You’re 12 rounds into a competitive VALORANT match, and take a glance at your abilities. That’s when the realization hits: you’ve had your ultimate since round four and still haven’t actually used it yet.
If only there was something built into the game that would help you and your team catch these silly mistakes before they build up and become bad habits. Thankfully, one graphic designer on Twitter has already made some hilarious mock additions to VALORANT’s UI that could improve your gameplay in no time, or serve to remind a pesky teammate that yes, they do need to use their utility.
Though these popups aren’t actually real, they could serve as a subtle reality check to increase your awareness of your and your teammate’s gameplay.
Crews Varner is a graphic designer who has recently been posting a variety of witty tips and other popups rendered to fit right into VALORANT’s UI.
“You have not used your ultimate in the previous 5 rounds,” one of the hilarious custom VALORANT popups reads. “If you do not use it within the next round, your account will receive a ranked suspension for 24 hours.”
The popups Varner has created range from personal reminders about your own gameplay to suggestions about team strategy, and even more aggressive popups like voting to steal money from your Killjoy that just keeps forgetting to put down her Alarmbot.
Somehow, Varner has struck a perfect middle ground between valid criticism of playing a role in VALORANT while also poking fun at mistakes we’ve probably all made during our time playing Riot’s tactical shooter. Then, to top it off, the prompts all look like something that could realistically be a part of the game’s interface.
Another one of the designer’s creations includes a new type of barrier, not unlike those that restrict map movement during VALORANT’s buy phase. But this barrier pops up when your team keeps trying the same strategy over and over only to lose every time.
“Your team has attacked this site 7 times with 0 successful round wins,” a message on the barrier reads. “This barrier will stay up during the next round so that you’ll try attacking another site.”
If only something like this actually existed for those teammates who try to be the next famous in-game leader only to fumble the same “strategy” (if we can even call it that) over and over.
One of our other favorites of Varner’s popups includes a nod to the controller players of VALORANT, a role that seems to always fall to the bottom of the popularity list in favor of flashy duelists and initiators. Controllers are often some of the last agents picked, with some teams in lower ranks even white-knuckling through a game without smokes since no one wants to play Brimstone for an entire game.
Personally, I’d be delighted to receive a tip for my excellent smokes and high number of assists in my ranked games.
Though Varner’s messages will likely never show up in your actual VALORANT game, maybe they’ve made you a bit more aware of your own mistakes, or more appreciative of your teammate’s help.
