Valorant
Valorant
Devs tease new creepy monsters called Smiling Critters for Poppy Playtime Chapter 3
Fariha Bhatti
Mob Entertainment is teasing new monsters for the upcoming Poppy Playtime Chapter 3, and players couldn’t be more shook. Poppy Playtime games have multiple toys with human-like souls creeping up the toy-manufacturing company, but there’s always one main antagonist. However, the developer may be breaking away from the tradition, introducing multiple monsters in the upcoming chapter — at least, that’s what the teasers suggest. After teasing the prototype and a …
Valorant
This Astra trick is perfect to counter Iso’s ultimate
Fariha Bhatti
Iso is bulletproof, but he is not invincible. In order to tackle his ruthless ultimate, players may want to have Astra in their corner. Iso has officially entered the Valorant protocol as a merciless aimer, equipped with a shield. Two of his abilities are centered around damage prevention, but the ultimate stands out as the most lethal of all. Turns out, Astra can help survive his ultimate. Players have discovered …
Valorant
100 Thieves sign eeiu to the Valorant roster
Tokoni Uti
North American organization 100 Thieves has signed former M80 player Daniel “eeiu” Vucenovic to the Valorant roster, it was announced last night. Eeiu, known as one of the highest-performing players in the Challengers scene, but was unable to qualify for the Americas-partnered league following a defeat to The Guard in the grand final. But he’s got a chance to perform at the highest level following his pick-up by 100 Thieves. …
Valorant
How to unlock the latest Valorant agent Iso
Fariha Bhatti
Iso is the latest Valorant agent to join the duelist roster. Eager players can unlock the new agent right away or within 30 days, here’s how. Valorant patch 7.09 nerfs Raze and the beloved weapon Judge, but it also adds a powerful duelist to balance things. Iso joins the battle between the two earths as a stylish initiator-like duelist, weilded with a power to block bullets. Like every new agent, …
Valorant
Newest Valorant Agent Iso abilities revealed
Tokoni Uti
The newest Valorant agent set to be released later this month was revealed earlier today with professional players and content creators allowed to show off the new duelist. The duelist who hails from China, dubbed Iso, will be the newest agent in Valorant and will feature some cool new abilities. Most notably, Iso has an ultimate ability that will drag his opponent into an arena where he will take on …
Valorant
Valorant agent 24 name leaked — a hint at their kit?
William Davis
Valorant agent 24 details are still scarce, but their name may have already been exposed by some very reputable sources. Riot Games is finally teasing agent 24 with animated clips on social media, and all signs point to a fearsome duelist who either grants or rewards precise gunplay. While a few small details about their kit have been teased, very little about the character has been shown. However, with their …
Valorant
Sentinels, Team Liquid, DRX reportedly invited to AfreecaTV Valorant OFF//SEASON event
Tokoni Uti
In a now-deleted post, it was revealed that some of the most high-profile Valorant teams such as Sentinels, Team Liquid, and DRX were invited to compete at the AfreecaTV Valorant OFF//SEASON event. A Vietnamese streaming platform partnered with AFTV, called OnLive, revealed that EDward Gaming, Sentinels, DRX, Team Liquid, T1, Paper Rex, FANCY, and FULL SENSE were allegedly invited to participate in the AfreecaTV Valorant OFF//SEASON event, which would be …
Valorant
Valorant agent 24 is a male duelist who “doesn’t miss”
Fariha Bhatti
If players had any doubts about the sharpshooting skills of Valorant Agent 24, Riot’s latest teaser would dispel them all. The upcoming male duelist is good with a gun. Taking to social media, Riot has shared a new GIF teaser for upcoming Valorant agent 24, and it confirms existing theories and reports. It seems Agent 24 will be quite similar to Jett and Chamber, a master of aim and precision. …
Valorant to get massive smoke changes in patch 7.08
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant leakers have discovered significant smoke changes, and the community isn’t sure how to feel about the reported tweaks. Unlike most other shooter games, utility is equally important as gunplay in Valorant. Each agent brings a unique power to the table, adding spice to pure gunplay. One class is entirely dedicated to blocking sight, called controllers. Now, Riot is changing how smokes act in Valorant, and a chunk of the …
Valorant player count 2023: How many people are playing?
