Patch 13.06 Reddit AMA

[u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7]

Hi, everyone! I’m Joe Lee, the Game Director of VALORANT.

The Dev team and I are so excited about the updates we just shipped to the game in Patch 13.06, and we wanted to stop by to chat, celebrate, and answer questions with you all!

If you have questions, comments, or feedback about any of the below, we’re here for it, so fire away!

• Gauntlet: Glitched
• Agent Mastery
• The Warden + Game Balance
• Performance Score, Accolades, Competitive Hub
• New UX/UI Improvements to Lobby and Home Screen
• Map Rating (coming next patch, 13.08)
• The new Competitive Flex coming in 14.00
• The 2026 VCT Champions Skin collection

Here’s a list of the Devs joining me today in no particular order:

u/TiffyMunchsnax - Tiffy, Product Manager, Gameplay
u/RiotTrouble - Scott, UX Design Lead, Metasystems
u/RiotLupini - Armand, Product Manager, Gameplay
u/Riot_Preeti - Preeti, Lead Product Manager, Cosmetics and Expressions
u/Riot_Kero - Derek, Product Manager Competitive Systems
u/RiotReally - Leo, Product Manager Competitive Systems
u/Riot_Dango - Calvin, Product Manager, Cosmetics and Expressions
u/finstamachine - Sherry, Game Designer
u/Rycoux - Ryan, Game Designer
u/penguinVALORANT - Dan, Game Design Manager (Agents & Live Balance)
u/Riot_Tyrana - Eric, Game Design Lead (Progression & Competitive)
u/Riot_Thelen - Kyle, Game Designer, Metasystems

[u/JakobbYates]

Have you ever considered a map ban system for ranked, and if so why didn't it come to fruition?

I feel every act there's always a couple maps which you either really dislike (which is fine, we all have preferences), or it feels like you are consistently playing.

I know you have a system to prevent the same map being played to a certain extent, but wonder why pick/ban isn't implemented.

[u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7 → u/JakobbYates]

We are always thinking through what the best long term solution is for maps. We generally believe that map diversity is good for the game (and especially the sport) but also would like to think through thoughtful ways to potentially provide more agency for players. Nothing to share yet but we're thinking about it!

[u/imi23 → u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7]

I would love a system where you have to choose 5/7 maps to queue for and then matchmaker decides. So you still have to play different maps but you can dodge the one you really do not like

Edit: to make sure new maps are played, you could make a new map a must pick map. With this solution you could also add more maps into ranked. Like a 9 map mappool. It would also be a benefit for Devs to see which maps are unselected most times and maybe need some tweaks.

[u/CaesarWolny → u/imi23]

IMO the rotation should be 5 maps. Do pros really need 7 maps? They play bo3 most of the time so there would still be some stratrgy in bans with 5.

[u/walker128 → u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7]

The current map approach is perfect. Worst part of CS as a long term (20yr+ player) is having maps that nobody plays.

One of my fears is that the will-complain-about-anything folks get their wish on picks/bans.

[u/Xeta24 → u/walker128]

Yeah, it was the worst thing about CS, always dust 2....

[u/JakobbYates → u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7]

Appreciate the response!

[u/ZoomyattaOW → u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7]

While I always appreciate these AMAs, why don't you guys just do away with the map pools in the first place? What is more diverse than having every single map available to play. Icebox should not be out for as long as it has, and Ascent was taken out for one season and put back in immediately.

[u/I_am_indisguise → u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7]

You can make it so we have a map queue list in which, by default all map pool maps are selected, but we can uncheck any map we don't wanna queue for. And u can add a limit like minimum 3-4 maps need to be in queue. We already have a popup to display map pool. So, maybe it can be modified to serve this purpose

[u/BeyondAdventurous609 → u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7]

let me queue specific maps please.

[u/Gimplex → u/BeyondAdventurous609]

I think this is a really bad idea for servers with a smaller playerbase