The passionate Valorant community in Africa is imploring Riot Games to address the long-standing issue of high ping stemming from the absence of dedicated servers in the region. As players from various corners unite in the popular first-person shooter, African gamers continue to grapple with connectivity challenges, limiting their gameplay experience.
A recent Reddit thread, initiated by a concerned South African Valorant player under the username ‘Diligent-Sand-583’, reignited the call for Riot Games to prioritize African servers. Unlike many regions that benefit from dedicated servers, African players currently rely on connections to distant European and Middle Eastern servers, such as Bahrain, Istanbul, and Madrid, resulting in average pings of 160 milliseconds.
This considerable latency hampers gameplay fluidity and poses performance issues, leading to laggy gameplay and inaccurate shots. In patch 6.02, Riot implemented a maximum server rewind of 140 milliseconds, exacerbating the concerns for players experiencing pings above this threshold.
Despite a growing global player base and rising interest in competitive esports, Africa has remained underserved by major game publishers, including Riot Games [1]. Valorant’s tremendous popularity and success in multiple regions should not come at the expense of excluding a significant player demographic in Africa.
The situation echoes the long-standing pleas from League of Legends players in the continent who have been seeking African servers for years. A dedicated online petition initiated by African LoL players underscores the collective demand for an enhanced gaming experience with lower pings.
Unfortunately, Riot Games has not established regional servers, leaving African players to connect to Middle Eastern servers as the closest option.
Account region locking further exacerbates the issue, as one of the servers offering lower pings, Mumbai, is inaccessible without players abandoning their accounts and resorting to VPNs to create an Asia Pacific account for access.
With Riot’s Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) showcasing top-performing teams from diverse regions, the absence of African servers limits the region’s full potential to compete on equal footing.
In response to the outcry, African players are urging Riot Games to heed their call and implement dedicated African servers for Valorant and League of Legends. By establishing local infrastructure, Riot Games can ensure that African gamers enjoy a seamless and immersive gaming experience, fostering a thriving gaming community in the region.
As players continue to rally for African servers, their hope remains that Riot Games will recognize their enthusiasm and dedication to their games, ultimately ushering in an era of inclusivity and global unity in gaming.
