Valorant update 3.10 patch notes reveal new changes applied to 5-stack competitive matchmaking as well as some bug fixes in the gameplay.

Probably, the biggest addition to Valorant with update 3.10 is Chamber, the new Agent or playable character, that is now available for all players.

That being said, a big change will also hit the 5-stack Competitive queue in Valorant. As explained in detail by the developers inside the patch notes, all ranked restrictions will be removed from this mode of Valorant in an attempt to avoid smurfing.

Below, you can check out the patch notes for the new update. It's worth noting that there will be no balancing changes with update 3.10.

AGENT UPDATES

Chamber

  • The next Sentinel Agent deploys with Patch 3.10

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

Competitive queue 5-stack for any rank

  • In an ef ort to reduce smurfing, we’re removing all ranked restrictions from 5-stack parties in Competitive Queue.
  • We are also removing 4-stacks from the Competitive queue.

New Ruleset for 5-Stack

  • If everyone in your group is Diamond 2 and below:
    • You can expect increased queue times as we will only matchmake your team against another 5 stack of similar average MMR.
    • Rank Rating gains and losses will be reduced when playing in a 5 stack outside of our current rank restrictions rules. The amount that your RR is adjusted depends on the rank disparity within the group.
      • Example 1: You party with 4 of your friends. The lowest team member is Silver 1 and the highest is Platinum 1. Your team will be given a 50% RR reduction because the highest and lowest members are 1 rank outside the standard group restrictions.
      • Example 2: In the same group, you have 1 team member leave, and bring in your other friend who is Bronze 1. Now the skill disparity has increased to 4 ranks outside of the standard grouping restrictions. Your team will be given a 75% RR reduction as a result.
  • If one or more members of your group are Diamond 3 and above:
    • Your expected queue times may vary greatly, and could increase dramatically as you will wait indefinitely for another 5-stack of similar MMR to play against.
    • At minimum, a 50% RR reduction will be applied to all 5-stacks including a member from these ranks, and this amount can increase to 90% as the disparity in skill increases.
    • Let’s walk through a couple examples of these:
      • Example 1: 4 of your party members are Immortal and one of your friends is Diamond 2. The whole squad has a 75% reduction to RR gains and losses due to rank disparity.
      • Example 2: Your team grinds until your Diamond 2 friend reaches Diamond 3. The whole squad will now have a 50% reduction to RR gains and losses; A penalty that is applied to any 5-stack in Diamond 3 or above.
  • If one or more members of your group are Radiant:
    • Similar to Diamond 3-plus, you will wait indefinitely for another 5-stack of similar MMR to play against, potentially increasing your queue times drastically.
    • At minimum, a 75% RR reduction will be applied to all 5-stacks including a member from these ranks. Playing with any player below Radiant automatically reduces your potential RR by 90%.

ESPORTS FEATURES

  • Observer Agent icons will no longer all get stuck on the same Agent when using the Minimal Broadcast HUD.
  • Observers now have different HUD colors for attackers and defenders.
    • Attacker abilities will show as red and defender abilities will show as teal.
  • There is now a yellow outline on player icons on the minimap to showcase which player is the active target of an observer.

BUGS

Game System

  • Fixed a net/sim-tick aliasing issue where running above 128 frames per second could cause packet send rates to drop below the 128fps cap.
    • This may have caused up to a few milliseconds of additional delay before the server processed player input when running at high client framerates.

Social

  • Fixed issues where you were able to re-invite players in lobby that were already invited.

Esports Features

  • Fixed a bug where the Observer's minimap zoom setting did not function.
  • Fixed a bug where coaches could not use the hotkeys to spectate a player inside a deployed piece of utility (Cypher’s Spy Camera, Skye’s Trailblazer, or Sova’s Owl Drone).
  • Fixed a bug where pressing shift plus a player number would not go to the proper cinematic camera for that player, if that player was being actively spectated.

Valorant is now available for free on PC.