Valorant's closed beta launched yesterday and was a huge hit: Riot announced today that it set a new daily viewing time record for a single game category on Twitch with over 1.7 million concurrent viewers during peak hours. While this is good news for Riot, it also presented some challenges. The studio acknowledged today that the demand "overwhelmed us (a bit)" and said it will proceed with caution and carefully distribute access to the closed beta to avoid crushing the servers.

"As we always do, I will be frank with you: we need to make sure we are not overloading our servers. If yesterday was any indication, we need to make sure that we ramp slowly because hundreds of thousands - we hope - of players will start to gather at the same time," Riot said." We still think we are ready to solve these problems, but we are not going to lie and say that there are no problems to solve.

Riot said he is well aware of the high demand for beta access at Valorant and is doing his best to meet it. However, the priority above all else is to ensure a "stable, competitive, high fidelity gameplay experience," and as such they do not intend to open the doors anytime soon.

"That means we will continue to pay attention to the number of players we get into the closed beta over the next few days and weeks. 'But we're not going to ignore that,'

"We're not going to ignore that.

The update also clarifies some points about how access to the Valorant closed beta will be granted. The studio announced last week that Twitch beta stream viewers would be granted rights, and some followers, in a big shock, withdrew their proposals for marathon viewing or created multiple accounts in an attempt to increase their odds. That's not necessary, says Riot: total viewing time is tracked, and if it exceeds a threshold, it is eligible for random drops.

"To be fair, the selection is random, but we give a higher 'weight' to those who have watched the Valorant stream longer. This weight gives a higher probability of selection, but still no guarantee," Riot explains." There is also a diminishing effect on viewing time, so don't burn yourself out trying to marathon a Valorant stream."

Due to the popularity of the beta, a surprising number of Valorant beta accounts are for sale on eBay, with "buy it now" prices generally starting around $150. Riot, however, warns against trying to jump the queue, saying that it is "actively investigating account sellers" and that users who buy access to the beta could be banned from the game. Anecdotally, many people have tried to create multiple accounts on Twitch to increase their chances of getting keys, but Riot says that there are also filters in place to distinguish viewbots from real viewers, so it's best not to do that either.

"To those of you marathoning Valorant's stream in hopes of getting a drop. Shockingly many of you are, but we should have known this," Riot said. 'We can't guarantee anything, but we hope we can repay your dedication. Please rest."

This is kind of a mixed message - you shouldn't blow your eyeballs out on the Valorant stream to get beta access, but if you do, we'll do our best to hook you up - but just because you don't want to completely close the door on die-hards You can't blame Riot for not wanting to close the door on the diehards. But you can't blame Riot for not wanting to completely close the door on the die-hards: there are currently 1.5 million people watching Valorant's stream on Twitch.

While we wait for the keys to Riot's kingdom, here's an update on Valorant: a guide to the game's characters, badges, rank names, and detailed impressions from our recent hands-on preview session.

Update: You might have thought Riot was kidding: