This morning at 10 AM, Riot Games announced their upcoming tactical shooter, VALORANT, will launch a closed beta in collaboration with Twitch, starting April 7th. Next Tuesday, players from the US and Canada, Europe, Russia, and Turkey will be able to gain access to the beta by watching select Twitch streams, following similar steps as their original closed beta for Legends of Runeterra, Riot's competitive card game. 

Riot may expand the beta to other regions in the future as well, pending further developments in the coronavirus pandemic - after having to cancel their big reveal event earlier this March due to COVID-19, it makes sense they're being wary. For now, players in the aforementioned regions need to create a Riot account if they don't already have one, link it to their Twitch account, and then find the selected streams highlighted on Twitch who will periodically drop beta keys to specific viewers' accounts. 

Hopeful players may find additional details on the game and closed beta by visiting their website, PlayVALORANT.com. 

The following statements were provided by Riot Games:

About VALORANT:
VALORANT is a competitive 5v5 character-based tactical shooter for the PC, currently in
development at Riot Games. Set to launch around the globe for most regions in Summer 2020,
VALORANT is a precise and lethal multiplayer game with high-fidelity gunplay, a diverse
arsenal of guns, agents with unique abilities, and competitively tuned maps for thousands of
hours of play.

VALORANT is a free-to-play game and optimized to perform on a wide variety of PC hardware,
allowing for a global audience to compete. Demonstrated by the game’s best-in-class game
server quality, global infrastructure, and proprietary anti-cheat technology, Riot Games is
committed to preserving the core tenets of the tactical shooter genre and upholding the
competitive integrity of the gameplay experience.

About Riot Games:
Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused
games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, to worldwide
acclaim. League has gone on to be the most-played PC game in the world and a key driver of
the explosive growth of esports.

As League enters its second decade, Riot continues to evolve the game while delivering new
experiences to players with VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, League of
Legends: Wild Rift, and multiple work-in-progress titles, while exploring the world of Runeterra
through multimedia projects across music, comic books, TV, and more.

Founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, Riot is headquartered in Los Angeles, California,
and has 2,500+ Rioters in 20+ offices worldwide."

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Images via Riot Games