Valorant
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Shanks leaves NRG Valorant roster, pursues streaming
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
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Astra’s smoke one-way trick helps you catch enemies by surprise
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
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Sentinels sweep FaZe Clan to win NA Valorant Masters
Nina Forneloza
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 …
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LunarKats explains why TSM dropped her from Valorant team
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
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Gen.G surprises by eliminating 100 Thieves from VCT NA
Olivia Richman
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 …
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New leak says a timeout feature is coming to Valorant soon
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
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Everything you need to know about VCT Game Changers
Olivia Richman
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 …
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TSM reveals its new all-female Valorant roster
Fariha Bhatti
TSM has finally dived into the nascent female Valorant esports scene with a roster spearheaded by former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional Catherine “Cath” Leroux. TSM was one of the first notable esports organization to introduce a professional Valorant team. Several other organizations then followed suit in contributing to Valorant esports. With names like Cloud9 and Counter Logic Gaming introducing female rosters, everyone had their sights set on TSM. The organization …
Leak suggests new Valorant map could release with infantry bundle
Fariha Bhatti
News
Gear up, agents! New Valorant skin bundles may soon hit stores. Riot’s tactical shooter is treasured for its unique mix of competitive flair and agent powers. The ability-based game adds a new touch to the conventional FPS genre. While Valorant is gradually evolving, the agents keep the game more relaxed with their snide comments and jokes. Keeping up with Valorant’s casual tonality, Riot Games has added skin bundles like Glitchpop …
xQc responds to Macaiyla on Valorant player banned for harassment
Olivia Richman
News
It seemed simple enough at first. Content creator Jake Lucky heard a Valorant player say he wanted to “rape” female steamer Macaiyla, so he reported him for harassment. Riot banned the player for his inappropriate language. But now Macaiyla is saying that she didn’t want the player banned and didn’t want the story shared publicly, creating new controversy online. Jake Lucky shared the clip of a Valorant player telling Macaiyla …
BearClaw CEO speaks out on payment issues with Valorant team
Olivia Richman
News
BearClaw Gaming was accused of not paying the organization’s management and Valorant players back in February. Now, the organization’s CEO is speaking out on exactly what happened and why. BearClaw had signed a Korean pro Valorant roster. Without any support being given or payments being made, all of the players and staff had their contracts terminated a short time later. The Valorant squad decided to continue competing together under a …
Valorant patch 2.05 adds harsh AFK penalties, fixes Cypher bug
Fariha Bhatti
News
Valorant patch 2.05 is here and, as promised in previous updates, it brings stiff penalties for AFK players. The new patch rolls in with AFK penalties, competitive changes, agent key binds, and bug fixes. Players have been calling on the developer to prevent chat-banned players from entering ranked games. The devs have heard those pleas and taken action in Valorant patch 2.05. One of the smaller quality of life updates …
Fan drafts a concept for a new Valorant Guru who gathers information
Fariha Bhatti
News
It’s only been a few weeks since the new agent Astra landed in Riot’s shooter, but players still have tons of new ideas for Valorant agents. A fan has drafted a concept for a new Valorant agent. User RivalRudra has laid out the barebones for Guru, an agent that easily fits in Valorant’s fierce and whimsical frame. Riot Games has always been keen on addressing community response and ideas for …
Here’s why you should never recall Killjoy’s Turret and bot at once
Fariha Bhatti
News
Valorant’s technoid Killjoy may be experiencing some mechanical glitches in her gear, players have discovered. Riot Games has spawned numerous new agents to Valorant’s roster, but a few have made the cut in the top picked agent list. Upbeat and lively, Killjoy breezed her way in Valorant, becoming one of the most played agents in ranked and professional games. With her cutting edge kit and an ultimate that locks opponents …
Newly discovered Viper lineup lets her clean out Split solo
Fariha Bhatti
News
Viper is one of the few Valorant controllers that can singlehandedly open a bomb site. A newly discovered setup on Split’s A site shows how powerful she can be in a solo queue setting. Valorant agent Viper packs plenty of poisonous gas that can choke out an entire team when used correctly. Her chemical launchers, smokes, and poison screen are enough to keep enemies at bay or push them out …
TenZ highlights Sentinels win over LG with this quick pistol 4K
Fariha Bhatti
News
Last-minute recruit Tyson “TenZ” Ngo’s pistol kills against Luminosity Gaming have the teams set to compete against Sentinels feeling scared in the upcoming Valorant Champions Tour: North America competition. One of the favourites in VCT, Sentinels took a major hit ahead of Masters One when star player Jay “sinatraa” Won was accused of abuse by his ex-girlfriend Cleo. sinatraa was barred from playing in the Valorant Masters event, pushing Sentinels …
Here’s how Sage’s Barrier Orb can protect the Spike post-plant
Fariha Bhatti
News
Agents who carry molotovs can be lifesavers for their teams in post-plant situations. Sage isn’t among that lot, but a well-placed wall can help protect spike. Calling shots from the sidelines and silently reviving her teammates, Sage is often not burdened with tasks that require damage dealing and risky duels. Sage is the closest thing Valorant has to a true support agent, which is why she’s expected to hide in …
CSGO pro Elige says Valorant gameplay is heading in wrong direction
Fariha Bhatti
News
Valorant esports has made great strides in North America in just a short period of time. But Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional player Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski believes that growth is not necessarily headed in the right direction. Unlike Valve’s shooter, that has matured into an esports giant over the course of nine years, Valorant is still relatively new to the esports arena. The FPS is in its embryonic stages, picking up …
Everything you need to know about FFA Deathmatch mode in Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
News
Riot Games’ tactical shooter is cut-throat and tough to master. Fortunately, Valorant has a free-for-all deathmatch mode which provides ideal settings for players to sharpen their mechanical skills. Released with Episode 1 Act 2, Valorant FFA Deathmatch mode helps serious players hone up their in-game skills. In FPS games, the aim is of utmost importance. Even if you’re laden with tons of utility, powers, and abilities, it all comes down …
Here’s how to get Sage’s one-way wall on Bind right every time
Fariha Bhatti
News
The famous Sage one-way wall on Bind can be a game-changer if enemies continue to attack bomb point B in spite of it. And there’s an easy way to get your wall correctly every single time. Sage may not deal much damage with her abilities, but her seemingly innocuous kit can be deadly when used correctly. The agent is equipped with healing powers and a barrier orb that shields teammates …
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.
