Overwatch fans are already feeling the pressure of Riot’s new FPS, Valorant.
Former Overwatch League pro Daniel “Dafran” Francesca recently banned a viewer when they wouldn’t stop bashing Valorant and demanding that he play Overwatch instead.
Dafran was playing Sova, an agent similar to Overwatch’s Hanzo. This was a smart pick for the Twitch streamer, who was known for his DPS skills on the Blizzard Arena stage. But instead of focusing on his skills, a two-year subscriber instead got frustrated he was even playing Valorant to begin with.
“Valorant will last less than 10 minutes. It’s shit,” he goaded.
The chat began to debate if Valorant is indeed overhype. Some viewers felt that Valorant would definitely be big, while others agreed with the subscriber that Valorant hype would fade pretty quickly. After a while, Dafran responded to the ongoing argument, telling theviewer it wasn’t the truth, but opinion.
“What you’re doing is like going to a party and everybody is having fun, and then you say, ‘This party fucking sucks,’” Dafran shot back.
He then told the subscriber that nobody wanted him there and he should “go back to Overwatch.”
“Dude, the people here are not watching for Overwatch. We don’t care about that. We care about this game. This game is fun. You’re in the wrong place my dude,” Dafran said.
Unfortunately, this rant didn’t stop the viewer from continuing to bash Valorant. Eventually, Dafran decided to ban him.
“I’m going to have to time you out. It’s going to be a Valorant stream for a long time. You can just unsub, I don’t care. I don’t want to see this talk in the chat. Go somewhere else, dude,” Dafran said.
In fact, Dafran went on to say that nothing would stop him from continuing to play the game, not even losing hundreds of viewers. The only thing that would make him stop playing Valorant is if he reached a plateu where he couldn’t improve as a player. He declared that if he “can’t become a good player” he’d quit. He also said he’d quit if the game died, but that’s not looking likely any time soon.
Overwatch fans are most likely distraught to see top players switch to Valorant because Riot’s CSGO-Overwatch hybrid has been continuously touted as an “Overwatch killer.” While both games have the added element of abilities, that’s about where the similarities end. Still, Overwatch League has seen a decline in views since switching to YouTube. This is most likely in part due to YouTube lacking the All Access Pass and the constant drops that Twitch offered to Overwatch League viewers. This decline in views could have fans on edge as Valorant continues to keep breaking viewership records.
