Valorant
Valorant
Valorant map Abyss drops the biggest hint about missing Agent 8
Fariha Bhatti
Riot is tight-lipped about the next Valorant agent, but it may have dropped a massive hint about Agent 8 in the latest map Abyss. Abyss was recently released as the 11th Valorant map. After a long while, Riot released a map that was completely unique from others, bringing a gimmick of its own. With death drop enabled and dicey jumps, Abyss is a complicated but fun location. But it has …
Valorant
New Valorant map Abyss introduces a CS2 map-style gimmick
Fariha Bhatti
Abyss has officially been revealed at Valorant Champions Tour 2024: Masters Shanghai as a map set in the Hourglass Kingdom. Here’s your first look. Abyss is Valorant’s 11th map, which will be entering the rotation in Episode 9. It was earlier leaked as Bastion, but now Riot has officially lifted the curtain on a brand new location that takes us into Hourglass organization’s territory. For those unaware, Hourglass was the …
Valorant
Will Valorant console have crossplay? Riot has responded
Fariha Bhatti
Since Valorant has been confirmed for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S, players all have one question: Will Valorant console have crossplay? Valorant has been out on PC for four years. Over the past three years, the esports industry has burgeoned into a massive force, gaining global traction. Besides Riot’s consistent effort to boost Valorant esports in all regions, the game is inherently competitive. For this reason, it …
Valorant
Valorant console release date, limited beta, and more
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant has been confirmed for consoles, specifically PlayStation 5 and Xbox X | S, and will be available globally in 2024. Riot Games has been discussing the possibility of bringing Valorant to consoles since the game’s release on PC in 2024. Despite rumors about Valorant coming to mobile, there hadn’t been any news about a console version. Now, Riot has dropped a bombshell at Summer Game Fest 2024, confirming Valorant …
Valorant
How to appear offline in Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant is best enjoyed with friends, but sometimes, you want to tune out all the noise and climb the ladder alone. You can achieve this without leaving your friends behind by appearing offline in Valorant. Valorant has several rank restrictions for full-stacks, making it difficult to queue with friends at times. However, there are many other reasons why a player may choose to queue alone in Valorant. Unfortunately, the game …
Valorant
Patch 8.11 to make all Valorant maps playable, with a catch
Fariha Bhatti
After announcing Haven’s return to Valorant map rotation, Riot has another excellent news for the fans. From patch 8.11, all Valorant maps will be playable, just not in ranked mode. Valorant map rotations keep the game fresh and entertaining, but some maps can be bland and boring. For this reason, the current rotation prompted negative feedback from the player base, who had been asking Riot for a re-swap. In the …
Valorant
Get a first look at Valorant replay system that’s coming soon
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant is officially getting a replay system, but we don’t know when. Since its launch in 2020, Valorant players have been vocal about their need for a replay system. This feature, which would allow them to review their gameplay, analyze mistakes, and strategize better, is not just a luxury but a necessity for esports production companies, esports players, and competitive Valorant players. Riot has been attentive to this demand and …
Valorant
Andrew Tate criticized for defending toxicity in Valorant, demanding ban on female players
Fariha Bhatti
Andrew Tate is now loitering in the gaming spaces, asking developers to ban women who face toxicity in “men’s spaces.” Earlier this week, Twitch streamer TaylorMorgan posted a video of herself playing Valorant when a troll threatened to rape her. The streamer appeared visibly shocked and hurt by the remark, prompting her to immediately quit the game and end the livestream. The heartbreaking video got community-wide attention, including Valorant’s team lead, Anna Donlon, who assured her …
Latest Brimstone buff in Valorant patch 8.09 is too good
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant patch 8.09 bears glad tidings for Brimstone players, who always missed tight choke points while dropping their Sky Smokes. Valorant patch 8.09 is finally bringing some significant updates and hot fixes. With this patch, players will no longer lose their crosshair profiles after creating a new one. But this isn’t what has caught the attention of the community at large. The developers are finally giving Brimstone some attention. In Valorant, all agents rely …
Upcoming Valorant Night Market release date leaked
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant Night Market is returning for the second time in Episode 8. Valorant’s skin thrift store, which features fancy cosmetic items at a cut price, is making another comeback. The next patch in Valorant will add a brand new tab on the menu, which will include six mystery cards hiding pricey skins at almost half the price. This would be the second Night Market for Valorant Episode 8. The first one went …
Valorant player yay steps away from pro Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Bleed Esports’ star duelist Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker is taking yet another break from competitive Valorant, citing health reasons. Taking to X, Bleed Esports has announced that yay will be stepping away from the competitive scene to rest. The decision comes after the team’s underwhelming performance in VCT 2024 Pacific League’s Split One. However, Bleed is looking forward to his return and supports him during his downtime. “We fully support his decision to prioritize his wellness and we’re all excited for more …
This is how to check your Valorant purchase history
Fariha Bhatti
News
Valorant skins don’t grant mechanical advantage in the game, but some are too well-designed to pass up. Players who know how easy it is to overspend may want to keep a close eye on their purchases — and you may be wondering how to check Valorant purchase history. Well here’s what to do. Valorant points can be used to adorn and progress your account by purchasing skins, gun buddies, and …
When is the next Valorant map release date?
