All the New Competitive Updates Added in Valorant Patch 1.10
With the launch of Valorant Act 3, and Patch 1.10, Riot has brought a host of new content to the game, including the new Icebox map. However, while fans do get a new map, they also get some major competitive updates, especially concerning the FFA Deathmatch game mode.
Valorant Patch 1.10: Competive Updates
When it comes to competitive play in Valorant Act 3, players now have several new options. For example, you will now be able to select preferred servers, giving you a greater chance of playing on those servers. Additionally, the rank disparity for parties has been capped at 3 tiers rather than 6, as it was previously. Meanwhile, Immortal+ ranked changes will no longer be impacted by individual performance. Instead, they will only be determined by winning, losing, and the “decisiveness” of those results.
Valorant’s Deathmatch mode has gotten a major overhaul in Patch 1.10, with some serious new improvements. To start with, the mode’s player count has gone up from 10 to 14; a 40% increase. Additionally, matches will now be longer to go along with the greater number of players; the time limit has gone up from 6 minutes to 9, while victory will go to the first player to reach 40 kills (rather than 30). Another huge change to Deathmatch is that now, whenever a player scores a kill, their active weapon will get an immediate full reload. As such, skillful players may avoid the need to ever reload. As an added incentive to try Deathmatch, the mode’s XP gain is now 900, rather than 500.
Another key Deathmatch change in Patch 1.10 is an update to the spawning algorithm. According to Riot, this change should encourage the game to spawn players in safer locations. “Sometimes, you’d also spawn way too close to enemies,” they explain; “This was because we had to artificially increase spawn density because of the low player count. Now that the player count has increased, we’ve re-tuned our spawning algorithm to try and give more consistently safer spawns.”