Despite trying to improve spawns in Valorant’s deathmatch game mode, the devs actually broke them with the 4.03 update. They acted swiftly and made a big change to the mode, and it has drawn criticism from some of the game’s top players.
The Valorant 4.03 update buffed Brimstone, tweaked some of the game’s weapons, and crucially made some alterations to deathmatch spawns.
Riot Games tried to remove ‘“dangerous” spawn locations and make wholesale changes to spawn logic to try and make it more fluid. However, the improvements seemed to have a detrimental effect on spawns, and as a result, Riot have had to tweak the popular game mode to try and help matters.
Valorant deathmatch changes made immediately
Despite becoming known for its default, 5v5 FPS gameplay that perfectly blends a hero shooter with Counter-Strike’s winning formula, Valorant has gone on to add many more modes to the base game. One of these is the classic Deathmatch style that pits players against each other in a race to rack up the most kills.
The devs themselves said that the latest update made for a “rough Deathmatch experience post-Patch 4.03.” Testament to Riot Games though, they wasted no time and enforced a temporary solution by dropping lobby numbers from 14 to 12.
By going from 7v7 to 6v6, it should alleviate some of the spawn issues and give players a bit more breathing space during a game.
We heard you on the rough Deathmatch experience post-Patch 4.03 (like spawning in direct line of sight).
So we're reducing the number of players in Deathmatch from 14 to 12, immediately. This should mitigate these issues—and we'll keep an eye on the situation.
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) February 18, 2022
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However, some of the game’s elite players have mocked the latest update with EXCEL’s ozzy being amused by the whole scenario.
hahahahahahhhahahahahhaha next joke
— ozzy (@ozzyxaxa) February 18, 2022
NRG Ethos simply said: “NONONONO PLEASE NO,” and top pro Alliance offered their opinion on the circumstances.
Now take away their guns and I'm getting top 4 easy!😤
— Alliance (@theAllianceGG) February 18, 2022
Many players feel that spawns and spawn logic were absolutely not the priority in terms of fixes for the Deathmatch game mode. So, it looks even worse when the change that was the main focus, turned out to be an unsuccessful one.
With the game’s 19th Agent currently in the works and the next Act on the way, it seems that Riot have quite a few things to balance on their plate at the moment.