ScreaM wants shooting, skills to be more important in Valorant

Team Liquid’s ace Valorant player, Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, is known for his incredible accuracy and mind-blowing headshots and he wants those skills to translate better to Valorant.

In a tweet on Monday, ScreaM expressed that he wanted Valorant’s shooting mechanics to matter a bit more. Instead, the game’s “slow movements, tagging, and aim punch” have made the game “easy for everyone.” ScreaM wrote that he hoped the next few patches would balance the game in this way. 

“With a few changes, this game could be perfect, honestly, and way more skilled,” ScreaM noted. 

Since the closed beta, Valorant has been considered a lot easier than CSGO. That’s mostly due to Valorant’s simplicity, according to Mike “shroud” Grzesiek. The CSGO veteran said that Valorant’s maps are a lot more simple, making gameplay easier to understand. CSGO isn’t at all flashy, meaning it’s all about accuracy and mechanics and there aren’t ways to cheese or finesse a way to success. 

Valorant also has the addition of abilities. While this creates new strategies and communication challenges, sometimes it feels as though players can rely on these abilities instead of raw skill like they would have to in CSGO. Streamer Felix “xQc” Lengyel once said that CSGO veterans would have a hard time switching to Valorant because of the addition of abilities but instead, it seems like the abilities have made the game even easier to master. Players that know how to use an agent properly might not need to rely as heavily on sheer mechanical prowess. 

It makes sense why ScreaM would feel frustrated by this. He was a very popular and successful CSGO player before retiring to play Valorant in the summer of 2020. He moved his way around the top French and European squads in the CSGO scene, including G2 Esports and Team Envy. 

Team Liquid’s European Valorant run hasn’t been quite as successful for the headshot champion. The squad came in fifth at First Strike: EU, but ScreaM still has the look of a franchise player for Team Liquid.

Despite not being completely in love with Valorant, ScreaM has continued to prove his mechanical skills throughout the game’s short life as an esport. The 2021 Valorant Champions Tour started a few days ago. Team Liquid will be fighting for one of the four EU spots as they work their way out of the Challengers Series, but they have tough competition ahead in the form of G2 Esports, Team Heretics, and FunPlus Phoenix.