Image: Riot Games
Swiftplay is coming out of beta in Valorant, but it’s here to stay.
Riot Games has announced that Valorant’s Swiftplay is exiting beta only to become a permanent game mode for the title moving forward. This change will take place in the game’s upcoming 6.03 patch, allowing Swiftplay to join Deathmatch, Spike Rush and Unrated as standard game modes.
Valorant’s product manager Coleman Palm announced the news on Twitter:
Swiftplay was a recent addition to Valorant, introduced as a limited-time mode in beta before it took off in popularity and became one of the game’s most popular modes. Riot is clearly happy with how the mode works if it's turning it into a permanent addition to Valorant, but Palm stresses that the development team will continue to look for opportunities to fiddle with Swiftplay and improve it over time.
In case you’re unfamiliar, Swiftplay plays like a speedier take on Unrated, the latter of which can take around 40 minutes per match to complete. Swiftplay is a first-to-five game mode as opposed to Unrated’s first-to-13, which means that it only takes around 15 minutes for a match to conclude. While Unrated feels like an intense marathon between both teams to the finish line, Swiftplay feels like a short and sweet burst of Valorant with lower stakes.
Swiftplay is also a great way for newcomers (or veterans) to practice playing certain Agents and refining the gameplay loop before jumping into more hardcore game modes. The mode will likely change in the coming months as it moves out of beta, but retain its casual-friendly identity while Riot looks to incorporate other temporary modes to replace it.
More details on Swiftplay as a standard game mode will arrive in the patch notes for the 6.03 update, which is due on February 14.
