As a live-service title with a sizable competitive and casual player base, VALORANT has done a fine job of adding content and features to keep its players satisfied. But there are some key features that shockingly still haven’t been added as the game enters its fourth full calendar year.

When I say features, I’m not talking about new maps or agents. They’re regularly released at a steady pace, which makes sense. Each new release gets time to breathe, time for players to test it out, and time for Riot to make any changes before any more major new additions. Instead, by features, I mean quality-of-life improvements, add-ons, and new options to improve VALORANT’s gameplay and overall experience.

VALORANT needs these four key features in 2024.

Tactical timeouts

Somehow, VALORANT’s Premier mode, which now literally serves as the primary path to pro play, didn’t include tactical timeouts during its beta, but at least it got them in time for its full launch in October. Still, it’s about time tactical timeouts were added to competitive.

If you’ve ever played competitive VALORANT, you’ll know something can always go wrong, especially in solo queue. If a player has to go AFK, even for a short amount of time, there’s no way for a team to pause the game, forcing them to play at a disadvantage for at least a round. Riot should add tactical timeouts to competitive as soon as possible.

Map selection

Sunset map in VALORANT.

While Riot wants players to experience the entire map pool, players sometimes want a break from certain maps or the opportunity to play on one specific map. Given its small map pool and large player base, VALORANT should start letting players pick maps, either via a pick-and-ban system or by map-specific queues.

Replay and highlight system

VALORANT players have been asking for an in-game replay system for well over a year now, led by members of the pro community who need a system that lets them share VODs much more easily. Players’ frustrations were elevated by leaks that hinted at a mobile version of VALORANT launching with a replay and highlight system, and the last official mention of an in-game replay system was back in January 2023. This feature needs to come to the base game in 2024, hopefully before the mobile version goes live.

Commendations

Sage poses for a picture with a sleeping Jett and Neon, VALORANT agents.

VALORANT players have trouble forgetting teammates who stand out, for better or for worse. There’s a system for reporting the bad ones, but why don’t we have one that endorses the good ones? There are numerous ways you could reward players with a positive score, whether that be queue priorities or even an end-of-act cosmetic reward. The battle against toxicity in games like VALORANT is never truly winnable, but an in-game commendation system could turn the tide.