Riot Cracks Down on Gamers Buying Their Way into the Valorant Beta
The Valorant Closed Beta has now been live for a couple of days, and it seems that Riot Games has been caught somewhat off guard by the sheer demand for access among the gaming audience. The game’s viewership on Twitch has already broken records, as gamers with no other option try to see as much of the game as they can. Unfortunately, this demand has ended up spawning a market for players to sell beta access independent of Riot, often for exorbitant prices; something which the studio is now reportedly cracking down on.
How to Get Legitimate Access to the Valorant Closed Beta
At present, Valorant is only playable as part of a Closed Beta. Initially, the only people to get access were a variety of streamers and influencers. However, Riot also provided many of these streamers with extra access codes to give away to random Twitch viewers throughout the Beta. Unfortunately, there has been greater-than-anticipated demand for these codes, and Riot has admitted that the demand; “overwhelmed us.”
“We’ll be straightforward with you as we’ve always been,” writes the studio; “we need to make sure we’re not overloading our servers. If yesterday was an indication, we need to make sure we ramp slowly as hundreds of thousands – we hope! – of players start piling in at the same time.”
At present, the system for fans to get an access code is pure random selection. However, fans do need to meet a few prerequisites to be eligible for a code. The most significant is simply that you need to watch Valorant streams on Twitch for a certain length of time. Once you pass this threshold, you’ll be in for a chance at getting a code. Unfortunately, the rampant demand for access to the beta has led to some gamers who get codes selling off their beta access online for $150 or more. Obviously, this third-party reselling goes firmly against the spirit of Riot’s current system of beta access.
As such, Riot has now warned players that they are; “actively looking into account sellers”. Furthermore, those who get access with a bought code could find themselves banned from the game. There are also filters in place to prevent people from using Twitch bot accounts to boost their chances of winning. However, it remains to be seen whether Riot will be able to effectively stamp out this beta code profiteering or not in the coming days.