VALORANT players criticise new ‘gatekeeping’ Champions Bundle
The bloodbath at Champions is nearing its first cut. VALORANT's finest are ready to bludgeon their way to the lion's share of spoils. Champions are awaiting to be crowned.
To celebrate VCT Champions, Riot has continued its efforts to allow crowdfunding for the teams through an honourable Champions Bundle.
But this year, not everyone is impressed with the bundle, as some fans have argued that Riot Games is "gatekeeping" the expensive skin from certain players.
VALORANT fans upset at 'gatekept' Champions 2023 bundle
Click to enlargeThe VCT Champions 2023 bundle includes another awesome design for the Vandal alongside a stunning knife and a [Gekko] Wingman sticker, stealing the Champions Trophy and our hearts simultaneously.
But it's the Vandal that is causing a bit of bother for players, as many have claimed that the reactive elements of the skin are being gatekept from the majority of us.
This year, you will need to get 30 kills in a single game to see every form of the Vandal's reactive camo, which is five more than the 2022 counterpart. This means, in order to simply see the skin, you have to drop a 30-bomb, something that not everyone is blessed with the ability for.
"What's the point of the VFXs if you'll never gonna see it?" quizzed one rather bemused fan in a Reddit post. "Riot is getting too cocky with its skin, I don't understand the decision to gatekeep you from enjoying the product even after you bought it," they added.
VALORANT fans want Champions bundle change to lower reactive requirements
The bundle appears to be tailored specifically to those high-elo and high-engagement players that use duellists, rather than the majority of players stuck on controllers and sentinels.
Other players agreed that a 30-bomb is out of their limits, saying, "I guess DeathMatch/TDM will be the place for me to view it. Definitely not going to happen in an unrated/comp lobby for me."
"I also regret buying the last year's bundle because of this reason. As a controller main, I never see the trophy of the knife and when you only get like 15 kills, it looks boring. I don’t know why they do this, it even motivates people to instalock Reyna or Jett more," added another.
Last year's 25-kill benchmark seemed steep for most, although rewarding, but now players are all in agreement that they want the 30-kill gatekeeping cap to be reduced, to allow players to have their money's worth.