Valorant
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Raze’s ultimate can help you trick enemies in post-plant situations
Fariha Bhatti
Raze is not just your aggressive duelist, shooting rockets to cause chaos. The agent can be valuable in post-plant situations with this little trick. Fake tapping the Spike is one of the most common tactics to bag rounds on the defender’s side. In Valorant, the trick becomes easier as you can always half defuse the bomb, punish the attacker for peaking and go back to defusing. However, the clear tap …
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New lineup shows that Sova can still dominate on Split
Fariha Bhatti
Sova is a jack of all trades, but his abilities aren’t especially well-suited to Valorant’s smaller maps. Some new lineups prove that the initiator can still be viable on Split, at the very least. Sova is one the hardest agents to master in Valorant, but his pick rate remains sky-high despite the learning curve. The initiator has become the top pick of both casual Valorant players and professionals on almost …
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Leaked Valorant patch 2.07 shows major Astra and Raze changes
Fariha Bhatti
The upcoming Valorant patch will tweak Viper, Astra, and Raze, according to a leak that released Patch 2.07 days ahead of the scheduled date. Riot Games has just delivered a crucial patch that fixed up Viper and Yoru, bringing the two agents back into the game meta. Players weren’t expecting another update so soon, but a data miner has leaked the entirety of patch 2.07, and it reveals crucial tweaks …
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Crouching in Valorant is a terrible idea and here’s why
M Alzamora
Players crouch into their sprays all the time but this tactic has a tendency to send players back to the scoreboard. The best time to break a bad habit is right now, so here’s why crouching in Valorant’s duels is killing your KD, even if you’re Global Elite. When players first start out, the massive accuracy bonus they get from crouching is too hard to pass up. Both Valorant and …
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Use these Viper Snake Bite lineups to protect the Spike on Bind
Fariha Bhatti
The newly buffed Viper is already making hits in high elo Valorant lobbies. These new retake lineups prove that she’s more viable than ever. Smokers become crucial in a map like Bind, where various entries into bomb points call for a substantial blockage. Brimstone stores three big sky smokes in his kit, making him an ideal pick for Bind. While Viper has only one smoke, her toxic screen allows her …
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Reports suggest G2 Esports is reviewing its Valorant roster
Fariha Bhatti
Several reports have revealed that G2 Esports is gearing up to make significant changes to its Valorant roster. According to the reports, the organization is actively looking for a new in-game leader and is considering benching Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt after a disappointing run at the Valorant Champions Tour. The team entered Valorant battlegrounds when the pro scene was still in its embryonic stages. Thanks to the roster loaded up with …
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New Viper buffs let her dominate Ascent in solo queue
Fariha Bhatti
If you’re struggling on Ascent’s attack side, Viper’s your best bet to turn the game around. The poisonous agent was always one of the most self-sufficient controllers, thanks to her damage-focused kit. Brimstone also carries a molotov, but Viper’s wall gives her an edge over other controllers. The extended screen paired with her toxic smoke allows Viper to break open any site. Ascent can be a tricky map to play …
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Leak reveals salaries of Valorant stars nitr0, sinatraa
Olivia Richman
Even though Valorant is a relatively new esport, some of its top players are still raking in big dough. This explains why big names in Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive don’t feel it’s too much of a risk to switch over to Valorant in the infancy of its esports scene. The girlfriend Sentinels’ Tyson “TenZ” Ngo’s girlfriend, Kyedae Shymko, seemingly leaked the salaries of two of Valorant’s biggest …
Game-breaking bug lets Yoru plant the spike while invincible
Fariha Bhatti
News
Yoru has turned Valorant players’ dreams of safely planting the Spike into a confusing reality. Riot Games may have incorporated modern gameplay elements and futuristic character designs into Valorant, but the classic bomb defusal theme is still at the center of it all. Attackers must plant the Spike before time runs down, and defenders are tasked with defusing it before the Spike explodes. Despite tons of agent abilities, entering a …
shroud isn’t happy about the aim and recoil in Valorant
M Alzamora
News
Twitch streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek let Valorant have a piece of his mind after he nissed what looked like two easy kills while playing his daily dose of Riot Games’ first-person shooter. Twitch fans know that if there’s one thing shroud is known for, it’s hitting some pretty nice flicks on enemy players. But after shroud missed two kills on the Kingdom assassin Reyna, he let loose his frustration with …
This Sova arrow lineup wipes out enemies on Ascent
Fariha Bhatti
News
Sova does wonders on every map, but he’s particularly deadly on Ascent. If you’re opening bomb point B on Ascent, you’ll likely need a controller on your team. The B site entrance is exposed from Defender’s lobby and market angles that can be blocked by smokes. However, the stair is a common angle for enemies to scout B site from. This is one of the trickiest areas to clear for …
TenZ on Sentinels’ roster for Challengers 2, but is he staying?
