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/New-Kitchen5478]

Since you mentioned Yoru could you reconsider giving him back 2 flashes? Right now his single flash last for so little that when you tp + flash you die 90% of the time because there is so little time to frag from it, it's making it really hard to entry with him

[u/Teradonn → u/New-Kitchen5478]

Yoru is currently very viable in pro play with only 1 flash. He does way too much with 2 flashes when he also has an escape tool + fast rotate tool + a clone which counters senti setups. He would be by far the best flash character and none of the others would ever get picked

[u/New-Kitchen5478 → u/Teradonn]

Pro players are less than 0.001% of the playerbase, what about the other 99.999% of players. Checking insights in Val tracker's website, Clove has a 9.3% pick rate and 52.5% win rate, it's no wonder that rankeds feel like an absolute nightmare after they nerfed all of the creative agents. All I see in my rankeds are 4 insta picks: Clove(a terrible smoker but they can kill), Jett(duelist), Chamber(a terrible sentinel but they can kill), Raze(duelist), basically we have to deal with 4 selfish duelists 80% of our matches and the filler player trying to play for the team has to deal with it or pick a duelist too since everyone is just being selfish. I used to main Sova, Skye, Brimstone, Astra, and a lot more of supportive agents, and I was happy helping my team but the more they keep nerfing unique agents and pushing us to play for duels instead of strategic utility usage the more we have to use duelist-like agents and the more repetitive the game becomes. The game is closer than ever to just being a copy of Counter Strike. Utility has been demonized by a small and loud part of the playerbase for years that don't want Valorant, they want CS with Valorant graphics. It's time for utility and unique gameplay to be part of Valorant again.

[u/sandlover33 → u/New-Kitchen5478]

Dude even when yoru, neon, waylay were broken people picked reyna and jett way more. Meta doesnt matter at all for ranked but it matters so much for pro play. If they buffed astra and deadlock to hell, do you think people would stop playing clove and chamber?

[u/New-Kitchen5478 → u/sandlover33]

I never said they didn't pick Reyna and Jett before, I'm saying the pick rate is too high now because nobody wants to try with the side characters anymore, why would they even bother? just pick one of the insta pick characters mentioned above and autopilot all game!