There won’t be any more backseat gaming for VALORANT coaches in the near future. Dedicated in-game slots for coaches will soon be added to Riot’s competitive shooter.
Replying to a VALORANT wish list tweet from NRG coach Chet Singh, Riot’s esports strategy manager Riley Yurk confirmed that “coach slots are on the way.” He added that the esports team is “excited for coaches to be a bigger part of matches.”
With this dedicated slot, coaches won’t have to use screen-sharing or require the teams to come up with their own workaround. This will allow coaches to more easily view their players’ perspectives.
Going forward, this should lead to set rules for when coaches can communicate with their players. Coaches should be able to communicate at halftime and during tactical timeouts, but a discussion will need to be had to determine if they can talk in between rounds.
This reveal comes just a month after an official ruling from Valve was met with a negative reaction from the CS:GO coaching community. Valve decided that coaches wouldn’t be allowed in the server or in the same room as players during online matches. This means teams qualifying for the Major will have to do so without a coach, if they use one.
With the ruling from Valve and with coaching becoming more welcome in VALORANT, perhaps some top-tier coaches could consider switching over. It’s unclear exactly when coaching slots will go live, however.
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