Widespread audio issues create phantom VALORANT agents in latest update

Riot Games quietly released a minor VALORANT patch last week that seems to have brought about major side effects for some players. In particular, affected users are hearing “phantom” agents and annoyingly random sound effects playing throughout matches.

Patch 7.06 was shipped on Sept. 19, adding new competitive queue restrictions, a new home screen animation featuring Gekko and his squishy friends, and some new Sage voice lines, according to the blog post from Riot. However, numerous players have since reported significant audio issues that are skewing the normal expectations for both agent voice lines and ability sound effects.