Valorant
Valorant
Valorant still doesn’t have a timeout feature for ranked games
Fariha Bhatti
Two years after the game’s release, Valorant still doesn’t have tactical timeouts for ranked games, and it’s a problem. Valorant was released in June 2020 as a heavily competitive first-person shooter. While it successfully dethroned plenty of strong contenders, Valorant still lacks crucial features available in rival titles. From a replay system to timeouts, a lot is missing that would improve the player experience. Patch 2.09 made it a tad …
Valorant
Riot is testing a collection randomizer to better flex Valorant skins
Fariha Bhatti
Riot Games is toying with a skin randomizing feature in Valorant PBE that players have been continuously asking for. Valorant bundles are extravagant, unique, and expensive. It’s quite unfortunate that players pay big money for skin but are forced to put them on the proverbial shelf as soon as a new bundle arrives. But Riot may be working on a solution. Currently, Valorant doesn’t have a feature that lets players …
Counter-Strike
Was Riot Games behind Carlos’ resignation from G2 Esports?
Fariha Bhatti
The Carlos Ocelote-Andrew Tate debacle seemed to have concluded with his resignation at G2 CEO, but a report hints at Riot’s involvement in the big decision. The controversial public figure and former boxer Andrew Tate is clearly not welcomed on the internet. After being de-platformed from Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok, Andrew Tate’s presence was reduced to rare clips posted on unofficial accounts. In light of these events, Carlos’ celebratory video …
Valorant
New Valorant mobile leak suggests open beta is close
Fariha Bhatti
Fresh Valorant mobile leaks suggest that Riot Games’ handheld FPS is currently being tested privately. With Valorant, Riot Games plans to follow in the footsteps of Overwatch, PUBG, Apex Mobile, and more with a mobile version of its tactical shooter. The developer announced a handheld version of its blockbuster FPS title Valorant, but no one knows the release date. According to Riot executive Anna Donlon, the game should be good …
Valorant
Stinger gets big accuracy buffs in Valorant patch 5.06
Fariha Bhatti
The Stinger is set to return to the Valorant meta after the recent 5.06 patch buffs. SMGs in Valorant were generally considered too powerful due to the low price and high stopping power. In patch 4.07, Riot nerfed the Stinger, changing the game meta. Players had long complained about the Stinger being OP relative to its small price tag. The SMG could wipe out multiple enemies in one spray at …
Valorant
Here are all the Pearl map changes in Valorant patch 5.06
Fariha Bhatti
The latest Valorant map, Pearl, is going under the knife after three months in the competitive pool. In Valorant Episode 5, Riot yanked Split out of the pool in favor of the underwater utopia Pearl. The small city locked under waves was an instant hit among the fans for its size, aesthetic, and competitive layout. However, some may think Pearl had many unnecessary frills and Riot Games has now removed …
Valorant
Valorant drops teaser for “god-like” ChronoVoid skins bundle
Fariha Bhatti
Riot Games has unveiled a brand new skin bundle dubbed ChronoVoid, and it feels eerily familiar for dedicated players. Recent Valorant skins have been grand design-wise, but Riot Games deviated from the immersive themes. From XenoHunter to the Neptune collection, the skins lacked the soul that previous bundles like Reaver, Sovereign, and more had. However, Riot seems to be throwing it back to the good old beta days with ChronoVoid. …
Valorant
How to get the Running on Empty spray for free in Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
Riot Games has announced a brand spray, “Running on Empty,” for owners of an Twitch Prime or Prime Gaming account. Here’s how to claim the latest Valorant Prime Gaming loot. Extravagant Valorant skins aren’t affordable, but Riot Games’ regular free rewards let all players enjoy Valorant’s in-game cosmetics. These free items may not be as lavish as the pricy ones, but they certainly add some color to an inventory. Prime …
Champions 2022 skins generate $16 million for Valorant esports
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
The limited-edition Valorant Champions 2022 bundle was a massive hit, yielding around $32 million. In August, Riot unveiled a much-awaited Champions 2022 bundle, themed after this year’s Valorant World Championship. The two-set skins were elite, encrusted with crystals that shine brighter for every five kills. The bundle which costs 6,167 Valorant Points will only appear in the market once, prompting more players to buy it before it leaves on September 22. There …
Valorant fan mods nighttime Bind and it’s amazing to look at
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Set somewhere in Morocco, Bind is an iconic map in Valorant that doesn’t need any more tweaking, but players can’t help but wonder how it’d look like in a different light. Bind was one of the original locations in the Project: A map pool. The dusty arena introduced teleporters to the player base, a shortcut to rotate. The magical portal makes up for the lack of a middle area in …
How to get the Rolex crosshair in Valorant to bling up games
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Consistent crosshair styles contribute a lot to accuracy, but it’s nice to have some change every once in a while. Fortunately, Valorant settings afford players tons of freedom with their crosshairs. Players prefer a plain plus-shaped crosshair at a higher ELO with slight variations in length, offset, and colors. However, staring at the same old cross every time can become tedious. To solve this problem, players have come up with …
Everything known about Valorant agent 21 Mage so far
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant Episode 5 Act 3 is a month away and excitement regarding agent 21 has reached a fever pitch. Here’s everything known about Mage’s abilities, release date, origin, and more. Nothing compares to the build-up towards a new agent release in Valorant. With leaks coming in from left and right, it’s tricky to differentiate between what’s real and what’s not. Similar to Chamber and then Fade, a string of rumors …
The complete guide to playing Valorant war machine Kay/O
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant war machine Kay/O is unlike any other agent. All Valorant initiators are armed with powers that gather information in some sort of way. However, few can use this data to disarm opponents. Kay/O was rolled out as an antidote to Valorant’s over-the-top abilities, bringing a dagger that forces players to switch to guns. Some went ahead and labeled him as the savior of Valorant ranked matchmaking, which focused on …
Killjoy Turret bug forces restart at VCT, what exactly happened?
