Player ratings are calculated based on four performance metrics: overall win rate, attack side win rate, defense side win rate, and Performance Score.
- Recent matches have a greater impact on ratings and stats than older matches.
- Improving these stats will raise your Map Rating.
- You can view ratings and data, along with other features like most picked agents, on the agent select screen, end-of-match screen, and career page.
- Other players cannot see information about your Map Rating.
- Map Rating is available in Competitive and Premier modes.
- After the introduction of Map Rating, all players start from the same baseline. Past match data is not counted.
Performance Score Update
- The Performance Score effectively evaluates contributions from diverse agents and roles while properly accounting for the importance of kills. Shortly after its introduction, the alignment between Performance Score/ACS and Match MVP was around 70%, which was generally expected given the additional factors included in the calculation. However, in some special situations, these additional factors seemed to be weighted too heavily. To reduce such cases, we made several adjustments during Patch 13.06.
- Increased the impact of damage, adjusted kill count, and adjusted death count on the score. Adjusted metrics include both First Blood and First Death.
- Made Chamber-specific adjustments to better reflect Chamber's ability usage.
Map Updates
Karon Map Update
- (A bit late but) Happy Birthday, Karon! After observing match patterns and collecting data for over a year, we found several areas for improvement.
- A Site and B Site — Defender Routes
- Rotation times were too long. While rotation times vary by map, Karon was particularly difficult for defenders to return to the front line for retakes. We adjusted defender spawn routes to allow defenders to rotate more safely and quickly.
- Adjusted routes for defenders heading deep into A and B sites to shorten rotation times and make retakes easier.
Before (top) -> After (bottom)
Before (top) -> After (bottom)
Before (top) -> After (bottom)
Mid
- Mid felt somewhat chaotic, so we wanted to make combat there more predictable for both sides. Currently, attackers are forced to congregate at a single chokepoint in lower mid, while defenders can delay their advance solely by using the half-wall. We adjusted walls and nearby cover to make it easier for attackers to move and provide more options when heading toward A Link.
- Changed the material of the mid half-wall to metal and moved it one meter outward. This reduces wall abuse and allows attackers to sneak into A Link without being seen from top mid.
- Moved the box behind lower mid towards B site and changed it so it can be jumped onto.
- Raised the wall in lower mid and repositioned the box so it cannot be used to peak over the wall.
Before (top) -> After (bottom)
Before (top) -> After (bottom)
Before (top) -> After (bottom)
Before (top) -> After (bottom)
A Site — Plant Zone
- Adjusted the plant zone on A Site to reduce the effectiveness of playing from A Link after spike plant.
Map Pool Update
- Added Bind and Karon to Competitive and Deathmatch queues.
- Removed Ascent and Split from Competitive and Deathmatch queues.
Bug Fixes
Competitive
- Fixed a bug where Master Accolade display numbers were incorrect.
Game Systems
- Fixed a bug where different footstep sounds did not play for characters in fog.
- Fixed a bug where death sounds for agents in fog did not play at the correct location.
- Fixed a bug where gun bounce-back sounds did not play as intended.
Weapons
- Fixed a bug where Warden's scope reticle shifted during full-auto fire.
Known Issues
Competitive
- We are aware of a visual bug where Team MVP does not display correctly in match history. We are currently working on a fix.
