Riot reveals plan to revert Valorant First Strike Global Finals patch

Lauren Bergin
First-Strike-Patch

Valorant Patch 1.11 threw Future Earth into absolute chaos for pro players and casual gamers alike. But Riot Games has revealed part of their plan towards running First Strike’s Global Finals in the wake of the 1.11 madness.

Patch 1.11 will be etched into the history of both Valorant and Riot Games alike. Described by Valorant devs as being a “nightmare,” the disruption caused by the patch has clearly influenced developers’ decisions to release less patches until December.

This chaos, however, couldn’t have come at a worse time. The patch was released and then repealed right in the middle of the regional qualifiers for First Strike.

This left a lot of fans curious as to which patch players would be competing on, whether there would be a patch change midway through some tournaments and how this impacted competitive integrity. Well, in the latest instalment of Ask Valorant, Valorant Esports Strategy Manager, Riley Yurk, has explained how this will work with the upcoming First Strike: Global Finals.

Skye in Valorant
Patch 1.11 included Skye, the game’s newest Agent who currently isn’t available for pro play.

First Strike Global Finals: Which patch will pros play on?

Yurk describes the current status of the First Strike as being ‘Tournament Realm-lite’, referring to the idea that the patch has been altered in pro play to remain the same throughout the event, but there is no private tournament server… Yet!

He states that “we were planning on using a separate patchline (consider this Tournament Real-lite) for the main event, but ended up launching this early to allow tournaments to continue on the same patch they started on. This has allowed us to keep esports on a separate patch from live and is something we’re bringing back globally for the First Strike main event Dec 3-6.”

So while games will all be on the same patch, it is currently speculation as to what exact patch this is. What has been made clear, though, is that Skye and Icebox will no longer be disabled for the main First Strike event, which begins December 3.

In addition to this, the latest Patch (1.12) was very esports driven, so the likelihood is that Riot will implement 1.12 for the main First Strike event.

However, we’ll keep you updated as further details emerge regarding the final decision about the First Strike patch, so watch this space!

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About The Author

Lauren was formerly Dexerto's Features Editor and resident Diablo Sorceress. With two Master's degrees under her belt and a lot more Steam achievements, she specializes in all things Blizzard and Riot Games, with some Lost Ark and FFXIV on the side.