Valorant
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Drama grips NiP Valorant team with Sayf signing, Hyp benching
Olivia Richman
Ninjas in Pyjamas has made another major Valorant roster change. NiP recently signed former Counter-Strike pro Saif “Sayf” Jibreel and benched Damien “Hyp” Souville and Enzo “Fearoth” Mestari. This change most likely came as a response to hiring a new head coach, Emil “eMIL” Sandgren. We say welcome to @DSajoof – an update on our Valorant rosterRead more at https://t.co/5pYmJDQl5G#GONINJAS #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/oW5kJyCfmD — Ninjas in Pyjamas at Home???????????? (@NiPGaming) September …
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Explaining Valorant weapon spray patterns and if they’re random
M Alzamora
The spray patterns on Valorant’s weapons might seem random, but its weapons are actually easier to control than in many other popular first-person shooters. Any player that has spent time in competitive tactical shooters has dealt with mastering recoil control. And even though Valorant’s spray patterns are nearly identical to those in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, both games have built-in randomness to where exactly a player’s bullets end up. When firing …
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Who is Sabine in Valorant? A new agent, or something else?
Olivia Richman
For a while now, Valorant players have kept hearing the name “Sabine” while playing the game. But who is she? Is it a code name? A new agent? Who is Sabine, and why do we keep hearing her name? As far as the evidence goes, Sabine is not a new agent. For a while, many players speculated that Sabine was the leaked name of a new agent, sneakily mentioned by …
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Raze gets big nerf in Valorant 1.08 while Guardian is upgraded
Olivia Richman
Pub stomper Raze has proven to be pretty strong in competitive mode as well. In patch 1.08, Valorant developers are taking away some of her firepower. The big focus of Raze’s nerf is on her Blast Pack. Its initial damage was reduced to 15 with a 0.2 meter inner radius. Once the satchel lands, it arms after 0.5 seconds with an increased max damage up to 50. The satchel no …
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Valorant players can choose their skin variants in new patch
M Alzamora
With Valorant ditching Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s weapon loot boxes, Riot will now allow players to buy every type of skin outright. Starting with patch 1.09, Valorant players will be able to purchase a specific variant of a weapon skin, according to Riot’s ongoing question and answer series where the game’s developers answer community questions. While games such as CSGO already feature weapon skins, Valorant has taken the idea a step …
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This is how many new agents Riot plans to add to Valorant
Olivia Richman
Valorant developers are planning to add a lot more agents to the game’s roster. The team at Riot Games has already confirmed that it plans on releasing six agents per year. The plan is to release one for every Act, meaning that the 13th agent will arrive on October 13. But will they continue giving players six new agents every year? According to Valorant developer Chris “Pwyff” Tom, that will …
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Team Envy add food and crashies, drop 2 others from Valorant team
Fariha Bhatti
Only a week after getting released by T1, North American duo Austin “crashies” Roberts and Victor “food” Wong have found a new home in Team Envy. The duo will be replacing Adam “aKis” Kisseberth and Abdo “c4Lypso” Agha who have been moved to the team’s reserve roster. VALORANT Roster Update@aKisCSGO & @c4Lypso_ have been moved to the reserve roster.@Crashies & @food_cs will be playing on the starting roster.#TeamEnvy — Envy …
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Ex-NiP AWPer draken joins top Swedish Valorant team Bonk
Fariha Bhatti
Bonk, one of Europe’s most prominent Valorant teams, has announced the acquisition of former Ninjas in Pyjamas AWPer William “draken” Sundin. After less than a month of playing for Team Inferno with underwhelming results, draken will be taking a step up by joining one of Europe’s most successful teams. Ranked third in the region in the official Valorant rankings, Bonk has emerged as a dominant force in the scene. Despite …
Ninjas in Pyjamas announces eMIL as Valorant head coach
Olivia Richman
News
