Valorant
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Developmental Rise of Titans Valorant tournament announced
gabhernandez
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 …
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shroud settles debate on whether CSGO or Valorant takes more skill
Steven Rondina
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 …
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What is the player count in Valorant, and how many are playing?
Olivia Richman
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 …
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Sage nerfed, new game mode launched in Valorant patch 1.01
gabhernandez
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
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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 …
Overwatch streamer Dafran quits streaming for a very strange reason
Olivia Richman
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Former Overwatch League player Daniel “Dafran” Francesca retired from Atlanta Reign not once, but twice, to pursue streaming full time. Now, it looks like he may be leaving streaming as well. Dafran remained quite popular on Twitch while streaming Overwatch, but was becoming even more of a household name during Valorant’s closed beta. He saw upwards of 10,000 viewers a day, although some fans seemed to show up just to …
Valorant 1.0 patch notes released ahead of launch
Olivia Richman
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As promised, Valorant developers have released patch notes ahead of the Riot FPS’ official launch tomorrow. Despite some concern from closed beta players, Valorant has stuck with their June 2 launch date, complete with some updates, fixes, and new content. The biggest update is the addition of Reyna, the 11th agent to join Valorant “straight from the heart of Mexico.” The vampire-like pub stomper’s leaked abilities were also confirmed by …
Valorant release time for North America, European players revealed
gabhernandez
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Riot Games’ tactical shooter Valorant is set to launch on June 2. Fans who didn’t get a chance to play and players from the closed beta alike are chomping at the bit to get their hands on the game as soon as possible. LAUNCHING —In 12 hours – Korea, Japan, and most of Asia-PacificIn 18 hours – Europe, Turkey, MENA, Russia, and CIS countriesIn 25 hours – North America, Latin …
Overview of new Valorant map Ascent leaked ahead of its release
Olivia Richman
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When Valorant revealed its 11th agent, Reyna, the vampiric duelist appeared to be collecting kills on a new map. Reyna herself stole the show, with fans trying to figure out how her abilities worked based on the short video accompanying the announcement. Later on, Reyna’s abilities were confirmed by Riot employees and the new map shown in the clip was largely forgotten. REYNA /// Mexico”What hope do these criaturas have?”#VALORANT …
Reyna’s abilities revealed ahead of Valorant’s official release
Olivia Richman
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Ever since the front of Reyna’s shoe was revealed in a teaser tweet for Valorant’s June 2 launch, fans of the FPS have been buzzing about the vampire-like agent. Valorant officially announced Reyna yesterday with a tweet accompanied by a short video that seemed to show off some of Reyna’s abilities. But Valorant players were left with more questions than answers, with many wondering what those creepy, purple, eyeball-like orbs …
Valorant reveals new agent Reyna, along with new map
Olivia Richman
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Reyna’s attitude and glowing purple hands may be familiar to Sombra mains, but Valorant’s 11th agent has nothing else in common with the Overwatch hero. Hailing from Mexico, Reyna has a unique kit revolving around vampire-like abilities. Valorant’s short trailer showed her draining nearby enemies of their health, but not much else was revealed besides a few badass voice lines. “They’re dead and I’m still hungry,” Reyna proclaims at the …
Did Valorant just tease a new agent named Reyna?
gabhernandez
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Valorant is set to release to all players on June 2, and now that the date is nearing, fans have received a glimpse of the first-person shooter’s newest hero. On the Valorant Brazil YouTube, a hype trailer for the game appeared. At the end, fans saw the new hero that was teased when developers announced that the game would be released on June 2 with a new hero, a new …
Schedule revealed for Twitch Rivals Valorant, the game’s biggest event
Olivia Richman
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Valorant’s closed beta servers may have shut down today, but the action is still continuing. Riot’s new first-person shooter is launching June 2, but fans don’t have to wait until then to see more Valorant gameplay from their favorite pros and content creators. Earlier today, Valorant announced that they were “teaming with competitive FPS creators” to hold a global Twitch Rivals tournament. There will be a $200,000 prize pool split …
Forsen says that his ban was wrong, blames Twitch
Olivia Richman
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After a two-week suspension, popular Twitch streamer Sebastian “Forsen” Fors is back on the platform and already stirring up controversy. Forsen was banned from Twitch on May 8, but the content creator made no official statement explaining why it happened at the time. While viewers claimed that Forsen was talking smack to his teammates in Valorant, even calling some “retarded,” the frequently toxic streamer remained silent. The use of “retarded” …
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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