Valorant Game Director Joe Ziegler is leaving Riot’s tactical shooter

It’s hard to remember a time when Valorant wasn’t a constant feature in my gaming repertoire. But Riot Games’ first-person tactical shooter has only been out for a year and a half. Since then, it’s only gotten better by releasing new agents, new maps, and ensuring the competitive integrity of the game has never wavered. All of this has been done under the watchful eye of Game Director Joe Ziegler, who has just announced he is leaving Valorant.

Although the hero-based shooter has been with us for just a year and a half, it has been part of Ziegler’s life for eight years. That’s a substantial chunk of time in anyone’s career, and understandably, he might be looking for new challenges.

Passing the mantle

Ziegler, along with the team of developers, built Valorant from the ground up. One of those developers was Andy Ho. In his announcement, Ziegler revealed that the mantle of Game Director will pass to Ho. Ho was previously the Senior Director for Game Direction, and Ziegler had high praise for Ho in his letter to Valorant fans. He assured players that the new Game Director will “continue to grow and evolve Valorant” beyond what even Zeigler himself could imagine.

Ziegler then revealed his next move after leaving Valorant. Well, he hinted at it. He will be starting something new, and it seems like that “something new” will still be within Riot Games. He wraps up his announcement by saying that he won’t be far from Valorant.

I mean, his Twitter handle has the word “Riot” in it. So, he clearly loves the studio. Maybe he’s moving over to the League of Legends MMORPG. He could also be working on another spinoff from the League of Legends universe, like Ruined King. If you want to keep track of his movements after he leaves Valorant, you can follow Joe Ziegler on Twitter.