Valorant
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These are the best locations to plant the Spike on Bind
Olivia Richman
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, …
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shroud says he won’t go pro in Valorant or join 100 Thieves
Olivia Richman
Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Michael “shroud” Grzesiek has proven himself to be one of the top streamers in the world. During his first week back on popular streaming platform Twitch, shroud became the most-watched content creator there. As shroud continues to be popular for his latest Valorant streams, fans have started to wonder if he’d ever play the game professionally. He was once a very successful CSGO player, primarily …
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How to find out if you’ve played with popular Valorant streamers
Olivia Richman
A new website is answering a burning question a lot of Valorant players have. Did they ever play against a famous streamer? The website, called VOD Search, lets players find out if they have ever been on someone’s live stream. Valorant players can find out if they’ve directly interacted with streamers while they were broadcasting matches by searching their in-game name. One of the site’s developers also noted that the …
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Changing regions may wipe Valorant accounts, including skins
Olivia Richman
The Valorant community is not happy after it became clear that changing regions may completely wipe a player’s account. A frustrated player took to social media to describe their situation after they lost their rank, paid skins, and everything else on their Valorant account after moving from Australia to Belgium. A member of Riot Games support had been helping them change their region during the move. The email stated that …
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Cloud9 signs second, all-Korean Valorant roster of ex-OWL, PUBG pros
Jared Wynne
Cloud9 will start competing in Valorant, with a surprise twist. The organization has announced the signing of an all-Korean roster that will compete at the regional level. “With VALORANT esports seeing continued growth, we wanted to increase and broaden our involvement in the scene. Cloud9 has been invested in the Korean esports scene for quite some time, and we saw another opportunity to further support Korean esports in VALORANT. We …
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shroud has become the most-viewed streamer on Twitch after return
Olivia Richman
Michael “shroud” Grzesiek was the most-watched content creator on Twitch last week. It all started when the popular former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro returned to Twitch on August 12. He surpassed 500,000 concurrent viewers just moments after going live on the streaming platform. He then hit 22,000 subscribers after only two hours of streaming. “It feels good. I wasn’t nervous at first, but then I saw the viewers climbing. I …
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Cloud9 officially signs vice to complete pro Valorant team
Jared Wynne
Cloud9 has announced the signing of Daniel “vice” Kim as the fifth and final player for the organization’s new Valorant roster.“I’m super excited to join C9 Valorant. I competed in CS:GO professionally for about four years,” vice said. “I’m switching to Valorant mainly because after four years of competing in professional CS:GO I grew a little stale of it and I wanted to start a new chapter and I thought …
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Valorant players complain about grind in weekly missions
Olivia Richman
Valorant’s Act II brought to players a new battle pass, meaning more cosmetics, skins, sprays, and player card artwork to unlock. One way to unlock these new additions to Riot’s original first-person shooter is through daily and weekly missions. These appear on the left side of the game’s main screen, with daily missions resetting each day. Each of the missions gives players a certain amount of experience points based on …
TSM win Pittsburgh Knights Invitational, beat Gen.G in finals
Olivia Richman
News
Team SoloMid is continuing to dominate the Valorant esports scene. The impressive Valorant squad took home a $6,000 prize at the Pittsburgh Knights Invitational after beating Gen.G in the three-game grand finals set. The win was all the more exciting for the squad’s fans since TSM had lost to Gen.G when they first faced off earlier in the tournament. TSM had beaten other top teams including Renegades and Immortals before …
Valorant players mad as footstep audio gives defenders advantage
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant players are once again asking Riot to fix the game’s footstep audio. Since Valorant’s release, developers have been improving the FPS game’s sound visualization. This includes changing weapon sound effects and the agents’ sound cues. One thing that still needs some audio improvement are enemy footsteps. This has been a complaint since the game’s beta. Former Valorant streamer Daniel “Dafran” Francesca showed his followers how noisy opponents are when …
There are some big changes coming to Valorant’s ranking system
