Valorant
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Omen and Sova see the highest pick rate in Valorant First Strike NA Qualifier
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant first strike NA qualifiers revealed Omen, Sova, and Jett as the most played agents by the professional players. Among the three agents, Valorant’s shadow hunter dominated the top spot on the majority of the maps with a pick rate of 98%. Riot’s tactical shooter Valorant largely relies on aim. It’sone of the reasons why Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professionals are finding easy wins in Valorant. However, agent abilities can make …
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Gen.G takes down Sentinels, dominates First Strike NA qualifiers
Olivia Richman
Gen.G shocked the Valorant community and defeated Sentinels in a one-sided quarterfinals match. After the 2-0 sweep, Gen.G is moving to the semifinals. First-seed team Sentinels was knocked out of the tournament. They must next compete in the UMG qualifiers. Nobody expected Gen.G to take down Sentinels. The eight-seed team took down Serenity and XSET, but fans weren’t as confident in how the team would fair against Jay “sinatraa” Won …
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Valorant developers roll back patch 1.11 due to technical issues
Olivia Richman
Valorant patch 1.11 was a big one. It introduced new agent Skye, added Icebox to the ranked map pool, and brought some new balance changes to existing agents. But all of these changes have brought big technical problems along with them. Valorant developers took to Twitter to inform players that patch 1.11 was being “rolled back” due to it being a “technical nightmare.” North America, Brazil, and the LATAM server …
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Here’s how to turn on Riot’s disabled experimental sharpening feature
M Alzamora
Valorant’s 1.11 patch came with sweeping changes to the shooter’s economy and class balance. But there’s one change that players will both love and hate. In Patch 1.11, Valorant developer Riot Games disabled a graphical feature called experimental sharpening. The option allowed players the ability to play at very low graphics settings to increase their overall frames-per-second and still retain the ability to tell the difference between an enemy and …
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Jett’s dash glitch persists in Valorant despite Riot’s fix
M Alzamora
Several weeks ago, Riot shipped a patch for Valorant was supposed to nerf Jett’s ability to use ropes to gain a huge speed boost. but it seems that it wasn’t enough. Jett’s original bug involved the game’s ascender ropes that allow players to move up and down between different levels of a map. The original bug happened when a Jett player would dash into an ascender and hook on to …
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Cloud9 signs all-woman Valorant team, its third Valorant roster
Olivia Richman
Cloud9 has just signed an all-female Valorant team. While the organization already has two existing Valorant roster, Cloud9 has picked up MAJKL, an all-female Valorant team that won Spectator Gaming’s all-woman Valorant tournament. The team will now compete under the name Cloud9 White. Their other Valorant team will be rebranded to “Cloud9 Blue.” Who run the World?We are excited to announce alongside @ATT our newest @PlayVALORANT roster who’s ready to take …
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When will Icebox and Skye be allowed in Valorant tournaments?
Olivia Richman
With so many Valorant tournaments on the way, players are wondering when Act 3’s new map and agent will be available in competitive events. Icebox was released early, coming out when Valorant Act 3 dropped. While fans were excited to learn more about the map Valorant was teasing for weeks, it’s become quite a controversial addition to the tactical FPS. Many critiqued the map for having too many corners, making …
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Beckham’s Guild Esports enters Valorant with a Swedish roster
Fariha Bhatti
Guild Esport is set to enter Valorant with the signing of a top-tier Swedish lineup. The English organization acquired Bonk’s active roster, who will now play under Guild’s banner. Guild Esports will be fielding a Valorant roster that will include Yacine “Yacine” Laghmari, Malkolm “Bonkar” Rench, Leo “Leo” Janneson, William “Draken” Sundin, and Filip “Goffe” Gauffin. The team will debut at First Strike, the first Valorant tournament produced by Riot …
Ranked Valorant leaderboards revealed by Riot Games
Steven Rondina
News
Valorant has officially launched its ranked leaderboards, and some surprising names are included. Riot Games has officially unveiled the top 100 players in North America, Latin America, and Europe. Unsurprisingly, the list is rife with early Valorant esports standouts, but there are some surprising names that made the cut. The list includes a number of unknowns, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive converts, and even a few former Fortnite pros. How do you …
Valorant stutter hotfix is coming later this week
Olivia Richman
News
