Valorant
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Is dafran coming back to streaming on Twitch soon?
Olivia Richman
It’s been a month since Daniel “Dafran” Francesca has updated his Twitter. He hasn’t been seen on Twitch for the past 30 days. Will the former Overwatch League pro and popular content creator ever return to streaming on Twitch? Dafran’s last tweet was a TwitLonger he posted on June 2. The short announcement stated that he was “starting on an education” revolving around growing fruits and vegetables. The sudden shift in …
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Explaining the hit registration and latency problems in Valorant
M Alzamora
While the release of Valorant’s ranked mode excited the game’s many players, some major issues with the game’s basic functionality have slowed that excitement. A video recently shared on social media showcased a number of issues that Riot Games’ Valorant seems to be having with its hit registration. The problem seems to stem from how its models line up with their virtual representations in the game. The video shows numerous …
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Spawn bug delays launch of Valorant’s ranked mode
M Alzamora
Fans were hyped for the release of ranked play, but it looks like they’ll have to wait a little while longer to grind out their Radiant rank. Valorant’s 1.02 patch was scheduled for June 23, but Riot Games’ Valorant game director Riot Ziegler announced on Twitter that the release of the game’s ranked mode would be delayed. Two massive issues arose as the patch went live. The first problem showed …
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Valorant’s competitive ranked mode is now live
M Alzamora
Less than a month after Valorant officially released, Riot Games is sending the shooter’s competitive mode to its live servers. During the beta, Valorant’s top rank was named after the game. It is now called Radiant. Players can start their grind to Radiant rank in Valorant’s competitive play starting when the game updates to 1.02. Pros and fans have clamored for the release of Valorant’s ranked mode, and its announcement …
Valorant devs discuss changes to competitive mode before launch
Olivia Richman
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With patch 1.02 arriving on June 27, Valorant developers decided to discuss what players should expect with the return of competitive matchmaking. Valorant was launched earlier in the summer without competitive mode, giving developers time to tweak the ranked play system. This left many competitive players wondering when they’d finally be able to climb the ladder again, since all they were told at the time was that it would be …
G2 Esports Invitational Valorant event features Ex6tenZ, mixwell
Steven Rondina
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G2 Esports is the latest esports organization to run a Valorant tournament. The organization known for its top League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squads is set to host the G2 Esports Invitational. The event is set to feature eight teams led by a number of established esports competitors. The action will take play out in a fairly standard system. Things start off with a group stage involving two …
Valorant Ignition Series announced by Riot, events coming soon
Olivia Richman
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Riot has hinted that Valorant had big esports plans ahead of it, and it looks like that is coming to fruition with the Valorant Ignition Series. The global tournament series is the publisher’s first step towards building up the tactical first-person shooter’s esports scene, which has already drawn in a lot of big names from Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and beyond without any official details being made public. While there …
CSGO veteran Mixwell returns to G2, this time to play Valorant
Olivia Richman
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Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas Colocho is back in competitive gaming, and this time it’s to play Riot’s new first-person shooter Valorant. On Twitter, Mixwell announced that he was joining G2 Esports’ Valorant roster as their captain. “G2’s history shows that they are competitive in every game they’ve been part of and their content is also top, most of my fans are also G2 fans so it makes even more sense for …
Ranked play, competitive mode coming to Valorant next week
Olivia Richman
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Ever since Valorant was officially launched, players have been wondering when the game’s official ranked mode would be added. For a while, all that the Valorant community knew was that it was coming after “a few patches.” But game director Joe Ziegler finally confirmed on Twitter that competitive mode was finally coming to Riot’s FPS. “It’s been hectic, so I haven’t had a lot of time to post. To answer …
Developmental Rise of Titans Valorant tournament announced
gabhernandez
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Angry Titans is the latest brand to host a Valorant tournament. The Germany-based esports organization has announced Rise of Titans, a developmental tournament featuring a number of teams that have stood out in Valorant’s first few months. The event will be casted by Leigh “Deman” Smith and Jason Kaplan. The qualifier stage begins on June 17, with the event wrapping up on June 19. The Angry Titans have said that …
shroud settles debate on whether CSGO or Valorant takes more skill
Steven Rondina
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Which game takes more skill, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Valorant? According to popular streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek, the clear answer is CSGO. That isn’t all there is to the story though, as he gave his in-depth thoughts on what it takes to succeed in Valorant and where the game’s pro scene is likely headed. The discussion started when a fan asked him about the roster of T1 during a stream …
What is the player count in Valorant, and how many are playing?
Olivia Richman
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Riot Games’ new first-person shooter launched on June 2 as an already popular title thanks to a broadly promoted closed beta that ended just a few days before the game’s release. With support from the developers of League of Legends, it’s no surprise that players were so eager to take on the new title, as Riot’s track record suggests that Valorant will likely have immense competitive support along with ongoing …
Sage nerfed, new game mode launched in Valorant patch 1.01
gabhernandez
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Valorant update 1.01 has arrived, and though the changelist is small it’s still an important one. The most exciting change is the launch of new game mode Spike Rush. Alongside this, new orb types have been added to play. Three new orbs have been added for the Spike Rush game mode. Health Orbs grant instant, teamwide health regeneration. The effect lasts for 20 seconds and gives 12 HP per second. …
Skadoodle wins Twitch Rivals Valorant tournament with T1
Jared Wynne
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Former Cloud9 player Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham is the latest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star to make the jump to Valorant, joining T1’s newly formed roster. The recently retired AWPer will be joining former IBUYPOWER teammates, as well as some fresh faces: Braxton “brax” Pierce Keven “AZK” Larivière Victor “food” Wong Austin “crashies” Roberts Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham On Twitter, Skadoodle announced that he was excited to compete again and thanked T1 for …
Valorant dev shuts down cheaters looking to get unbanned at launch
Olivia Richman
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A lot of cheaters in the Valorant community were quite upset when they realized they were still banned after the game’s official release on June 2. A lot of Valorant developers were excited to tell hackers that they weren’t welcome in Riot’s new FPS, telling them on Twitter that they didn’t deserve a second chance. Sorry, no second chance for cheaters. pic.twitter.com/iNTy1cVSzA — nicolo (@niiicolo) June 2, 2020 While most …
Valorant cheaters mad that they’re banned from game on release
Olivia Richman
News
Valorant’s official launch yesterday came with a new agent, a new map and some new game modes. But probably the most satisfying thing about Riot Games’ new first-person shooter being launched was knowing that closed beta cheaters are still banned from the game. People were frustrated with a few issues and concerns surrounding Valorant’s anti-cheat software, Vanguard. But there was no denying that it was doing its job. It reportedly …
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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