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant’s competitive mode has been a source of frustration for amateur and pro players alike due to the first-person shooter’s controversial ranking system. Valorant game director Joe Ziegler addressed the negative feedback developers have been receiving about the ranking system. Ziegler revealed that the development team is “analyzing the ranking system top to bottom” to look for ways to improve competitive play. Hey everyone, on the design side we are …
shroud reveals why he chose Twitch over YouTube and Facebook
Olivia Richman
News
Popular streamer and former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Michael “shroud” Grzesiek recently returned to Twitch after Microsoft’s Mixer streaming platform was shut down. Many of shroud’s fans were perplexed by the choice, given that the popular streamer had been so adamant about his decision to leave Twitch before. He had even predicted that Mixer would surpass Twitch one day since he beleived that the since-failed platform offered better opportunities for …
nitr0 signs with 100 Thieves as leader of new Valorant team
M Alzamora
News
Nick “nitr0” Cannella and 100 Thieves announced that the former Team Liquid in-game leader had joined the organization’s Valorant roster. The move comes several days after nitr0’s surprise announcement that he was stepping away from his longtime home. While nitr0 made mention of staying in the esports scene when he left TL, the most obvious move would have been to join another Counter-Strike organization, much like Finn “karrigan” Andersen had …
LoL World Champion FunPlus Phoenix signs Valorant roster
Jared Wynne
News
Reigning League of Legends world champion FunPlus Phoenix has announced the signing of its first professional Valorant roster. The FPX Valorant roster is composed of players from Sweden’s FABRIKEN and Russia’s Party Parrots. Both squads were held among Europe’s best Valorant teams. The roster was due to compete in the Allied Esports Odyssey tournament under the name Team ZypanGoKill, but a Twitter post from Allied Esports revealed the team would …
These are the best Valorant agents to counter Killjoy
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant players have been complaining about Killjoy’s power. Developer Riot Games has promised to further tweak the new agent, but how can players best deal with her until then? Riot recently banned the 12th agent from upcoming Valorant tournaments to better ensure competitive integrity. Developers claimed the agent wasn’t quite ready for the big stage, a sentiment shared by the game’s competitive scene due to her overpowered and unavoidable Nanoswarm …
shroud streams Valorant to 500K viewers in Twitch return
M Alzamora
News
Michael “shroud” Grzesiek’s return to Twitch made history for the streamer as he passed 500,000 concurrent viewers within minutes of turning on his camera. Viewers poured into the Twitch channel by the thousands. While the chat was quickly placed in followers-only mode, donations and gifted subscriptions poured in for almost 45 minutes before shroud even appeared on camera. But as the man himself appeared back on the streaming platform after …
nitr0 reportedly weighs switch to Valorant after leaving Liquid
M Alzamora
News
Reports indicate that esports organizations competing in Valorant are reaching out to the man who captained Team Liquid to the world’s top ranking in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. After Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella’s surprise exit from Team Liquid’s CSGO roster, it seems as though Valorant teams are eager to get the CSGO veteran to switch games. Reports from ESPN state that several high-profile organizations have reached out to nitr0 to inquire if …
Big changes are coming to Valorant’s in-game ping system
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant developers are planning to improve in-game communication through the implementation of a new ping system. Like most competitive first-person shooter titles, Valorant relies heavily on teammates being able to communicate properly, whether it’s by speaking with microphones or using quick in-game pings. While most players prefer to use voice comms, pinging teammates can sometimes be more effective. A quick “on my way” can alert teammates without the need for …
Team Liquid signs fish123 and ScreaM to enter Valorant esports
Olivia Richman
News
Team Liquid has finally entered the competitive Valorant scene. And they have entered in style. The rumors are true: Team Liquid has signed four members of the European Valorant team fish123 and former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom to create a very promising Valorant squad. “We are proud to announce that Team Liquid will be entering Valorant!” Team Liquid announced on their official Discord. “We hope you’re just …
Riot wants Killjoy disabled in FaZe Clan Invitational event
Olivia Richman
News
Riot Games does not feel confident in Killjoy’s “stability” just yet. To ensure competitive integrity, the 12th agent will be disabled in the FaZe Clan Invitational tomorrow. “Due to the recency of Killjoy’s release, there is a risk that multiple issues may negatively impact the competitive integrity of this weekend’s tournament,” FaZe Clan tweeted. The esports organization noted that Killjoy had been disabled at the request of Riot Games developers, …
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.
