Valorant
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Valorant 1.0 patch notes released ahead of launch
Olivia Richman
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 …
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Valorant release time for North America, European players revealed
gabhernandez
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 …
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Overview of new Valorant map Ascent leaked ahead of its release
Olivia Richman
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 …
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Reyna’s abilities revealed ahead of Valorant’s official release
Olivia Richman
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 …
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Forsen says that his ban was wrong, blames Twitch
Olivia Richman
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” …
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Shroud predicts Valorant won’t be ready for June launch date
Olivia Richman
Most Valorant players rejoiced when Riot finally announced that the game would be officially launched on June 2. Riot has already hinted at a new legend and even a new map. They are also going to add some new servers for a better online experience. The end of VALORANT Closed Beta is upon us! Now’s the time to rally your troops for one last weekend of game time before launch. …
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Dafran banned from Twitch after being thrown out of Valorant event
gabhernandez
Popular streamer Daniel “dafran” Francesca has been suspended from Twitch for seven days following a string of outbursts after being banned from a Valorant tournament. The former Overwatch League pro was recently banned for life from Solary’s Valorant tournaments after he exploded at the tournament organizers on Twitter. The dispute started over a scheduling change for a playoff match in the Solary Cup, which nobody from dafran’s team saw. When …
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The best Valorant agent tier list for competitive and ranked
Olivia Richman
Valorant recently got a major balance patch that shook up the new first-person shooter’s meta thanks to agent buffs and nerfs and some significant map changes. While it’s still too early to tell what changes it will have on team compositions over time, there’s no denying that Valorant is currently a game that heavily favors a defensive playstyle. And some agents are better equipped for that than others. Riot’s Valorant …
More than 1,600 new cheaters were just banned from Valorant
Olivia Richman
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Love it or hate it, Vanguard is doing its job of catching cheaters in new first-person shooter Valorant. Riot’s anti-cheat data engineer Philip Koskinas recently took to Twitter to celebrate that over 1,600 more cheaters have been kicked off the Valorant closed beta. “1,600 Valorant accounts just went missing and we’re still geeked up off the ban juice,” Koskinas said. 1600 VALORANT accounts just went missing and we’re still geeked …
dafran given lifetime ban by Valorant organizer after Twitter meltdown
Steven Rondina
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Daniel “dafran” Francesca’s career in Valorant is not off to an especially great start. That isn’t because of his actual skills in the game are lacking. The former Atlanta Reign DPS player is on the rocks these days with French tournament organizer and esports organization Solary due to his team’s ejection from a tournament, which was followed by a lifelong ban from all future Solary events. “Today, the player dafran …
A collection of the most spicy and dank Valorant memes we could find
Olivia Richman
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When a new game comes out, everyone is dying to try it out. But new games also mean new memes, and that’s almost as important as the game itself. Valorant is still in closed beta, but there’s already a pretty good number of memes about Riot’s new first-person shooter. Even if the game goes through changes before its official release this summer, the memes will live on in our hearts, …
Is Valorant coming to mobile or consoles? Here’s what we know
Steven Rondina
News
Valorant is one of the hottest topics in all of video games right now. Riot Games’ fusion of tactical and hero shooters has dominated social media for weeks and caught mainstream attention in a big way. The game is currently available in closed beta exclusively for PC, and that has many gamers wondering when, or if, it might come to their own favorite platforms. So does Riot Games have anything …
Valorant developers reveal the truth behind peeker’s advantage
Olivia Richman
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Developer Riot Games has informed Valorant players that peeker’s advantage is never going away. In a recent press release, executive producer Anna Donlon and game director Joe Ziegler discussed peeker’s advantage after the Valorant community became vocal about the number of deep corners and angles on the three maps in the closed beta. When an emeny comes around the corner and appears to be running and gunning while still accurate, …
Riot has already banned over 8,800 cheaters from Valorant
Olivia Richman
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Valorant’s anti-cheat software, Vanguard, hasn’t been too popular with the gaming community but it seems to be doing its job well. Riot anti-cheat data engineer Phillip Koskinas revealed on Twitter that 8,873 cheaters have been banned already. “Located a Valorant universe where there were 8,873 less cheaters and moved us all into it,” Koskinas joked. “Please be careful, as your bones may have shifted during dimensional travel.” located a VALORANT …
Massive Valorant patch hits Sage, Split, and buffs rifle accuracy
M Alzamora
News
Valorant has seen a handful of small changes since the release of its closed beta, but the game’s recent patch is its biggest yet. Valorant’s patch notes are long and detailed, covering everything from the walking accuracy of the Vandal Assault Rifle to the material of one specific box on Split. The biggest changes in Valorant’s 0.5 patch are several nerfs to Sage’s Slow Orb and Cypher’s Cyber Cage, as …
This Valorant shotgun reload bug lets shotguns fire non-stop
M Alzamora
News
Shotguns aren’t always a popular class of weapon in competitive first-person shooters. An oversight by Riot Games could quickly change all that. The Bucky is one of Valorant’s two shotguns, and normally players have to sit through a long reload after they use the weapon’s five chambered rounds. But a recent video shows a new way to keep the Bucky firing for much longer by reloading between each shot. The …
Forsen reveals the reason behind his Twitch ban in defiant rant
Olivia Richman
News
Four days after Sebastian “Forsen” Fors was banned from Twitch, the streamer has come forward with the reason behind his lengthy suspension. “I was banned for two weeks for saying ‘retarded Russians’ instead of ‘retarded people who can’t participate in voice comms in Valorant due to legal reasons,'” Forsen said on Twitter. Banned for 2 weeks for saying retarded russians instead of retarded “people who cant participate in voice comms …
Freakazoid, Zellsis, other CSGO pros leave for Valorant esports
Olivia Richman
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Ryan “freakazoid” Abadir is the latest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro to leave the scene to pursue a career in Riot Games’ new first-person shooter, Valorant. “Sometimes life says out with the old and gotta go with the new. I’m quitting CS and going to be playing Valorant,” freakazoid tweeted earlier today. The 27-year-old CSGO veteran was in the pro Counter-Strike scene for 10 years. He played for Cloud9 in 2015 …
CSGO veteran fRoD joins T1 as Valorant head coach
Olivia Richman
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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive veteran Daniel “fRoD” Montaner has been announced as T1’s head coach for Valorant. One of the most decorated players in CS:GO history, with championships on championships under his belt as both a player and a coach. We’re happy to welcome @OfficialfRoD as our head coach for Valorant, to further our org’s winning tradition in NA! #T1WIN pic.twitter.com/7gQpQSv1NA — T1 (@T1) May 7, 2020 fRoD was one of …
Forsen was just banned from Twitch, was toxic behavior to blame?
Olivia Richman
News
Twitch streamer Sebastian “Forsen” has just been banned from the streaming platform. Forsen hasn’t released any statement on the ban, so it’s unclear how long his account will be suspended or what the punishment is specifically for. According to some of his viewers, the Swedish streamer was being toxic in chat while playing Valorant, and this is what most likely led to his ban. Forsen was allegedly “flaming” his teammates …
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.
