Riot Games released Patch 4.03 for VALORANT earlier this week, and it has since been discovered that the update had a negative impact on the game's deathmatch mode. To address these unexpected changes, the developers announced today that the number of players in each lobby will be reduced. Deathmatch changes in Patch 4.03 included removing and changing "dangerous" spawn locations, "improving spawn logic" to spawn players further away from the site of their death, and halving spawn times. These changes resulted in other issues for players, such as spawning directly in front of other players. Riot will reduce the number of players in Deathmatch from 14 to 12 in an attempt to alleviate these issues.

https://twitter.com/PlayVALORANT/status/1494469412379717632?t=-IAVTUlvsw0nEBkzfP72bg&s=19

Deathmatch and Brimstone's ultimate ability were profoundly impacted in VALORANT Patch 4.03. The new patch fixed a few bugs, improve AFK detection to prevent players from farming XP through exploits, and add a new option for returning to the strongest weapon in your inventory. Patch 4.03 contains several updates for Brimstone's ultimate. Brimstone's ultimate ability now "properly blocks gameplay visibility while active," and players can't see enemies on the mini-map while using it. Flashes and the recon pulses from Sova's Recon Bolt, which require a line of sight, no longer work through the ultimate.

This modification is expected to be temporary, and it should only be in effect while the issues are investigated further. A fix will most likely be included in a future update to make things run more smoothly for players, but there is no timetable for when this will happen. For the time being, players can continue to play VALORANT deathmatch as usual, albeit with a few fewer players in each match—and, hopefully, fewer rough spawns.