As if the quirks of VALORANT’s ranked games weren’t already enough of a nightmare, Patch 8.07 has sabotaged the agent select feature—and it’s forcing players to lock agents they never intended to pick in the first place.
Several reports regarding a brutal new VALORANT bug affecting a player’s ability to lock in agents showed up on Reddit soon after VALORANT Patch 8.07 went live on April 16. Apparently, impacted players are unable to lock in an agent of their choice; reports suggest the Lock In button keeps popping back up no matter how many times it’s clicked.
What’s worse is, after the timer ends, the agent select feature is randomly assigning agents to impacted players—even if the agent they originally wanted wasn’t taken.
Interestingly, several player reports indicate the issue might be connected to Xbox Game Pass. “Has to do with gamepass, rn I can’t play any agents that I haven’t actually unlocked with credits,” one player claimed like many others. So if you’ve connected Game Pass to your Riot account to enjoy the benefit of having all agents unlocked, you may face this bug’s wrath for the agents you received for free. Thankfully, I have unlocked all agents using the old XP system, Kingdom Credits or VP, which is probably why I haven’t ran into the bug yet.
One player describes how they were unable to pick Cypher and had to go with Breach because VALORANT said so. “When I pressed the lock-in button, I could hear Cypher saying ‘nothing stays hidden from me’ but he never showed up and the lock button kept popping back up,” they narrated. Other reports confirm the issue isn’t restricted to unranked modes, so you may want to refrain from queuing ranked until Riot addresses the situation.
Being able to lock our agent of choice is a crucial feature in competitive tac shooters like VALORANT. It enables players to offer their best to the team. Filling roles is a common trend, but we are always advised against playing the agent we don’t specialize in. Now, imagine a bug that blocks you from playing the agent you are good at. Gamebreaking, right?
Well, given the urgency of the bug, I’m sure Riot will patch it soon, but until then, you can expect a lamenting teammate or two in your ranked VALORANT games.