As more and more big esports organizations enter Valorant, Ninjas in Pyjamas is making big roster moves. Ninjas in Pyjamas was one of the first major European organizations to enter Valorant, transferring its Paladins roster to te Riot-made game. When that roster fell apart, the Swedish organization signed Emir “rhyme” Muminovic and Niels “luckeRRR” Jasiek, former NiP stand-ins. This was followed by three more promising newcomers. Rounding out the team …
Valorant dev says ranked only considers player wins and damage
M Alzamora
News
In Riot’s “Ask Valorant #7,” a curious player asked an interesting question: what statistics really count when Riot calculates their ranking? Some players might not like Riot’s answer. According to Valorant senior producer Ian Fielding, support mains had better start pumping out the damage if they want to rank up. When asked whether or not Valorant’s ranking system takes into account assists that aren’t based on damage, such as a …
Women-only FTW Summer Showdown event added to Ignition Series
gabhernandez
News
Nerd Street Gamers and Riot are teaming up to host an all-women Valorant tournament that sports a $50,000 prize pool. The event will take place September 11 to 13. The For The Women Summer Showdown is a part of the Ignition Series, which is a global series of tournaments created by Riot Games in partnership with many different organizations. FTW is a resource group dedicated to connecting, supporting, and inspiring …
Riot working on Valorant map rotation with improved RNG
gabhernandez
News
Valorant map tuning has remained to be a significant issue for the game’s players since the official release of the game. Riot’s tactical shooter has had seven patch updates so far, and none of them attended to the issue of map selection RNG. More often than not, players are forced to play the same map multiple times, which can be a tedious experience. Players don’t have the liberty to pick …
Blast Twitch Invitational marks Blast entry in Valorant esports
gabhernandez
News
Blast is expanding into the Valorant arena by joining forces with Riot to bring one of the biggest Valorant events of 2020. The Danish tournament organizer is officially dipping its toes in Valorant esports by partnering up with Riot Games to bring about one of the most anticipated Valorant events of 2020. This event will be Blast’s debut in the Valorant competitive scene with a prize pool of a whopping …
Valorant players call on Riot to fix broken vision cones
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant players are convinced that the game’s broken vision cones are sabotaging their own teams. A vision cone is a person’s area and angle of sight. It’s what they see without their peripheral vision. In a first-person shooter like Valorant, the vision cone is important in that it shows where a player is aiming towards. In Valorant, some players have noticed that their vision cones are not matching the view …
TSM Subroza disses Viper, says no buffs can help her see play
Olivia Richman
News
There was a trend going around in the Valorant community in which players suggested outrageous agent improvements. It was all fun and games until TSM’s Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik made the Twitter trend a little too real. make killjoy turret shoot sova recon darts — TSM drone (@Dronecsgo) September 6, 2020 In a reply to a teammate’s Killjoy buff, Subroza tweeted that Viper’s ultimate, Viper’s Pit, should utilize the entire map. …
Stewie2K may have just leaked that DaZeD is joining T1
Olivia Richman
News
Team Liquid Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip may have been a little too loose with his words on stream. In a recent Twitch broadcast, Armeen “a2z” Toussi and friends commented on stream that Braxton “brax” Pierce should play a game with them. brax is a CSGO veteran who recently joined T1 to play Valorant, Riot Games’ new tactical shooter. What made it fishy was when Stewie2K replied to …
These are the best locations to plant the Spike on Ascent
Olivia Richman
News
Planting the Spike is a very important aspect of Valorant that takes a lot more consideration than just dropping it down on the first spot you see. Each site on Ascent has its own popular Spike planting locations, each with its own unique strategy attached. Here’s a closer look at Ascent’s sites and the best spots to plant the Spike to ensure your attacking team has the advantage. The A …
CSGO veteran steel joins 100 Thieves’ Valorant roster
Fariha Bhatti
News
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 …
T1’s Valorant squad parts ways with crashies and food
Fariha Bhatti
News
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, …
Valorant devs are asking players to report cheaters more often
Olivia Richman
News
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 …
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.