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
A back-and-forth row between FPX and XSET at Valorant Champions Valorant Champions 2022 playoffs led to a long stretch of overtime all thanks to a Killjoy Turret bug. Day 13 of VCT 2022 saw the defending champions of VCT Copenhagen 2022 go up against North America’s XSET in a close game, with the former clutching a victory in 2-1 fashion. However, an odd bug in the final round of the …
Riot reveals more nerfs are coming for Chamber in Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Riot Games revealed that Chamber is still facing some rebalancing, and the overpowered initiator is in line for more nerfs to his toolkit. Few new characters in Valorant had the immediate impact Chamber did. The agent’s pick rate took off within weeks of his release, making him the centerpiece of most gaming-winning compositions. Players sent a litany of complaints to Riot regarding Chamber’s strength and the developer responded. His toolkit got hit …
Upcoming Indian Valorant agent teased with samosa chaat
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Riot Games has confirmed details regarding the character and role of the upcoming Valorant agent codenamed Mage. Agent 21 will be an Indian controller who seemingly likes samosas with a hot cup of tea. All Valorant controllers in the current meta are unique. No smoker is versatile enough to shine on all maps, especially large ones. While Brimstone is equipped with massive globes of smokes, his mini-map tools limit him. …
Here’s how to find the secret Parkour course in Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant’s range is not just meant for polishing aim, a secret Parkour course within the map helps hone in-game movement. Movement is a big part of Valorant. Agents like Jett, Neon, Raze, and more are incomplete without impeccable mobility tricks. However, there’s no simple way to practice them. Players often look toward custom games to polish their mobility kits, but few know about a secret challenge Riot Games has added …
We now know when the Valorant Night Market will return
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Night Market is returning to Valorant, bringing premium skins at a steep disount. Valorant has pricy in-game cosmetics that can cost hundreds for a full arsenal. The expensive guns aren’t affordable for all players. Still, skin collectors make a point of buying extravagant weapons. In 2020, Riot introduced a way for all players to enjoy cosmetics through the Night Market. The digital pop-up store brings skins at a cut price …
This game-breaking Viper bug on Icebox requires a hot fix
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Viper is once again breaking the meta on Icebox with a Toxic Screen that tricks enemies into her crosshair. Icebox is Viper’s home turf. No other controller in Valorant handles the icy tundra as well as Viper, thanks to her site-splitting Toxic Screen. Her smokes do a great job at keeping bomb sites secure on defense and make them tough to hold while she’s on offense. Simply put, Viper doesn’t …
Complete guide to playing Sova, the best initiator in Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
There are plenty of viable initiators in Valorant, but Sova stands above all with his deadly toolkit. Valorant has five initiators dedicated to garnering intel and tenderizing enemies. However, not all of them are equally useful across all maps. Most agents do better on certain maps, but Sova has earned his stripes on every map in the game so far. His darts, arrows, and drone work wonders on almost all …
Riot Games has long looked to expand its footprint beyond the success of popular MOBA League of Legends, and one of its biggest successes to date in this regard is the tactical shooter, Valorant. Blending traditional first-person shooter elements with unique and flashy hero abilities, Valorant seeks to combine the best attributes of tactical shooters and hero shooters into one cohesive experience.
Based on player feedback, the game has largely succeeded in accomplishing those aims. It’s not an easy balance, and it’s one that is arguably still tenuous, but Riot Games seems to be doing as good a job of it as most fans have hoped for.
What type of game is Valorant?
Valorant is a first-person shooter that represents a unique blend of the tactical shooter and hero shooter subgenres. There are some games that represent similar gameplay elements, but not many that offer the exact experience that Valorant puts forward to players.
The tactical shooter genre is often considered to have been defined by the release of the original Counter-Strike, a multiplayer mod for famed single-player PC title Half-Life that later became a standalone game of its own. While most multiplayer FPS games to that point emphasized prolonged battles between opposing players zipping around the game at high speeds, Counter-Strike slowed things down significantly and made players much more susceptible to each other’s firepower, requiring players to take a more tactical approach to play.
That slower and more tactical approach, combined with the lightning-quick nature of action when it does occur, proved reliably popular. That popularity can still be seen today with the ongoing success enjoyed by the Counter-Strike franchise, and it’s this gameplay type that represents the core of Valorant. It’s no accident that former Counter-Strike developers were drafted by Riot Games to help create Valorant during the game’s formative stages.
What differentiates Valorant from CS and other tactical shooters it that each of the game’s characters, called agents, wield a number of unique abilities. Some are typical for tactical shooters, like flashbangs and smokes, while others are wildly different, such as an ability that transports two players to an isolated dueling arena for its duration.
These agent abilities are more reminiscent of hero shooters, a subgenre that arguably got its start with the Team Fortress games but has best been popularized by Blizzard title Overwatch. The abilities, combind with the tactical considerations that are at the core of Valorant, separate it from most any other FPS experience available for play.
How does Valorant esports work?
Like many other popular competitive shooters, Valorant does have a thriving esports scene. That scene is differentiated by the way it’s run and controlled by developer and publisher Riot Games. Riot uses a model based on the success of its League of Legends esports scene, which sees the globe’s competitive players and team’s separated by region. These regions play out their own competitions in their sections of the world before coming together at regular intervals for international tournaments featuring the best teams from each individual region.
While League of Legends once boasted a variety of regions and regional types, Riot sought to simplify that model when setting up esports for Valorant. The game has only a handful of major regions, and these regions are held as largely equitable, each sending their best teams to international events leading up to the year-end VALORANT Champions event.
