The next tournament in the VALORANT Ignition Series, the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational, kicks off in less than 24 hours, but a quick change to the rules of the tournament was made last minute. Killjoy, the new agent who joined the fray as part of VALORANT Act 2 on August 4, will be disabled for the tournament at the request of VALORANT developer Riot Games. 

FaZe Clan announced the disabling of Killjoy for its Ignition Series tournament via the FaZe Update Twitter account with the following explanation: "Due to the recency of Killjoy's release, there is a risk that multiple issues may negatively impact the competitive integrity of this weekend's tournament. As such, Riot Games has requested that she be disabled in official tournaments until they are confident in her stability."

In addition to being part of a larger game update in the former of Act II, Killjoy has less than 48 hours of existence on the live servers. Even if Killjoy was released with the perfect balancing and no bugs, a new agent in a relatively small pool to choose from would convolute the competition. 

Riot Games has been known to make these types of adjustments before big competitions, often disabling a new champion if released too close to the start of the post-season in League of Legends esports leagues around the world. The decision to disable Killjoy has been met with positive reception, with esports reporter Rod "Slasher" Breslau even taking a shot at Epic Games, the latter of whom is notorious for releasing major Fortnite updates just before competitive events.

The disabling of Killjoy is understandably disappointing to those hungry for a first look to see VALORANT's new agent played in a competitive event, but players and teams simply have not had the time to familiarize themselves with Killjoy on a competitive level. Riot Games' decision is the right one for both the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational and the competitive integrity of the developing VALORANT esports scene. 

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