Snowball Fight Deathmatch brings holiday spirit to Valorant

“Ready to have a Snowball Fight with your friends (and likely your foes)?”

Every time the holiday season rolls around, most major competitive games try to have some fun with the winter spirit in mind. Valorant is no different. For its first winter celebration, Riot Games is introducing Snowball Fight Team Deathmatch to Valorant. 

This limited-time game mode will run from December 15 to December 29, and was introduced in today’s Valorant patch 1.14. 

What is Snowball Fight Team Deathmatch?

Snowball Fight Team Deathmatch has two teams of five competing to reach 50 kills. Agents will be repeatedly respawned so players are free to jump into the action again and again. 

Every player starts with a snowball launcher. According to Riot’s patch notes, Killjoy rigged Brimstone’s Molotov launcher to create this special weapon. Developers state that players should “make sure to lead that shot” because the infinite snowballs are projectiles, not hitscan weapons. 

Snowball Fight Team Deathmatch features power-ups and special abilities

Snowball Fight Team Deathmatch also has power-ups, which appear as gifts that spawn around the map. Sometimes a portal will even appear, raining down gifts. Each gift must be shot to reveal the power-up inside. Players can only have one of each power-up at a time. Dead agents will drop the power-up so another agent can grab them.

So what are these power-ups? 

Comms associate Jeff Landa outlined the five gifts that agents can snag. Rapid Fire allows agents to fire unlimited snowballs even quicker. Growball makes snowballs grow even larger as they travel through the air. Richochet allows snowballs to bounce off the ground and walls, allowing for tricky angles. Skates make agents jump higher and move faster. 

Snowball Fight Team Deathmatch will take place on Icebox during the first week. The map will be updated to look more festive for the holidays. Week 2 will see Snowball Fight made available on every map. 

Every time Valorant players take part in a Snowball Fight Team Deathmatch game, they’ll receive 750 XP. There’s an extra 150 bonus XP for players who win.