When Riot Games developers released a hotfix to address several growing concerns, it only caused other problems in Valorant. The small update fixed some audio issues on Icebox but left the game with micro-stuttering and lag issues for many player. The stuttering spikes, which can last a few seconds, seem to happen when players were getting eliminated. Players immediately noticed that it was affecting matchmaking. “Well, that hotfix didn’t catch …
Former Overwatch pros aKm, uNKOE announce move to Valorant
Nina Forneloza
News
After the Dallas Fuel announced an almost complete purge of its Overwatch League roster, Dylan “aKm” Bignet followed by declaring his intent to transition to Valorant, a move that came shortly after Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson announced the same. uNKOE’s decision to switch to Valorant seems to be due to more ominous reasons alluded to in his tweet announcing his departure from OWL. “I’m not ready yet for a Twitlonger, will …
Riot announces First Strike NA prize pool, qualifier details
Nina Forneloza
News
Valorant’s North American qualifiers details and prize pool have been released, as eight teams will compete for a $100k prize pool. There will be two NA qualifying tournaments which will whittle down the starting total of teams to a final eight. These eight squads will then compete in the NA regional final for the lion’s share of the $100k prize pool. Competition begins on October 26 and will conclude on …
Riot releases Valorant First Strike rules and details
Nina Forneloza
News
Riot Games has revealed the rules and new information about its first global esports event, First Strike. This is the first event that is being held by Riot Games in conjunction with many third party organizers for the regional events. This tournament will serve as a first-look for many teams, including teams from regions that aren’t heavily represented like the Middle East and Brazil. The First Strike: NA Qualifiers are …
Shroud predicts that Valorant will become the top FPS esport
Olivia Richman
News
“Valorant’s just gonna hit, and it’s gonna hit hard.” Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro turned Valorant streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek believes that Riot’s tactical shooter will become the bigger esport, especially once live tournaments return and teams from North America and Europe can compete together. “It has the perfect recipe right now,” shroud said. “If Valorant nails the timing of coming to LAN and tournaments are popping off, it’s going …
Valorant has a new Twitch Prime gunbuddy coming out October 19
M Alzamora
News
Riot Games didn’t invent the gunbuddy, but it takes the cake for the best weapon charm with the first-person shooter’s “Pay Respects” Twitch Prime weapon charm. Valorant’s new gunbuddy drops October 19 as the second of three Twitch Prime drops for the popular game. Now called Prime Gaming, the platform normally keeps its viewers in the dark about when an exclusive drop will wind up in their notifications. But a …
Valorant players create new game mode with new Icebox zipline
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant players are having a lot of fun on Icebox’s ziplines. While the new map’s layout has been causing some frustration for Valorant players that prefer to use abilities over rifles, others have been taking advantage of Icebox’s new features, mainly the horizontal ziplines. This is where they’ve invented a fun, new game mode. Players gather at the zipline running through A Site. When a round begins, as signaled by …
These are two essential Sova arrows to master on Icebox
M Alzamora
News
Sova’s arrows are notoriously tricky to launch perfectly every time, but these arrows are as easy as they come for grabbing some much-needed information on Valorant’s new map. Sova’s Recon Bolt give teams the information to strike at a moment’s notice, making them one of the most important pieces of utility in Valorant. Unfortunately, most Sova mains wind up giving away their position as they fire, either by the noise …
Fans are angry, increasingly toxic over new Valorant map Icebox
Olivia Richman
News
The Valorant community has been quite prickly about the early arrival of Icebox. Icebox arrived earlier than expected, dropping with the start of Act 3. While the news was met with excitement from Valorant players who wanted new locales and some possible teases of future Valorant updates, Icebox has started to frustrate many players. Icebox is a bit different from previous maps, which were all quite simple and straightforward. The …
Sentinels’ Sinatraa suffers freak eye injury while working out
Olivia Richman
News
Former Overwatch League MVP and current Valorant superstar Jay “Sinatraa” Won had a bit of a mishap earlier today. Sinatraa shared a “little update” on Twitter on October 15, attaching a shocking photo of his very bruised and bloodshot eye. According to Sinatraa, he injured his eye with a resistance band while working out yesterday. While he “went fully blind for three hours” and had to get some stitches, there’s …
Spyder is newest addition to T1’s Valorant team
Nina Forneloza
News
Former Overwatch League player Jung-woo “Sayaplayer” Ha, now known as Spyder, is the newest addition to T1’s Valorant team. Spyder is a former member of the Florida Mayhem OWL team. He was a prominent hitscan player, specializing in Widowmaker and McCree. Spyder has played with the Mayhem since the birth of the OWL in 2018. His Widowmaker was one of the best in the league all three years running, and …
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.
