Riot Games are celebrating Valorant with the YR1 Anniversary event that’s going to be packed with events for players to participate in, as well as opportunities to score unique loot out of the game.
Valorant has hit major milestones in only its fist full calendar year of release, amassing over 14 million average players a month and an esport that eclipsed 1M viewers during its first international LAN event.
Riot’s opened servers around the globe, and it’s planning to get even bigger with a Valorant Mobile port soon. Needless to say, the studio has a lot to celebrate and is going big for its first anniversary.
The Night.Market Returns
One of the best ways to get deep discounts on Valorant weapon skins come via the Night.Market, a unique assortment of six random skins for every player.
The Night.Market is set to return on June 2, so keep a lookout near your Store tab in-game to see which offers you get this time around.
Give Back Bundle
Valorant players are going to help contribute to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund, in partnership with Impact Assets, with the Give Back Bundle.
This weapon skin bundle will have four cosmetics – one each for sidearms, SMGs/shotguns, sniper/machine gun, and rifles – chosen by the community.
From June 2-7, people can cast their vote for which skins will show up in the Give Back Bundle, with the winners announced on June 16.
The bundle will go live from June 22 to July 18. Half of the proceeds from weapon skins will go to charity, along with 100% of the proceeds made from accessories.
Player Cards
The Valorant community will have an opportunity to collect three (3) limited edition YR1 Player Cards, with a different way to collect them starting June 6.
Each one will celebrate the first three Episodes. Episode 1 will come via a drop on June 9, with more info to come. Episode 2’s player card will come via a Prime Gaming Drop on June 14. Episode 3’s card will be included in the YR1 Event Pass.
Community Battlepass
Every global region will soon vote for a unique item like sprays, gun buddies, and titles that best reflects that region. The top voted accessories will appear in an upcoming Community Battlepass in Episode 4.
Check up on your local region’s Valorant accounts to see how voting will go down!
wwFest Returns
Riot will follow up their January wwFest with another experimental music and art festival for the YR1 Event on June 25.
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The first wwFest was really promising, and Riot are going to bring out a new headliner with artists around the world to bolster the second running.
YR1 Event Pass
To celebrate Valorant’s first birthday, Riot are giving every player a free Event Pass for YR1.
It’s going to consist of only seven levels, but each one will unlock exclusive YR1 items as you level up the pass.
YR1 Event Episode 3 Livestream
To cap the first year of Valorant and usher in Episode 3, a Riot dev panel will bring on people from the Competitive, Agents, and Premium Content teams to see what year two could have in store.
This will give us the best look at where the studio will want to take Valorant, so tune in to Twitch on June 21 at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST.
Squad Boost
Riot is encouraging Valorant players to make friends and queue up together with Squad Boost XP rewards. Any mode, except Customs, will give you more XP depending on how many friends you’re queued up with.
From June 22 to July 26, depending on local patch release, you’ll get an extra 8% XP for being in a duo, 12% for three-stack, 16% for a four-person team, and 20% for a complete five-stack.
Valorant Account Leveling
Valorant will soon have account levels to give players a concrete way to measure, recognize, and reward your time in the game.
More details will be released in the Episode 3 livestream, but it’s something that’s already exciting the player base.
Valorant Act 2 Episode 3 New Agent
A new Episode means a new Agent is on the horizon, and Riot are already teasing Agent 16.
While there’s been plenty of hints so far, we’re going to get a full reveal the closer we get to the new Episode.
The Valorant YR1 event will have a bit of something for everyone, and we can expect more surprises from Riot as the June celebration goes on.