Riot Games hint towards potential future changes to Deathmatch mode

We saw Deathmatch mode be added to VALORANT in patch 1.05, and the community has had a plethora of ideas on how to make it more entertaining and meaningful to play. It finally seems like Riot Games are considering a few of them to switch up the traditional shooter game mode, and bring a new experience for players to enjoy.

VALORANT developer Jared ‘Darkhorse4Life’ Berbach explained the studio’s reason behind adding Deathmatch in the first place, acting as a warm-up for players before going into ranked and a safe place for casual players.

However, it hasn’t quite fulfilled the purpose, triggering Riot Games to start considering splitting the mode into two distinctive sections. One of which will be “focused on competing,” while the other will “focused on warm-up and practice.”

“Deathmatch was designed to kind of straddle a middle ground between a mode you can compete in and win and to practice/warm up your aim. Our future desire is to split this mode into two different modes. One focused on competing, that perhaps has other new game mechanics. One that's always available that's focused on warm up and practice (which is what I think people are asking for).”

“A limiting factor right now for the always on warm up mode is that we are still building the technology to join people to a match in progress. Until we can do that, any warm up style mode with infinite time doesn't quite work because eventually the match will get into a bad state where not enough players will be in the game to make it viable.”

It didn’t end there, as later on in the conversation, as several Deathmatch variations were brought up as potential future additions. This included the likes of pistols-only, unlimited abilities, and even the chance for this to become an option for players in their custom games.

How much do you enjoy playing Deathmatch in its current state? Let us know what you think in the comments below!