Valorant
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Valorant becomes fourth most-watched game, category on Twitch
Fariha Bhatti
Riot Games’ first-person shooter Valorant has become the fourth most-watched category on Twitch for the first time, surpassing major esports title like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Fortnite, and more. Valorant was initially badgered for being a copy of CSGO, but tons of players flocked to Riot’s shooter, making it the hot FPS game in 2021. Following a successful first anniversary, new data has revealed that Valorant is climbing charts …
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How you can use Phoenix’s molotov on all maps without lineups
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant’s most underrated duelist Pheonix is not just a self-sufficient entry, but he’s instrumental in post-plant situations, a new find proves. Twitch streamer AverageJonas has uncovered a secret Pheonix trick that can be game-changing. The fiery duelist’s molotov is one of the most impactful post-plant utility in Valorant if used correctly. Here’s my new Phoenix minimap trick to molly anywhere consistently without knowing lineups ???????? Tag a friend who needs …
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Leak shows price increase for Judge, other guns get cheaper
Fariha Bhatti
A few weapons in Valorant have always been a thorn in the players’ sides since the game’s release. A recent leak suggests that one of the most irritating weapons, the Judge, has finally landed on the developer’s nerf radar. ValorLeaks is a reputable source for Valorant updates, and the data miner has recently dropped a massive leak regarding weapon prices. According to them, many guns in Valorant will become much …
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Valorant 2.11 patch notes addresses ongoing frame rate drop issue
Olivia Richman
After a month without updates surrounding the VCT Masters Rejkyavik event, Valorant got a small but impactful patch that focused on improving the game’s performance. Valorant patch 2.11, and yes 2.10 was skipped, doesn’t have any major balance changes to weapons or agents. Instead, it focuses on bug fixes and frame rate improvements. Riot Games developers noted that there won’t be any “fireworks” this time around. This patch is basically …
Valorant new skin bundle teased with unique animations, melee
Fariha Bhatti
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Riot Games has teased a brand new skin bundle coming to Valorant in an upcoming patch update. After a surprise opening of Valorant’s Night. Market, the developer has dropped a teaser for brand new skin bundle Origin, set to release in the game’s coming patches. Content art lead Sean Marino and senior producer Preeti Khanolkar released video clips of the bundle’s weapons during an interview with DiegoteTV on YouTube. Each …
Shroud explains why pro teams should get Valorant skins, not streamers
Fariha Bhatti
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Streamers like Imane “Pokimane” Anys have requested their custom skins in Valorant but Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek doesn’t think it’s a good idea. This former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player is now one of the most prominent names in the Valorant community but he still doesn’t think his custom skin should be added to the game. Instead, he’d like Riot Games to deliver esports in-game cosmetics. Riot Games has actively been rolling …
Valorant player with Parkinson’s Disease hits Immortal rank
Fariha Bhatti
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While some players have trouble ranking up in Valorant after killing hours in the shooting range, this player with Parkinson’s disease has reached Immortal with his unique gameplay. Ranking up in Valorant is no easy feat. Tons of players have complained about how ranked games can be more challenging than a professional tournament. However, Mr Toes is manifesting the ranked matches with his incredible gameplay despite a severe illness. Mr Toes, …
sinatraa’s spot at Sentinels in question after profile removed
Olivia Richman
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Jay “sinatraa” Won has been removed from Sentinels’ Valorant page after receiving an extended suspension from competitive play. sinatraa’s ex-girlfriend Cleo accused the former Overwatch League MVP of sexually and emotionally abusing her. These accusations led to an internal investigation by the Sentinels organization. During this time, the popular player was benched. In mid-May, sinatraa received a six-month ban from Valorant developer Riot Games for refusing to cooperate with its …
All the correct call-outs for newest Valorant map Breeze
Fariha Bhatti
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Breeze has finally entered the competitive map pool for Valorant, so you may want to get your callouts right. This Valorant map is now available to play in ranked games and will be part of the competitive map pool in professional tournaments. The map is relatively new, so it’s okay if you haven’t learned every corner by heart. We have a perfect Breeze callout guide that will help you perform better …
sinatraa breaks into tears after Twitch chat lashes at ShahZaM
Fariha Bhatti
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Jay “sinatraa” Won has returned to Twitch with his Valorant live streams, but some viewers aren’t happy about it. During a recent Valorant stream, the professional player and streamer was flamed by fans and viewers for queuing up with his former Sentinels teammate, Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan. The streamer then broke down in tears on stream due to the response. sinatraa took a hiatus from streaming after being accused of sexual abuse …
Valorant celebrates 1st birthday with bundles, free items
Fariha Bhatti
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Valorant’s first birthday event has tons of gifts for players. Riot Games’ shooter hit its first anniversary on June 2 and the developer is going all-out to commemorate the occasion. As part of the birthday event, players can enjoy various perks, including an event pass, squad boost, and a “Give Back” bundle. Valorant’s beta began one year ago and since then, the game has been on the rise. According to …
Valorant Mobile officially announced by Riot Games
Fariha Bhatti
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On the tactical shooter’s first birthday, Riot Games has officially confirmed reports of Valorant mobile. Riot’s tactical became available to play on June 2, 2020. The game has been out for one year and is booming among the fans of FPS games, but the developer is now also targetting mobile users, Valorant executive producer Anna Donlon announced. The executive producer explained that a well-optimized game is their top priority, which …
Sentinels spends over $1 million to lock up TenZ from Cloud9
Fariha Bhatti
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Tyson “TenZ” Ngo is officially a member of Sentinels’ Valorant roster. One of Valorant’s most gifted players finally has his contractual situation sorted out after months on Cloud9’s bench and a highly successful run as a stand-in for Sentinels. The organizations have reportedly come to terms on a deal that will see TenZ move to Sentinels officially. Following reports, both Sentinels and Cloud9 confirmed that TenZ was being sent to …
Official Valorant tournaments set to come to India, South Asia
Fariha Bhatti
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Riot Games has partnered up with South Asian esports company Nodwin Gaming to add India and South Asia to the list of regions that will compete in the Valorant Champions Tour Grand Finals. An official pathway to Valorant Champions Tour has been announced for India and South Asia, with the circuit being dubbed as the Valorant Conquerors Championship. The events will provide South Asian teams a chance to battle it …
New Duality teaser tells lore about Valorant agents in alternate universe
Fariha Bhatti
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Players have seen various fan-made Valorant lore. Riot Games has finally dropped an official teaser with deeper insight into the lives of Valorant agents. During the Valorant Champions Tour Grand Finals between Fnatic and Sentinels, Riot Games dropped a clip that gave a peek inside the agents’ lives. The four-minute-long teaser set a base for Valorant lore that players have always been passionate to know more about. Unlike other first-person …
Viper emerges as highest picked smoker at VCT Masters 2
Fariha Bhatti
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Valorant Champions Tour Stage 2: Masters Reykjavik has finally culminated. The agent picks reveal that the game meta at the professional level has changed significantly in the past few months. The developer has made some major tweaks to the Valorant roster in the latest patches, and these changes have heavily impacted the meta at a higher level. Professional players at the Stage 2 Masters event heavily inclined on Smokers and …
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.
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