Valorant to introduce major updates in December 2022: Chamber changes, map rotation, and more

With almost 2 million active players every day, Valorant has set itself as one of the top FPS games in recent times.

However, even a largely popular game can have its share of bugs and rants from fans, which in this case, is usually addressed by Riot Games at the earliest.

Patch 5.12 is rumored to be out in December and is said to bring a lot of changes along with it.

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More Chamber changes to arrive in Valorant Patch 5.12, alongside map rotation and smurfing updates

Chamber was the 17th Agent to be released in Valorant. A Sentinel, he is considered to be one of the most broken and overpowered Agents in the game. His ability kit puts him at a much higher advantage as opposed to his other Sentinel friends and has even been chosen over some Duelists in the game’s current meta.

Chamber has seen an insanely high pick rate, managing 67% in the Valorant Champions 2022 in Istanbul, the highest amongst all Agents. The community and pro players have constantly complained about him being too strong, which led to some nerfs in patch 5.03, although that didn't change his pick rate.

Many changes appear to be on the way for Chamber and that could change the Agent meta in the game. While the nature of the changes remains unknown, players can expect Riot Games to bring about a few adjustments to nerf the Agent and bring balance to the game’s Sentinel meta.

The patch will also focus on map rotations, which is something that's been talked about within the community.

However, there have been complaints about players having to play the same map over and over again, leading to some amount of frustration. The developers have taken note of this and made certain changes in the past, but it now seems like some more in-depth information will be shared and many changes will be made.

There's also the possibility of changes to the current map pool. In patch 5.0, a new map, Pearl was added and the developers decided to let go of Split to maintain a seven-map pool moving forward. With the possible release of a new map in the near future, chances are that players might see one of the older maps removed.

Lastly, there will be updates with regards to 'Smurfing'. Smurfing is when a higher-ranked player queues up and plays against lower-ranked players using a different account. This in turn leads to the results being an absolute landslide, thus ruining the experience of newer players.

Every game has its own share of Smurfs and Valorant certainly doesn't fall short. There have been changes made to curb the number of Smurfs by making it difficult for players to use another account for ranked mode, but that has not had a major effect. Patch 5.12, however, teases some Smurfing updates that might help towards a better experience in the game.

The changes will first be played out in Valorant's Public Beta Environment (P.B.E.) on December 2, Friday. Once the changes have been tested and finalized, they will be introduced to the game through Patch 5.12, which is expected to arrive on December 13, 2022.