The PBE (Public Beta Environment) of League of Legends is a place where players can test out early builds and upcoming patches before they even go live. VALORANT is getting the same thing, starting July 9.
A limited number of players from the North American region will be able to test out upcoming changes and help Riot Games balancing it. The PBE is also there to (hopefully) prevent big bugs coming to the live servers when new updates get pushed.
VALORANT normally gets patched every two weeks, where balancing agents and guns is the main goal of those patches. The main reason for a PBE to exist is to identify bugs and not to discuss whether or not certain changes are welcome, according to Riot Games. The changes that will be tested on the PBE are ready to go live, but just need a final check-up.
While the League of Legends PBE is open 24/7, the VALORANT PBE won’t be. It will be opened selectively by Riot Games, every weekend before each new patch, which will be two weeekends prior to the normal Tuesday date.
How to sign up?
If you want to be a part of the VALORANT PBE, you can simply apply to join via the sign up page. For now you can only sign up with a North American account, but in the future more regions will likely get access. If you have any bans or restrictions on your account, your apply will be denied.
Even if your account is in the right region, active enough and ‘clean’ from any suspensions, there is still a possibility you won’t get access. The VALORANT PBE has a limited amount of spots, so you might want to try again later.