Valorant
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Riot rolling out fix to OP camping strat on Bind in Escalation
Fariha Bhatti
Riot Games has added unique mechanics to each map in Valorant to give them all an interesting feel. However, Bind’s teleporters are squeezing the fun out of the new Escalation game mode. While Icebox has horizontal ziplines and Haven adds a third bomb site, Bind brings teleporters into the game, linking the A and B bomb points with each other. This feature helps the defenders in competitive mode, but in …
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CSGO pro Jamppi reportedly set to join Team Liquid’s Valorant roster
Fariha Bhatti
Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen is already making big moves after the Valorant switch. Reports claim that Team Liquid is eyeballing the young star for its roster. The Valorant wave swarmed tons of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players, pulling them to the animated universe of Riot’s shooter. However, jamppi’s shift had turned many heads, thanks to the player’s long history with Valve. The young CS star was banned from all CSGO majors on …
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Valorant all-women pro circuit VCT Game Changers revealed
Steven Rondina
Valorant may be taking women’s esports to the next level. Riot Games has announced that an all-women spin-off of the Valorant Champions Tour, VCT Game Changers, is in the works. This circuit will likely produce some of the largest women’s esports competitions seen to date. “Today we are excited to introduce the VCT Game Changers program. This is an initiative designed to provide experience and a spotlight to elevate the …
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Will ANDROID help NRG Esports reach Valorant Masters events?
Nicholas James
As the Valorant Champions Tour events roll on, teams like NRG Esports are slowly losing out on the chance to make it to the first major Valorant Champions Tour event. There is still one more chance left for NRG to make it and they have an improved roster to push towards that goal. With Bradley “ANDROID” Fodor joining NRG’s ranks, the team may have enough firepower to qualify for a …
Dafran rages on Valorant and gets banned from voice chat
Olivia Richman
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Popular streamer Daniel “Dafran” Francesca hasn’t changed much after taking a break to become a farmer. Dafran recently had an outburst on stream that left him unable to use Valorant’s voice chat for the rest of a match. It seems as though Valorant has the former Overwatch pro just as frustrated as ever. The offense took place during a close round, and both teams were in overtime. During this tense …
This Viper molotov lineup helps protect the spike on Icebox
Fariha Bhatti
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Viper’s toolkit shines on all types of maps, whether confined or open. On Icebox, however, the controller’s abilities are a force to reckoned with. Riot Games’ latest addition to the Valorant map pool can be tricky to play on. Icebox’s choke points and small bomb sites heavily favor the defenders. Squeezing inside the tight alleys and entryways is an arduous task without a controller or initiator on one’s team. The …
Why can’t Team Liquid qualify for Valorant Champions Tour?
Nicholas James
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The European Valorant circuit has been a rollercoaster since the beginning of 2021. Since the game’s first big tournament, First Strike, many of the original pro teams to form in Valorant have been against the ropes, losing to the newer teams with something to prove. Among those that are struggling is Team Liquid. The predominantly British team has failed to qualify for the Valorant Champions Tour twice now and if …
Valorant devs planning new deathmatch mode, talk pistols-only
Fariha Bhatti
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It seems that the newly released Escalation is the first in a number of new Valorant game modes. Riot Games has teased some exciting features that are coming to Valorant deathmatch in a recent AMA session, with the most notable being a deathmatch mode. The tactical shooter largely revolves around its competitive-friendly defusal mode. Serious players can connect to the deathmatch server prior to the match to hone their aims. …
These Valorant easter eggs may be hints about the 15th agent
Olivia Richman
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While Episode 2 brought Valorant players a new agent, Yoru, the community is already using the battle pass to theorize what the next agent might be like. Each battle pass has contained a player card that directly teases the next agent. This time, players are focusing in on the “Bridge Between Worlds” card. That’s because the tier-38 card contains an orb that also keeps appearing on different parts of each …
Use these Viper molotov lineups in Valorant to win rounds on Haven
Fariha Bhatti
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Controller agents are most viable on passive plays, but Valorant’s most underrated agent, Viper, can be a menace on the attacking side thanks to her snake bite. Painted in Paris green, the controller agent may be visually pleasing but is extremely deadly when used correctly. A few players who main Viper use her for her bombshell ultimate or unique re-usable smokes. Her molotov’s efficacy usually goes unnoticed. Tackling a large …
Shroud rages on Twitch over stream sniping in Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
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Michael “shroud” Grzesiek may be one of the best FPS players, but no skills can completely protect someone from stream snipers. During a recent broadcast on Twitch, Shroud finally called out Valorant’s poor streamer mode. Live streaming an FPS game is no small feat, especially when you’re a popular streamer. There are many ways players can find out that you’re on the opposing team, which puts a target on the …
How the Reyna and Yoru changes will impact the Valorant meta
Nicholas James
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With patch 2.03 now officially launched, Valorant will be hit with yet another meta shake-up. While this patch had more to do in terms of gun changes, Riot Games also touched a few agents to give them some slight nerfs and buffs. Some people have been calling this patch the death of Reyna, but the changes to the agent may end up being healthy for the game in the long …
BearClaw Gaming’s Valorant roster, staff claim missed payments
Olivia Richman
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Another Valorant team has allegedly been terminated without payment. Shortly after Phoenix1 was accused of not paying its former Valorant players, BearClaw Gaming has come under fire for the same concerning reasons. According to general manager Steven Kim, BearClaw Gaming’s parent company, Plynius, has not paid any of its players or provided basic support for the Valorant team’s operations. Kim stated that nobody has been paid since the beginning of January, …
Phoenix1 organization accused of not paying Valorant roster
Olivia Richman
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The revival of the Phoenix1 brand is not going particularly well at this point. Former player Aiden King is accusing the organization of not paying its Valorant team. Every player on the Phoenix1 roster was dropped in January. While the squad did tease that they might be signed to another organization, it was never made clear why they were all let go from Phoenix1. Now, a month later, King has decided …
Valorant patch 2.03 buffs Yoru, nerfs Frenzy and Stinger
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant developers have come through with their promise of rebalancing Yoru. In Valorant patch 2.03, developers have focused on the newest duelist and buffed him to make up for what has been found to be an underwhelming kit. The new agent hasn’t seen as much play as initially expected and has been given some buffs to compensate for that. Reyna was also given some interesting changes, while some of the …
Leaks reveal new Valorant skins, gun buddies based on agents
Nicholas James
News
As chatter picks up regarding patches and balance changes fans have likely gotten a sneak peak at the next two skin bundles. Both bundles are for multiple weapons and include other cosmetics like gun buddies, sprays and player cards. Data miner ValorLeaks produced footage of the new skins in action, and they’re unlike anything seen to this point in Valorant. Celestial Bundle Showcase | #VALORANT ~ Celestial Phantom (1775VP)~ Celestial …
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.
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