Valorant, Riot Games’s foray into the team-based, tactical shooter genre, is all set to go into closed beta on April 7, at 6:00 a.m. PST (April 8, 9:00 p.m. GMT+8).

While this is great news for players eager to try out Riot’s answer to CS:GO and Overwatch, not everyone will get to play right away. The initial release will only reach players based in the United States, Canada, Europe, Turkey, Russia, and the CIS.

Riot has made it clear that the global activation of the closed beta is “not possible at this time” due to logistical challenges caused by preventive actions meant to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The developer reassures eager fans that the “plan is to roll out to more regions” as soon as possible.



When the beta goes live, players in the aforementioned regions can start feeling out Valorant’s gameplay and testing out its roster of characters, although Riot has not specified for how long it will be available.

Any progress made in the beta will not carry over into the official release of the game, giving everyone a level playing field when it launches. 

On the other hand, Valorant points purchased and used at this stage will be refunded at launch, with a 20% bonus added as a reward for players’ early participation.

See how to get access to the Valorant closed beta here. To keep tabs on when the Valorant closed beta finally reaches Asian servers, follow the game on Twitter.

Valorant is a free-to-play tactical FPS for PC that is intended to be launched sometime in the summer.

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