Valorant
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All Valorant agents have different heights, who’s the tallest?
Fariha Bhatti
Have you ever wondered who the tallest agent in Valorant is? A recent revelation by a Valorant developer may have some answers. All 15 Valorant agents have distinct abilities that set them apart from one another. However, they are all the same in height, in the virtual Valorant universe at least. A Valorant creative director recently revealed that all agents are equally tall for “gameplay” reasons, but their sizes vary …
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This Valorant player created a Prime 2.0 knife out of cardboard
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant skins can be a little heavy on the wallet when purchased in-game, so one player has decided created his own real-life Prime 2.0 knife as an alternative. A Valorant player has utilized cheap crafting materials to create the expensive and luxurious Prime 2.0 knife. The artist used rough card paper, some pencils, and a pen refill to create a sleek looking melee weapon from Valorant. YouTuber The Bored Guy …
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VCT Masters 2 Europe vs North America stream draws 700K viewers
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant Champions Tour’s most anticipated clash between Europe and the North American region managed to top around 75,000 viewers. Thousands of fans tuned in to watch tournament favorite Team Liquid go up against the dark horses of North America Version1. The overall Valorant category recorded a peak of almost 75,000 viewers during the first showdown between EU and NA, according to Esports Charts. The first LAN event of Valorant since …
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New Valorant bug allows Cypher to stick his camera on Skye’s Flash
Fariha Bhatti
Agent ability combinations in Valorant are nothing new but this Skye and Cypher combo will blow your mind. Valorant is a unique shooter game that relies on team coordination a bit more than other games. Each player is provided with a different ability that may come in handy for the team when required. Sometimes, pairing two powers together can turn the game around. For example, slowing down enemies with Sage’s …
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Valorant will rotate game modes after Replication ends
Fariha Bhatti
Replication mode is finally approaching its end but the developer has a new exciting update already planned out. Valorant’s brand new game mode Replication will complete its run on May 25th, but it’s not going away forever. Replication will return as a result of the new Valorant update that’ll keep bringing past game modes back into the game. “After Replication comes down, we’re going to transition to a new approach …
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Valorant player performs Dude Perfect tricks on Ascent trash cans
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant’s very own Dude Perfect has broken the internet with his impressive trash can trick shots. Aim is of the utmost importance in any first-person shooter game. The same goes for Riot’s tactical shooter, where climbing ranks without crisp aim is a tall order. This Valorant player has incredible accuracy, but not with his rifles. SamQ is just another Valorant player who occasionally shares his gameplay on YouTube, but …
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All you need to know about VCT Masters Reykjavik Iceland
Fariha Bhatti
After months of hard-charged competitions, the moment of truth is finally around the corner. Valorant Champions Tour Stage 2 Masters is just four days away and we have all the details in one place. This is a significant event for many reasons. Not only it is the first event LAN event for Valorant ever, but this platform will pit the best teams of the world from all regions directly against …
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sinatraa is streaming again, wants to return to pro Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
Jay “sinatraa” Won has already revealed his future plans soon after receiving a six-month suspension from Riot Games. Riot Games’ unexpected announcement that forbids sinatraa from pro Valorant play has just dropped, but the former Sentinels player is already back on Twitch. The 21-year-old is also eager to return to pro play after serving the suspension period. In the official verdict, Riot clarified that the punishment comes from sinatraa’s lack …
Agent 16 leaks point to Grenadier as Valorant’s next new agent
Fariha Bhatti
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As the latest addition to the Valorant agent roster, Astra is still finding her footing in the loaded squad of duelists. While players are still adjusting to her kit, Riot Games may be gearing up to deliver a whole new character. Valorant’s new agent may have grenades similar to Raze’s paint shells, new leaks suggest. Reliable leaker and data miner Mike revealed a potential name for the upcoming Valorant agent. …
Here’s how Valorant agents would look as McDonald’s employees
Fariha Bhatti
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Have you ever wondered what Viper’s job would be if she weren’t a fierce Valorant controller? A fan has an idea. Twitter user McValorant’s new art is going viral among the fans of Riot’s shooter for all the right reasons. The creative player has turned the sparking Valorant agents into McDonald’s employees. #jett #valorant #VALORANT #VALORANTChallengers #ValorantArt #McDonalds #riot #RiotGames #RIOT pic.twitter.com/ZlSCeJrKt0 — McValorant (@McValorant) April 26, 2021 Players have …
