Valorant
News
CSGO veteran steel joins 100 Thieves’ Valorant roster
Fariha Bhatti
American esports organization 100 Thieves has announced the addition of Joshua “steel” Nissan to its Valorant roster. Steel will be joining Spencer “Hiko” Martin and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella on the already star-studded roster. Announcing the newest addition to our VALORANT roster: Steel.@JoshNissan is an incredibly skilled & talented player from the Counter-Strike scene. We’re so excited to start a new chapter of his competitive career with him in VALORANT. Welcome …
News
T1’s Valorant squad parts ways with crashies and food
Fariha Bhatti
After a strong start to its initial Valorant endeavor, famed esports organization T1 is down to only two players on its active roster. T1 announced that it has parted ways with Austin “crashies” Roberts and Victor “food” Wong. Today we say goodbye to @food_cs and @Crashies.We’re thankful for all the work they put into the team and wish them the best for the future. pic.twitter.com/gHX5CORJDi — T1 (@T1) September 3, …
News
Valorant devs are asking players to report cheaters more often
Olivia Richman
Valorant anti-cheat lead Paul “Arkem” Chamberlain broke down some in-game reporting statistics with the aim of encouraging players to report cheaters more often. While Vanguard has proven quite capable of tracking down hackers, Arkem revealed that player reports are the “most powerful tools” against cheaters. Reports go directly to the anti-cheat team, informing them of any suspicious activity. This gives them a better understanding of players’ in-game experiences and what …
News
Valorant patch 1.07 nerfs Killjoy’s Nanoswarm, Viper buffed
Olivia Richman
Valorant players felt that Killjoy’s name was a bit too accurate when she was first released. The 12th agent was initially disabled in tournaments due to her lack of stability. This was mostly due to pro players’ complaints about her Nanoswarm ability. The molly attack was doing damage too fast, said 100 Thieves coach Spencer “Hiko” Martin. This is especially concerning because players were unable to realize they were in …
Players are mad, but Valorant devs don’t think Operator is OP
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant developers do not think the Operator is OP. At 4,500 credits, the Operator is the most expensive weapon in the game. That’s probably because the sniper rifle is also the weapon with the highest damage per bullet. The scope has a dual zoom mode, allowing agents to switch between 2.5x and 5x depending on their location and needs. The competitive Valorant community has been quite vocal about the Operator …
Is Sentinels’ Sinatraa the best pro Valorant player in NA?
Olivia Richman
News
After the Sentinels beat Team Envy in the Pop Flash Valorant tournament over the weekend, the side was swiftly anoited the best team in North America, and perhaps in the world. The 3-0 victory showed just how dominant Sentinels are becoming in the early days of Valorant’s esports scene. Watching the match a bit closer, it seemed that Sentinels were so tough to beat in large part because of Jay …
These are the best Spike planting locations on Haven
Olivia Richman
News
When playing on Haven, if you’re on the attacking team, you need to know the best places to strategically plant the Spike if you want to win. Where you choose to plant the Spike should not only play into your own team’s strengths and strategies but also the defending team’s numbers, agents, and possible location on the map. The Spike planting location can be the difference between a round being …
These are the best Spike planting locations on Split
Olivia Richman
News
Planting the Spike in Valorant requires a deceptive amount of thought. As the attacking team, where you place the Spike can be the difference between victory and defeat. It’s important to place the Spike in a location that not only takes into account your team’s strengths, weapons, and numbers, but the opposing team’s position, agents, and potential for a retake. Available since the first day of Valorant’s closed beta, Split …
Subroza fail leads to TSM elimination from Pop Flash Valorant event
Olivia Richman
News
The match was Team SoloMid’s to win. Well, until it wasn’t. TSM was dealt a devastating loss that eliminated the team from Flashpoint’s Pop Flash Valorant tournament after a surprise loss to Dignitas. TSM had victory within its grasp until Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik threw the match. In the final moments of the series, Subroza could be seen watching the Spike closely. He was the last remaining player on the team …
Immortals joins other esports orgs, postpones game in protest
M Alzamora
News
Immortals has postponed its match in FLASHPOINT’s Pop Flash series to bring awareness to protests against racial injustice, according to a tweet from the organization’s official Twitter account. The Immortals organization followed up the announcement encouraging its employees to use the time during which the match would have taken place to consider the country’s ongoing discussions around racial injustice and inequality. Immortals’ match in the tournament will instead take place …
Ex-NiP, mousesports CSGO players form new Valorant esports squad
Fariha Bhatti
News
Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Christian “loWel” Garcia has announced the formation of a new Valorant esports squad named Team Inferno. The team’s roster was also revealed, and it includes the following players: William “draken” Sundin Christian “loWel” Garcia Mattias “Khobra” Heidnertis Melih “pAura” Karaduran Dustyn “nieSoW” Durnas Despite earlier speculation, the team will not be playing with former CSGO players Daniil “pipsoN” Meshcheryakov and Joseph “Luzuh” Loose, with khobra …
Taimou announced as member of Event Horizon Valorant team
Fariha Bhatti
News
Former Overwatch League player Timo “Taimou” Kettunen has been announced as a part of Team Event Horizon’s new competitive Valorant team. Event Horizon roster: Timo “Taimou” Kettunen George “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha Viktors “Forsak3n” Bernevs “Feeqn” “roxie” Taimou has been very active in Riot’s new first-person shooter since announcing his retirement from professional Overwatch play earlier this year in April. The former Dallas Fuel DPS player has played a variety of tournaments …
Valorant player caught cheating live during tournament play
Olivia Richman
News
Another Valorant cheater has been chased out of the game and social media. A competitive player who goes by “Ryut” was caught using aim lock in the quarterfinals of the TGS Signature Series. While competing for his share of $2,000, the cheater was seen blatantly cheating live on stream, giving the player away immediately. While guarding the double doors in Haven, Ryut was approached by a Reyna from the opposing …
Valorant spike exploit allows animation cancels for faster firing
M Alzamora
News
A new Valorant bug allows players to fire their weapons more quickly by hold the button used to plant the spike in order to cancel the weapon animation, testing shows. A video that originally appeared on the game’s subreddit showed that by initiating a spike plant and then picking up and switching to a weapon will cancel the weapon’s draw animation, allowing players to fire much sooner than they would …
CSGO legend Skadoodle stepping down from T1’s Valorant roster
Jared Wynne
Valorant
Retired Counter-Strike: Global Offensive legend and current T1 Valorant player Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham has announced that he will be taking a step back from the team’s active roster. The former Cloud9 star cited his limited hero pool and lack of overall impact with the Operator as the main reasons behind the decision. “I have been grinding to expand my agent pool and overall impact with the OP and will be …
These are the best locations to plant the Spike on Bind
Olivia Richman
News
Planting the Spike. It’s a big part of Valorant, and players want to ensure that they do it right. Planting the Spike isn’t as simple as just rushing to a point and slamming it down. It takes teamwork, strategy, and communication, just like it did to even get to the point in the first place. It doesn’t stop once players reach the point, either. When an agent places the Spike, …
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.
News
News
News
News
