Valorant Is Waging a Righteous Crusade Against Beta Drop Factories
With no sign of the demand for Valorant beta access waning, Riot Games has issued a stark warning to those gaming the system for profit or to jump the queue. | Source: Riot Games
- Riot Games says it won’t hesitate to ban accounts to curb the sale of access keys to the Valorant closed beta.
- The developer reveals it has already banned a “pile” of accounts and is tracking more.
- Valorant remains the most popular category on Twitch, with 1.2 million viewers.
With no sign of the demand for Valorant beta access waning, Riot Games has issued a stark warning to those gaming the system for profit or to jump the queue. The developer says it won’t hesitate to ban purchased accounts.
Riot Games Isn’t Messing Around
In a blog post on the official Valorant website taking stock of the closed beta’s first shaky day, Riot Games explains :
We are actively looking into account sellers. If you buy an account for VALORANT access, please be aware that your account could be banned before launch! We’re aware of all the view botting going on, and do want to reassure you that both us and Twitch have filters in place to distinguish bots vs. people.
While developers generally publish these types of warnings to pay lip service to those affected by cheaters, hackers, and opportunists (with little immediate follow-up), Riot has already taken tangible action.
In a tweet published early this morning , the Valorant developer says it has already banned a “pile” of accounts suspected sellers and botters. It reads:
We’ve banned a pile of VALORANT closed beta account sellers and botters to free up more entitlements. Tracking more. Don’t buy accounts, you might lose them!
Valorant Is Still the Biggest Thing on Twitch
As CCN.com reported on Tuesday, people are mining beta access drops on Twitch through alternative accounts and then selling them on eBay. We uncovered accounts priced upwards of $150 in some cases. Unsurprisingly, these have sold like hotcakes, with listings marked as ended within minutes of going up.
Over on Twitch, channels streaming under the Valorant category continue to draw in massive numbers. As of writing, there are currently over 1.2 million viewers tuned in to one of countless channels streaming Valorant . Former Overwatch pro, xQc, leads the charge with close to a quarter-million viewers.
When can we expect Riot Games to open up the floodgates and let more players into the beta? A slow and steady approach appears to be the tactic at this point.
As Riot explains, the sheer demand has left the developer “inspired, humbled, and overwhelmed,” but access will remain limited to ensure “a stable, competitive, high-fidelity gameplay experience above all.”
As such, expect Valorant to dominate Twitch for the time being as viewers continue to hunt for those coveted and elusive drops.