Dafran has some harsh words for sinatraa’s Valorant suspension
Olivia Richman
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Ever since Jay “sinatraa” Won was first benched by Sentinels following sexual abuse allegations made by his former girlfriend, Daniel “Dafran” Francesca has been a hardcore supporter of his fellow Valorant player. But now it seems that Dafran has gone a bit too far for the majority of the esports community. sinatraa was suspended from competitive Valorant by Riot in March when his ex-girlfriend, Cleo, came forward with some serious …
Shroud slams “garbage” ranked Valorant, dev confirm five stack queues
Fariha Bhatti
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A Valorant developer recently brought positive news to high-ranked Valorant players like Michael “shroud” Grzesiek who are sick of “trash” ranked experiences. First-person shooter games are highly centered on aim and team play. Your odds of winning drastically drop if your team coordination isn’t up to par. A good aim can get you as many as 30 kills, but bagging round wins becomes a tall order without support. For all …
Sinatraa responds to Riot Games’ 6-month suspension
Nina Forneloza
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Jay “sinatraa” Won has responded to the six-month suspension he was dealt by Riot Games. The suspension comes from an alleged refusal to cooperate with Riot Games’ investigation into sexual misconduct involving an ex-girlfriend. The former Overwatch League MVP and current Sentinels player took to social media to discuss the situation and seemingly accepted the suspension. Response regarding investigationRead: https://t.co/lqXRX47qoo — Jay Won (@sinatraa) May 17, 2021 sinatraa claims that …
sinatraa banned from competitive Valorant for 6 months
Olivia Richman
News
Update: sinatraa has issued a response to Riot Games’ suspension. Details can be found here. Jay “sinatraa” Won has been suspended from competitive Valorant for six months. It’s been a couple months since sinatraa was initially suspended following abuse allegations from his ex-girlfriend, Cleo. sinatraa was benched from Sentinels and barred from official Valorant tournaments until the investigation into the claims was complete. Cleo claimed she had been subjected to …
Here’s how to jump over Sage walls without any abilities
Fariha Bhatti
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Playing against Sage mains on a map like the Icebox or Split can be vexing, but a new trick shows a great counter to one of her key abilities. Sage’s abilities shine the most on smaller maps where her walls can block off an entire site entrance. Slow Orb makes space for teammates to get easy kills in tight corners, making Sage a valuable asset on locations like Split and …
Is Valorant coming to consoles soon? Here’s what we know
Steven Rondina
News
Riot Games is aggressively expanding into mobile gaming, but console gamers are still without any official word about a console release for Valorant. Developers have been finding ways to make auto battlers and MOBAs work on a controller, with games like Auto Chess already out on PlayStation 4 and League of Legends: Wild Rift currently in the work for Nintendo Switch. Numerous hero shooters have already been successfully ported to …
ScreaM rage quits deathmatch, hates on Valorant DM
Fariha Bhatti
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Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom is the new player to complain about the Valorant deathmatch being bad. Crisp aim is the bedrock of any first-person shooter game. In Valorant, you can master your agent abilities to perfection, but you can’t ladder up unless you have good aim. For this purpose, the tactical shooter has a deathmatch mode specifically for players looking to hone up their shooting. However, most players aren’t happy with …
Should Valorant allow players to queue for specific maps?
Steven Rondina
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One of the most sought-after features in Valorant is an update to the matchmaking system that allows players to choose which map they will play on. But will Riot ever add this option to the game? For converts from other team-based shooters like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2, this seems like it should be fairly obvious as these games have always allowed players the ability to queue for …
New Valorant skin bundles Minima and Tethered Realms revealed
Fariha Bhatti
News
Valorant has new skins coming soon if you’re already feeling bored with Silvanus and Forsaken. It’s not a Valorant patch update without a new skin bundle. Patch 2.09 is here, and apart from significant game tweaks, it delivers two new skin bundles. Minima and Tethered Realms are reported to be the latest weapon cosmetics coming to the Valorant store. Riot Games has added dozens of visually pleasant and fierce skins …
Valorant patch 2.09 adds a new game mode Replication, nerfs Viper
Fariha Bhatti
News
Replication mode arrives in patch 2.09 and it’s basically a horror version of Valorant. Patch 2.09 is upon us, bringing significant updates to the game. Heavily buffed Viper gets balancing touches to her kit, new game mode enters Valorant, and Breeze gets tweaked in the latest patch update. Viper spent almost a year being the least played agent in Valorant, as other controllers overshadowed her toxic kit. After numerous random …
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.