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant has become extremely popular among FPS fans, but exactly how many people play Valorant in 2023? Here’s what we know about Valorant player count. Valorant entered the FPS genre as a less serious 5v5 FPS game. At least, that’s what players deduced from its upbeat, animated visuals. But the game has a massive player base and a widespread esports circuit in 2023. Riot’s FPS is making waves in 2023, especially …
Tex joins Leviatán to complete the roster
Tokoni Uti
Valorant
Latin American organization Leviatán has signed German-North American player Ian “tex” Botsch to the Valorant roster, it was announced last night. Tex is the latest addition to the roster following his stint with The Guard, where the player famously earned Ascension with the rest of the team but was released by the organization following an internal restructuring. https://twitter.com/LeviatanGG/status/1712606652245979408 But Tex will be able to compete in the VCT Americas league, …
Former LOUD player aspas joins Leviatán
Tokoni Uti
Valorant
Former World Champion Valorant player Erick “aspas” Santos has left Brazilian team LOUD to join Leviatán following weeks of speculation surrounding his future, the organization announced last night. With the move, Leviatán has developed a solid roster on paper prior to the VCT Americas season next year, where nine other teams will compete to become crowned the best team in the region. https://twitter.com/aspaszin/status/1712242315614474746 The organization is set to finalize the …
This Sova trick on Breeze is a game-changer
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Sova’s viability on Breeze is no secret, and this new trick further proves why he’s an excellent pick. Maps with sky openings are Sova’s home turf. The Russian Initiator can pull off wild tricks with his traditional bow and arrow, but on Breeze, his viability is unmatched. From gathering intel to drawing out enemies from A site’s choke points, Sova can do it all. This new trick demonstrates why he’s …
Valorant Night Market: All skins, release date
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant once again has players crossing their fingers in hopes of decent skins. Night Market has officially arrived. The thrift store becomes available in Valorant once every two months or so. Players get to purchase skins for cheap at least once per act, and this time, the Night Market has arrived in patch 7.07. On October 11, players will notice a new magical card appear on their main menu bar, …
Heretics announce revamped Valorant roster headlined by BenjyFishy
Tokoni Uti
Valorant
Yesterday, Spanish organization Heretics announced the revamped Valorant roster, which consists of some new and returning faces, with former Fortnite player Benjy “BenjyFishy” David Fish headlining the roster. The team will feature former S2G Esports player Enes “RieNs” Ecirli, Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius, Mert “Wo0t” Alkan, BenjyFishy, and Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius, Heretics announced yesterday. https://twitter.com/TeamHeretics/status/1711773656941048236 The roster changes coincided with the formal retirement of Oscar “Mixwell” Cañellas, who announced he’s stepping …
Rex Regum Qeon sign Jemkin to the Valorant roster
Tokoni Uti
Valorant
Today it was announced that Valorant player Maksim “Jemkin” Batorov has joined Pacific team Rex Regum Qeon after weeks of speculation about his future. Jemkin’s move to the league will be his first venture into the professional Valorant circuit, with some of the best teams in the world set to participate in the VCT Pacific league next year such as Paper Rex and DRX. https://twitter.com/teamrrqofficial/status/1711666731943612670 Jemkin, similar to other Russian …
How to fix bugged Valorant audio in patch 7.07
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Valorant players have noticed a weird audio bug after patch 7.07. Here’s how to fix it if your in-game sound is also disrupting gameplay. After patch 7.07, which reverts the rank restriction and slightly buffs Cypher, players noticed an audio bug that could be game-breaking. Due to distorted and misleading audio, many have ended up in hot waters, losing their ranked games. But it’s possible to fix the audio bug …
Who is Noot Noot? Pro Valorant team disqualified for cheating
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Unless you live under a rock, you probably already know about the latest cheating drama in the Valorant Game Changers. So, who is Noot Noot, and what exactly did the team do? On October 5, Riot caught a team cheating in a live game against Complexity GX3, which led to an instant forfeit of the match. Unsurprisingly, Noot Noot has been disqualified from the series, but fans of the game …
Here’s how to convert Valorant sens to CS2
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike 2 servers went live a week ago, and the game has already started roping in players from competitor FPS games, especially Valorant. If you’re new, here’s how to convert your Valorant sens to CS2. While both the games are pretty similar, movement in CS2 and Valorant is like night and day. In CS2, movement feels much lighter and smoother, facilitating jiggle peeking, counter-strafing, and many other stunts. In Valorant, …
Valorant team caught cheating against Disguised, Complexity
Olivia Richman
Valorant
Valorant Game Changers team noot noot is being investigated for cheating after a few suspicious wins. During a Game Changers Series III match against Complexity GX3, there was a weird extended pause on noot noot’s end. But after winning that match, noot noot went on to also beat Disguised Game Changers. Now, Riot Anti-Cheat has confirmed that one of noot noot’s players was cheating upon closer inspection. https://twitter.com/valesports_na/status/1710099437815754778 After losing …
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.
