Riot Confirms Champions Shanghai Pick’Ems, Agent Gear Changes, Stream Sniping Bans, and More in Valorant 13.05 Update

Riot Games has officially released the latest update for Valorant, bringing a variety of technical fixes, cosmetic adjustments, and new player behavior penalties to the competitive tactical shooter. Highlighted in the 13.05 update are targeted measures against disruptive behavior, esports features, and a preview of upcoming system changes.

Among the major updates for player behavior, Riot Games is rolling out strict penalties aimed at countering stream sniping and the use of third-party instalock tools. Players detected utilizing these methods will initially face temporary game bans, which will escalate into permanent suspensions for repeated violations.

For esports fans, the update paves the way for Champions Shanghai. Pick'Ems for the tournament are scheduled to go live on September 10, allowing players to predict advancing teams from the Group Stage both in-client and on the web ahead of the event's kickoff on September 24. Participants can earn rewards and points for correctly guessing outcomes and placements.

Additionally, developers teased forthcoming adjustments to the Agent Gear progression system, set to arrive with Patch 13.06 on September 22. While players will retain previously earned gear and continue utilizing Kingdom Credits, future gear unlocks will be tied directly to playtime accumulated on each specific Agent. Other general updates included adjustments to sound spray attenuation to ensure clear team communication, as well as a practice mode feature in the Range allowing players to choose between 10, 5, or 1 default bot spawns.

The 13.05 patch also resolved numerous bug fixes across various agents. General updates addressed an issue where Agent Ultimate voiceovers continued playing from an enemy perspective after the casting agent died, corrected the Combat Report incorrectly displaying "Enemies Blinded" for non-blinding abilities, and improved smoke dissipation timing for Astra, Brimstone, Clove, Miks, and Omen to prevent smokes from blocking flashes and line-of-sight abilities after disappearing. Character-specific fixes targeted performance drops with Chamber’s Headhunter, Cypher's Trapwire debuffs and Cyber Cage interactions, Deadlock's GravNet visual effects, Fade’s Seize danger indicators on Lotus, KAY/O’s client-side framerate drops during NULL/cmd, Omen’s Dark Cover vision obscurities, Sage's Healing Orb tooltips, and several interaction bugs involving Waylay's Saturate and Refract abilities.