Nina Forneloza
News
Sentinels has won its first match of Challengers Series 2, and Tyson “TenZ” Ngo is still on the active roster. Many fans are now wondering if TenZ is going to stay with the team, and how the connected investigation into suspended player Jay “sinatraa” Won is going. TenZ is currently on loan from Cloud9 to fill in for Sinatraa, who is under investigation after being accused of sexual assault. Fans …
Valorant dating sim, OP pistols come to Apex on April Fools
Steven Rondina
News
April Fools is here and unsurprisingly, a lot of people are getting in on the action in esports. From fake patch notes to complete reimaginings of their games, a slew of major publishers are making fans both laugh and cry on April 1. Not everyone decided to have a go at fans this year, with Valve leaving Counter-Strike and Dota 2 fans to their own devices, but Blizzard, EA Games, …
brax joins TSM to complete its six-man Valorant roster
Fariha Bhatti
News
TSM has announced Braxton “brax” Pierce as a rotational member on its Valorant team, thus confirming a new six-man roster. Rumors of the Brax joining TSM have been plentiful for a while, but they reached fever pitch when hazed stopped appearing in team scrims. TSM streamer Ali “Myth” Kabbani filled in James “hazed” Cobb’s spot, which had left the fans wondering if hazed’s days in TSM were numbered. However, a …
Viper’s smoke has a hidden feature that gives her a peeker’s advantage
Fariha Bhatti
News
Viper may carry only one smoke but a new exploit shows that her Poison Cloud overpowers every other controller’s kit. Viper was released as one of the original ten agents, but she wasn’t much of a hit as the other nine agents. A new feature in her smoke discovered by YouTuber Swoopy hints that she may have been shadow buffed by Riot Games. The new find shows that Viper can …
Dignitas drop its male Valorant roster, keeps female team
William Davis
News
Esports organization Dignitas has decided to discontinue its male Valorant roster, and will only continue to field its female roster for the foreseeable future. The male roster had been representing Dignitas since August 2020, with the core of the team competing under the Homeless tag prior to being signed by Dignitas. The team had been posting disappointing results and most notably didn’t make it out of the open qualifiers for …
s1mple explains why he won’t switch to Valorant… for now
Fariha Bhatti
News
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s explanation for not switching to Valorant has Natus Vincere fans grateful for the team not managing to win a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major title so far. CSGO pro player s1mple’s Valorant streams have ruffled quite a few feathers of late. After earning his stripes in CSGO, s1mple has actively been playing Riot’s shooter and has received an overwhelming response from both fans of Valorant and of CSGO …
Valorant patch 2.06 heavily buffs Viper and Yoru, nerfs Bucky
Fariha Bhatti
News
Riot Games has rolled out a new update that strengthens Viper’s weak kit and beefs up Yoru. Patch 2.06 is finally upon us and it features elaborate and significant improvements in Valorant’s most overlooked agents, Yoru and Viper. The new patch makes Viper deadly enough to compete against her counterparts Omen and Brimstone, while Yoru gets necessary improvements to his abilities. Viper carries only one smoke, but the new update …
Valorant Megapunk skin bundle release date, price, and more
Fariha Bhatti
News
Bucky army, rejoice! The Megapunk bundle brings brand new skins for five weapons, including the beloved shotgun. Riot Games has taken the Valorant skin game to a whole new level by stacking up the market with new cosmetics. Megapunk brings new skins for the Bucky, Ghost, Spectre, and more. The brand new skin line looks a lot like the Prime 2.0 bundle, with its glassy details and electricity flowing through …
s1mple is back to playing Valorant after his surprise ban
Olivia Richman
News
Even though Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star Sasha “s1mple” Kostyliev believes Valorant is “too simple,” he wasn’t looking to get banned from the game entirely. But that’s exactly what happened. s1mple didn’t share the reason behind the surprise ban, and the CSGO AWPer might not even know why it happened himself. He joked with Valorant pro Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom that it was due to him being “just too good” and was …
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.
