Riot reveal plans for practice modes in Valorant while queuing

One of the most requested features in Valorant is queuing up for matchmaking while warming up in The Range, but Riot have other plans as it pertains to practice modes leading up to your games.

While the studio believes “the tech is feasible” to give players room in the practice range as they’re waiting to find a lobby in matchmaking, Lead Games Mode Producer Jared Berbach feels that the resources needed to accomplish that are better suited for other features.

“The tech is feasible to let you jump into the practice range while queuing,” Berbach said. “But we’ve been reluctant to pursue this because it is straight up not efficient for what it’s accomplishing and we’re more excited about alternatives.

“Here’s why: A practice range ‘match’ is currently just as expensive for us to run on the server side as a standard 5v5 match, but the effort is about 10x less efficient per player because it is only serving one player at a time.”

For the time being, a seamless transition between the Range and a matchmade lobby for players isn’t in the cards. But Riot might be working on the next best thing as it pertains to refining your aim before putting it into application in Valorant.

Berbach teased that those ‘alternatives’ that they’ve been eyeing could possibly include an integrated aim trainer that people could use while in queue.

There isn’t any info on how it would work, look, or play, but the mode is on the company’s radar to actualize sometime in the future.

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“I mentioned a possible simple aim trainer that can scratch the trigger itch, and that could be a step to a future solution where you queue for something like FFA Deathmatch,” Berbach said in the Ask Valorant blog.

Although the dev did say that there’s a “bunch of prerequisite tech” to get in line before realizing their aim trainer, a more immediate update could let Valorant players join free-for-all Deathmatch games in progress.

Riot is aiming to let people join live Deathmatch lobbies in early 2021, though that could easily change as development gets underway.

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Competitive FPS players usually like to have a combination of joining in-progress Deathmatch games or having practice tools like KovaaK 2.0, Aim Lab, Aimbeast, etc., to warm up their tracking before a Ranked match.

Valorant players should temper expectations, however, since Berbach is only talking up a “simple” aim trainer for now. In either case, it’ll be a welcomed addition for people looking to refine their skills before loading into a game.