Valorant
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Dignitas drop its male Valorant roster, keeps female team
William Davis
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 …
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s1mple explains why he won’t switch to Valorant… for now
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
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Valorant patch 2.06 heavily buffs Viper and Yoru, nerfs Bucky
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
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Valorant Megapunk skin bundle release date, price, and more
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
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CSGO pro s1mple gets banned in Valorant after hitting Immortal rank
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional player Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has recently taken quite a fancy to Valorant and it’s not going well for him. Two days after his Valorant stream, s1mple has found himself under Riot Games’ ban hammer. The pro player shared the unfortunate news with his fans on Twitter. s1mple explained that he woke up and saw that he was blocked from ranked games. I dont specifically show my …
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This Sova shock bolt lineup can get as many as five kills on Bind
Fariha Bhatti
It’s not just duelists that can ruin your scoreboard. Sova’s lineup on Bind confirms that initiators can be death-dealing. In Valorant, abilities decide how your scoreboard looks. For example, Jett and Raze can efficiently utilize their ultimates and abilities to bag bonus kills even in eco rounds. Duelists flying across the map, shutting down enemies, and pocketing aces is ordinary in Valorant. However, it’s not every day you see a …
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CSGO top player s1mple rains kills in Valorant, calls it “too simple”
Fariha Bhatti
Watching Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players try Valorant is always a treat for fans of both FPS games. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s recent stream was not only loaded with hilarious highlights, but he had a lot to say about the game mechanics. s1mple is pegged as one of CSGO’s most gifted players and stats back these claims. The Ukrainian star has ruled the CSGO realm for many years with his trusted AWP, …
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100 Thieves fires back at Riot after Valorant team is fined
Olivia Richman
100 Thieves has not taken kindly to Riot Games’ decision to fine its Valorant team $5,000 and suspend coach Hector “FrosT” Rosario for non-compliance and delaying a game during the Valorant Champions Tour NA tournament. The organization posted an official statement replying to Riot’s competitive ruling, stating that they “strongly disagree” with Riot’s “mischaracterization” of the entire incident. 100T stated that the tournament organizer made a ruling regarding ping that …
100T fined $5k for delay of game, coach suspended through 2021
Nina Forneloza
News
100 Thieves has been fined $5,000 for non-compliance and delay of game, according to a report released by Riot. The coach, Hector “FrosT” Rosario has also been suspended for the rest of the 2021 Valorant Champions Tour as a result of his actions towards tournament organizers. According to Riot, 100T and Immortals came into the lobby to prepare for their very first game in the Masters tournament. Tournament officials chose …
Sova’s Recon Bolt can reveal all enemies on Icebox B site
Fariha Bhatti
News
Sova is the ultimate jack of all trades. While his Shock Bolt deals damage, his Recon Bolt helps track enemies. On Icebox’s B site, he’s actually capable of scanning the entire area with one simple lineup. The snow-coated excavation site features a tight entryway to B, making this map a nuisance to play as attackers. However, breaking open bomb point B is a cakewalk if you have a duelist like …
Shanks leaves NRG Valorant roster, pursues streaming
Fariha Bhatti
News
NRG and Ryan “Shanks” Ngo have mutually parted ways following the team’s underwhelming run at Valorant Champions Tour: Challengers 3. The Valorant professional player will bid farewell to NRG and has stated that he’ll direct his focus on streaming and content creation. Shanks took to Twitter and announced that he’s still open to play “with the right squad.” Mutually agreed to part ways with @NRGgg. I love everyone who is …
Astra’s smoke one-way trick helps you catch enemies by surprise
Fariha Bhatti
News
Newly minted controller Astra is not just your regular smoker. She has some incredible tricks up her sleeves, capable of pulling a fast one on enemies. Agent 15 Astra is still adjusting in Valorant’s gelled-up roster, stacked with original three smokers Omen, Viper, and Brimstone. The galactic agent is most certainly a versatile addition due to her miscellaneous kit, but she’s tough to master. Hand-eye coordination, impeccable map reading, and …
Sentinels sweep FaZe Clan to win NA Valorant Masters
Nina Forneloza
News
Sentinels took a decisive victory over FaZe Clan in the Valorant Masters North America grand final, cementing the team as the top NA Valorant team. Things looked dicey for both teams after a tight 13-11 score on Ascent, but Sentinels seemed to find their groove on Bind, where they took a 13-7 victory. Their momentum carried them through the last map with a score of 13-4, and earned Sentinels their …
LunarKats explains why TSM dropped her from Valorant team
Fariha Bhatti
News
Katherine “LunarKats” has finally come out with an explanation for her dismissal from TSM three days after the organization revealed its female Valorant roster. The Valorant professional player went live on Twitch and explained her side of the story. According to LunarKats, she was kicked from the active lineup on account of an old Snapchat rant video. “There is a video of me of a Snapchat rant I made in …
How to ensure a win on Ascent using Sova’s shock bolt
Fariha Bhatti
News
Sova may belong from the passive category of Initiators, but he’s a jack of all trades. The agent can utilize his arrows to slay defenders lurking around the Spike and scout enemies. Sova is equipped with multi-purpose arrows that help him gather intel and stun enemies. Due to his varied kit, the agent has become a kingpin in most professional Valorant teams. Almost all top-tier Valorant teams opt for Sova …
Shroud shows off new OP wallbang on Icebox to lock down mid
Fariha Bhatti
News
Riot Games’ tactical shooter has tons of secrets that almost feel like exploits. This new Icebox wallbang discovered by Michael “shroud” Grzesiek seems like a wall-hack. Valorant’s paper-thin walls can easily be exploited to get an advantage over opponents. There are various predictable points in-game that allow for smooth through-wall taps, that can soften up opponents or even net free kills. Some wallbangs are so spot-on that a casual player …
Viper can singlehandedly open Split’s B site with these lineups
Fariha Bhatti
News
Valorant’s most toxic agent, Viper, can be unstoppable on Split’s B bomb point if you know how to squeeze all the poison out of her kit. Most Valorant maps are designed to benefit the defenders. Tight entryways and lobbies are tricky to slide through and puts agents at a massive risk of dying to opponents’ utilities. For example, Split’s bomb point B can be a lion’s den if you don’t …
Gen.G surprises by eliminating 100 Thieves from VCT NA
Olivia Richman
News
Nobody expected Gen.G to upset 100 Thieves like this. Not fans. Not casters. Not anyone at the analyst desk. Gen.G swept 100 Thieves in a close Valorant Champions Tour NA Masters match that left the favorites completely eliminated from the competition. Gen.G was thought of as the clear underdog in the match, as well as in the entire NA Masters event. While the Valorant community recognized them as a great …
New leak says a timeout feature is coming to Valorant soon
Fariha Bhatti
News
Riot’s tactical shooter has almost all the key ingredients of a great FPS title, but it still lacks a convenient timeout feature. A new leak says that the developer will soon add timeouts to Valorant. The hot new FPS game has attracted herds of competitive players with its fierce and energetic gameplay. While serious players enjoy the flair that agents bring to the game, Valorant still lacks many things crucial …
Everything you need to know about VCT Game Changers
Olivia Richman
News
The Valorant Champions Tour Game Changers program was announced in late February, shining a light on competitive opportunities for women in Riot’s new tactical shooter. According to Riot, the Game Changers tournament series is a way to “build a more representative Valorant Champions Tour.” Valorant’s esports scene has seen a lot of progression in terms of female inclusivity. This includes Cloud9 White, an all-female Valorant team that has also competed …
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.
