Valorant's 2.0 Patch Live Today, Adds New Agent And Reduces Competitive Ambiguity

The Episode 2 update for Valorant goes live today with a new agent, changes to competitive mode, and tweaks to a pair of the game's other agents. Yoru joins the roster with this update, and he "rips holes straight through reality to infiltrate enemy lines." His ultimate power, Dimensional Drift, lets him travel into another dimension for a short time, popping out in the most advantageous position -- usually right behind an enemy, primed for a headshot. You can see all of Yoru's powers in action here.

In other agent news, Brimstone gets a few buffs that make his Stim Beacon faster and increases the range and duration of his Sky Smokes, while Omen gets toned down a bit, increasing the cost of Paranoia while decreasing the projectile speed of Dark Cover. Riot promises that Viper will be next on the to-do list, saying that she's "underperforming as a whole and we’re looking at changes for her in the new year." You can read the patch notes for the agents and the rest of the general gameplay tweaks here.

The biggest gameplay change in this patch revolves around competitive mode, where the goal is "removing the ambiguity in how close you are to ranking up." The leaderboard now displays in the client and is split up per region, with real-time updates and a better sense of where you are in the rankings and what you need to do to progress. End of Episode/Act rewards now include shiny gun buddies based on highest Act Rank you achieved in that time frame. Do they give those out for peaking in Bronze? If so, then maybe I'll have a shot at earning one.