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
If you’re bored with the current map pool, we have great news. The next Valorant map is under development and will be playable soon. On April 30, Riot dropped a bomb on the Valorant community in the shape of a sizeable patch that significantly nerfed Cypher and Viper. Both support agents lost a few charges of abilities in their toolkits — and if that wasn’t disappointing enough, the patch didn’t …
First details emerge on Valorant agent 26, codenamed “Sherry”
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
A new Valorant agent codename has popped up, and since it doesn’t give much away, players struggling to make sense of the word “Sherry.” Prior to the release of each Valorant agent, data miners try to uncover any clues about the agent. Most times, they get their hands on codename, which helps players anticipate the agent’s origins, toolkit, personality, and more. This time, however, the codename is quite vague, leaving players puzzled. Riot recently released Clove, a non-binary controller in Valorant …
Bugged Valorant Mystbloom bundle gives players free wallhack
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Mystbloom skin bundle has been turning heads in Valorant, but for all the wrong reasons. On April 30, Riot released a sizeable patch, nerfing Cypher and Viper. Both agents had almost their entire toolkit reworked. Besides that, Riot also fixed the Split bug, which allowed players to jump at an unplayable area. However, all of that was overshadowed by a brand new Mystbloom bundle, which included pink, flowery skins. Now, the …
Viper and Cypher heavily nerfed in latest Valorant patch 8.08
William Davis
Valorant
Valorant Patch 8.08 is here and it has bad news for Viper and Cypher mains. Both agents have been heavily nerfed, leaving Valorant players shocked. Since Valorant’s release in 2020, Viper has undergone dozens of tweaks, mostly nerfs. However, Riot made her viable again in recent updates with much-needed buffs. Now, the developer is dialing down her toolkit, likely to push Clove into the spotlight. It’s unfortunate for Viper mains but Cypher’s …
Sagemommy and Jettdaddy are a duo again — sorta
Olivia Richman
Valorant
After a dramatic falling out, Sagemommy and Jettdaddy are back to playing Valorant duos again. Self-proclaimed e-girl Sagemommy got into a bit of drama with her former business partner and possible lover, Jettdaddy, back in February. The two Valorant players took to Twitter to argue back and forth about what really went down between the two, but it appeared that the two were “e-dating” but were not officially together in …
Riot removes Split from Valorant to fix game-breaking bug
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Split has been removed from Valorant for the time being thanks to a game-breaking bug that opened an unplayable spot for players. Valorant, like any multiplayer game, isn’t immune to random bugs and glitches. The good thing is that Riot is quick to address these in-game hiccups and iron them out in a timely manner so they impact gameplay. This time, however, the bug was so severe that Riot had to remove …
How to convert Valorant sensitivity to Apex Legends
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant is a 5v5 shooter, whereas Apex Legends is a battle royale. But if you want to excel at both, you’ll first need to convert your Valorant sensitivity to Apex Legends. Mouse sensitivity in gaming refers to how fast or slow your in-game camera or crosshair moves in response to physical mouse movement. It’s typically measured in DPI (dots per inch) or eDPI (effective DPI), the product of in-game sensitivity …
When does Valorant Episode 8 Act 3 start?
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Riot recently updated Valorant’s controller lineup with Clove and added a bunch of new cosmetics in Valorant Episode 8 Act 2. When does Valorant Episode 8 Act 3 start? Valorant Episode 8 rolled in with a feisty controller, Clove. With their butterflies and post-death smokes, Agent 25 has already earned their stripes in the controller roster. But the next act may bring more updates and agent tweaks to adjust Clove …
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.
