Riot Games has mentioned in a recent Q/A that match pausing is coming to unranked and competitive matchmade games.
Fans can rejoice as they should no longer begin around in a 4v5 disadvantage.
In a recent post, Riot detailed that they want competitive integrity to be a hallmark of Valorant and they are changing Competitive to reflect their new design goaL
Pause Feature Coming?
Riot recent did a Q/A that detailed plenty of plans - or lack of to questions posed by the community.
The very first question was regarding a pause feature in the pre-round status of a match.
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Riot has revealed they are working on this feature to make the game more consistent.
A pause mechanic is already in the game exclusively for custom matches that tournament providers use.
Whereas now the public matches of competitive and unraked are getting it to allow players that quick break they need mid-game.
When the player returns, the team should be able to commence the clock countdown to get back into the swing of things.
Other games like CS:GO have some form of pause, with their competitive queue offering a temporary pause that counts down, while the likes of 3rd party software like FACEIT offer an extended pause.
However, mid-round pauses don’t appear to be a feature Riot are considering.
Mid-round pauses are something that could potentially damage competitive integrity.
It seems unlikely that Riot will add this feature at all through the game’s lifecycle unless it’s for key pauses during pro play.
As it stands, there is no ETA for when this feature is going live. Potentially, this could come out early next year as Act III episode 2 releases, but that might be too soon.
Riot will no doubt tell us when this updated match pause feature is ready.