Joe Ziegler, who was part of the Valorant team for eight years and served as game director, has left his role to work on a new, secret project at Riot Games.
Ziegler shared the announcement on Valorant’s website, saying that, “it is with a heart full of gratitude and a deep excitement that I come to you today with news.”
“After 8 years of working on VALORANT, building it from the ground up with a team of dedicated and passionate developers who’ve worked tirelessly to serve you all with the respect and admiration that you deserve, I am giving up the mantle of game director of the VALORANT tac-shooter to my good friend, Andy Ho,” Ziegler said.
Ho had the position of Senior Director, Game Direction since June 2017 and Ziegler promises that this transition will keep Valorant in great hands.
“Andy is someone who I am proud to say has put many years of his own into VALORANT, and whose personal dedication to deliver to the highest standards inspires all who work with him,” Ziegler said. “He has my full faith and trust that he will continue to grow and evolve VALORANT year-over-year to become even better than what I could imagine it to be.
He then gave a bit of a tease as to what he will be working on next – a new, secret project at Riot Games.
“As for me, I’ll be starting something new (*wink, secrets…) in the hopes that we can even scratch the surface of the amazing impact VALORANT has already had so far,” Ziegler said.
We already know Riot Games is working on a fighting game called Project L, a League of Legends MMO, and a mysterious LoL social game called Project F. Ziegler’s words could be taken as he is working on a new project, but it also could be related to one of these already announced ones.
While he may be leaving the Valorant team, he won’t be far away and will always support the game he helped create.
“That said, I’ll not be far from the game and the team and they’ll always have my support,” Ziegler concluded.” Thank you to everyone who has supported and continues to support VALORANT, and a special shout out to all who’ve supported me and my work. You’ve made my time as your game director a truly joyous and memorable experience. Much <3.”
For more on Valorant, which was one of Twitch’s most-watched games in 2021, be sure to check out seven Valorant Champions moments we think are neat, how Sentinels imploded at Valorant champions, and Riot devs reacting to unreal Valorant kills and fails.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.