VALORANT patch notes 12.03: Gekko buff, Masters Santiago Pick’Ems, and more

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VALORANT update 12.03 launches with the start of the first international tournament of the season, and brings back the popular Pick’Em challenges.

The first big VALORANT tournament of the season is almost here, and you can now start predicting the outcomes! Update 12.03 includes the Masters Santiago Pick’Ems, letting you make those predictions, and also includes some minor improvements to the agent Gekko, plus other changes.

Agent updates

VALORANT’s next update, patch 12.03, will focus entirely on Gekko. Riot Games has noticed Gekko hasn’t been as effective as other Initiators since patch 11.08, and this update is designed to address that. The changes will make his abilities work more consistently, allow him to retrieve his Globules more easily, and give him a small power boost overall.

  • Globules: Reclaim timer increased from 15 to 20 seconds
  • Mosh Pit: Is now reclaimable

Some voice lines were also added to Viper, including conversations with Omen and Vyse.

General and competitive updates

VALORANT’s latest update, patch 12.03, improves how sound travels in the game. Sounds will now be affected when doors open, close, or are broken. The replay system also gets an update, letting you skip watching the perspectives of players who have been eliminated.

To keep accounts secure in competitive play, anyone sharing an account and all players ranked Ascendant or higher in the APAC region will need to turn on Riot Mobile multi-factor authentication (MFA). This change doesn’t affect other players.

Masters Santiago Pick’Ems

Pick’Ems are returning for the Masters Santiago tournament! You can start making your predictions in the game or on the website starting February 19th. During the Swiss Stage, your main goal is to correctly identify the four teams that will move forward. You can earn even more points by also predicting which team will win all their matches in a perfect 2–0 sweep.

Simply by taking part, you’ll earn the “Cachando Todo” title. Additional prizes will be awarded based on where you rank overall.

  • ¡Rico, Po! Buddy – Top 50% players
  • Pick’Ems Masters: ¡Rico, Po! Buddy – Top 20% players
  • Perfect Title – Perfect bracket

You can now find Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) player statistics on the Esports Hub Teams page. Check it out to see how your performance stacks up!

VALORANT patch notes 12.03: New game mode

A new 2v2 mode called Skirmish is coming to VALORANT for a limited time! This mode features smaller maps and removes all agent abilities, focusing purely on gun skill. It’s all about testing your aim and mechanical skill with a teammate. Check out the details below to learn more.

  • 2v2 Matchmaking Queue (Solo queue or bring a partner)
  • First to 10 rounds wins
  • Full weapon selection each round (no economy)
  • Abilities disabled
  • No agent select–hop in and go next fast
  • Skirmish A, Skirmish B, and Skirmish C are the available maps
  • The map is randomly selected for each match

I’m really excited about the latest changes to All Random One Site! Riot has added weapons to a bunch of the maps, which should make things way more interesting. They’ve also given some of the less-used weapons a boost, so hopefully we’ll see more variety in picks. Plus, they finally fixed that crazy bug with Vyse being able to spam Razorvines during the buy phase – that was getting out of hand!

Known issues

There are two big issues that Riot Games will be working to solve in the upcoming patches.

  • Battlepass
    • Hitting ESC will cause the Battlepass elements to disappear/reappear instead of taking you back a page. This will be resolved in patch 12.04.
    • The scroll wheel currently will not work when navigating between the tiers on the battle pass or event pass. This will be fixed soon.
  • Store
    • The background for the accessories store is currently missing. This will be resolved in patch 12.04.
    • The Reaver Bandit is showing up incorrectly as a limited edition item. This is not a limited edition and will be resolved in patch 12.04.

PC only updates

We’ve refreshed the look of the event and battle passes, updating the layout and buttons. You can now move through the tiers using either your mouse or the arrow keys on your keyboard. For full details, check the official Riot Games patch notes.

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2026-02-17 17:12