The Initiator: Act 2 comes to Valorant with Killjoy
Act 2 comes to Valorant featuring Killjoy (not part of this week’s FaZe Clan Invitational), free-for-all deathmatch arrives in beta, FaZe Clan signs Babybay and Rawkus to complete five-man roster and more
By Cameron Bray
In somewhat buggy release, Act 2 comes to Valorant, featuring Killjoy, new Glitchpop weapon skins, Battlepass and free-for-all deathmatch mode in beta
In somewhat of a buggy rollout, Riot Games released Act 2 of Valorant to its servers Wednesday, Aug. 5.
The release, officially titled patch 1.05, featured Killjoy as the game’s newest Agent — its 12th playable character to date — new futuristic weapon skins called Glitchpop, a fresh Act 2 Battlepass and a new free-for-all deathmatch mode, still in beta.
As always with a new patch, the latest update to Valorant was marred with a few unforeseen technical issues and minor glitches that Riot Games quickly identified and fixed. Two of these bugs caught the eye of game director Joe Ziegler, who addressed them both on Twitter.
The first was a faulty wall on Ascent, which caused Riot Games to suspend play on the map.
The second and more serious glitch was an issue with Raze’s Ultimate Ability, Showstopper, which caused her to be suspended as well.
Both of these bugs will most likely be fixed in advance of the upcoming FaZe Clan Invitational, — the third Ignition Series event in North America, in which 16 teams will battle it out for a share of the $50,000 prize pool.
While many fans had expected Killjoy to make her debut at this week’s Invitational following the release of Act 2, Riot Games and its partner FaZe Clan, the tournament host, reversed course and barred her from the upcoming Invitational.
“Due to the recency of Killjoy’s release, there is a risk that multiple issues may negatively impact the competitive integrity of this weekend’s tournament,” FaZe tweeted from its official news account, #FaZeUp. “As such, Riot Games has requested that she be disabled in official tournaments until they are confident in her stability.”
Even without the ban, it was unlikely that fans would see many professional players choose Killjoy during the Invitational, only a day after release.
Only a madman would choose a brand-new Agent like Killjoy for the Invitational, and not without the collective sighs and groans of their teammates.
Teams will need time to experiment with Killjoy, test her Abilities and work her into their schemes before they use her competitively, if at all.
Besides Killjoy, who has been sadly (but understandably) banned from this week’s Invitational, perhaps the most interesting feature of Act 2 was the release of free-for-all team deathmatch, long the most desired feature in Valorant.
Requested by both casual and pro players since Valorant went into closed, pre-release beta Tuesday, April 7, the new game mode allows players to warm up together, practice their aim in a live environment, and rack up kills without worrying about the Spike.
In addition, free-for-all deathmatch is also the first solo mode in Valorant. It deploys 10 Agents to one of the game’s four maps where there are no official teams and all Abilities are disabled.
Once dropped onto a map, these 10 players will have to outshoot and outmaneuver each other to win. The round ends once a player reaches 30 kills, in which case he is the winner, or six minutes expire, in which case the player with the most kills is the winner.
In free-for-all deathmatch, players can buy any gun they want and swap it out at any time; players will also respawn with heavy armor each time they’re killed. Riot Games has endeavored to make respawning as fair as possible, promising newly revived players that they will have walls behind them to cover their backs and no enemies in their line of sight.
Once a player is killed and has to wait for three seconds to respawn (with eight seconds of invulnerability afterward that dissipates upon firing or moving), a health pack will spawn in his place, allowing an opponent to restore his Agent to full health. The developers hope that these kill-dropped health packs will promote aggressive play and encourage players to move quickly around the map.
Camping corners is frowned upon by the developers. To discourage players from sitting in the corner with a shotgun and turning the game into a case of carnival duck shooting, radar will reveal all players’ locations every five seconds.
For players who want to use free-for-all deathmatch mode as a simple warm-up tool or training exercise, dropping out is available at any time by selecting “Leave Match” in the options menu.
Free-for-all deathmatch is currently available in beta. Once the developers test it further and ensure server performance and game stability, free-for-all deathmatch will be left as a permanent game mode in Valorant.
After weeks of uneasy growth, FaZe Clan signs Babybay, Rawkus to complete five-man roster before team’s own $50,000 Invitational
After weeks of uneasy growth that included several high-profile acquisitions from Overwatch and the sudden departure of former team captain Jason “JasonR” Ruchelski, FaZe Clan completed its five-man Valorant roster this week by signing Andrej “Babybay” Francisty and Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty.
FaZe announced Babybay’s signing Wednesday, Aug. 5, on Twitter, and it brought recruitment to an end a day later with Rawkus’ signing Thursday, Aug. 6.
Babybay and Rawkus will join former Overwatch League stars Corey “corey” Nigra and Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo as well as former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen.
The twin signings came in advance of the team’s own $50,000 Invitational, where FaZe is fielding a fully signed team for the first time in its history and hosting the third Ignition Series event in North America.
Currently, FaZe is 2-1 at the 16-team Invitational, having survived double-elimination group play and made it to the eight-team, double-elimination playoffs.
FaZe is set to play Sentinels, winner of the recent PAX Arena Invitational, in the upper-bracket quarterfinals tonight at 5 p.m. EDT.
Before joining FaZe, Babybay played for the Atlanta Reign in the Overwatch League, where he became a successful starter and team leader. He announced his retirement from the game Friday, July 17, to pursue a career in Valorant.
Rawkus, meanwhile, spent his entire Overwatch career with the Houston Outlaws before announcing his retirement Saturday, Aug. 1.
But Rawkus’s greatest success in Overwatch took place outside Houston, in Anaheim, Calif., where the young superstar led Team USA to victory in the 2019 Overwatch World Cup.
Dropping only a single map throughout the entire event, Rawkus and Team USA staged a dominant performance at last year’s World Cup and swept South Korea 3-0 in the final match.
As part of Team USA, Rawkus played alongside corey, his new Valorant teammate at FaZe, and former MVP Jay “sinatraa” Won, now the centerpiece of Sentinels’ Valorant roster. Rawkus is currently the third player from that star-studded, championship-winning roster to move from Overwatch to Valorant.
FaZe first made its entry into Riot Games’ new shooter Friday, June 26, with JasonR and corey’s signings. But it soon suffered growing pains as it struggled to make headway in Valorant tournaments and expand its roster neatly.
JasonR, supposedly team captain, sat out the T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown, where FaZe debuted a mostly unsigned roster of corey, ZachaREEE, Marved, Rory “dephh” Jackson and Harrison “psalm” Chang. FaZe finished in fourth place at the Showdown after falling to Immortals 13-6 in the third lower-bracket round Sunday, June 28.
JasonR left the team Sunday, Aug. 2, shortly after Marved’s signing last week, following disagreements over the roster.
He is still on the lookout for another team, and it remains to be seen whether FaZe will find success at its own Invitational this weekend.
Cameron Bray is the lead writer for The Initiator, a recently created newsletter about Valorant sponsored by Numlock News. He also contributes to No Bid Nation, a new sports blog about William and Mary basketball. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @spike_cameron or send him an email at cameron@numlock.news.