VALORANT eSports — A Popular Team Shooter

The company Riot Games is well known to computer game fans and eSports fans. The fact is that the most popular MOBA game in the world and the most famous game discipline — League of Legends was released by the developers of the Riot Games team. For this reason, when it became known that Riot is going to release a new game with a focus on eSports, the news was accepted by the game community with great interest. In 2020, the official release of the new game, which was named Valorant. What is this game and what is the secret of its popularity in eSports?

The Essence and Rules of Valorant

This is a classic team-based shooter. In the Valorant game, there are 2 teams, each of which is staffed by five players. The match scenario assumes that one of the teams occupies the defense, and its opponents must break through that defense and plant an explosive device (spike). The task of the defenders is to prevent the bomb from exploding. This can be done in two ways — by destroying all members of the opposing team before the spike can be set, or by disarming the explosive device that has already been set. Accordingly, the attackers can also eliminate all of their opponents or plant the bomb and wait for it to detonate. Both options will bring the attackers victory. Players have a large selection of different firearms and additional ammunition available. Victory in a match is determined by the results of 13 rounds played.

Do the rules and descriptions of this game remind you of anything? Probably, attentive readers have already had time to draw a parallel with Counter-Strike. Indeed, according to the description, and purely visually the game is somewhat similar to each other. However, the brainchild of Riot Games has serious differences from CS:GO. First and foremost, of course, this is the presence of “agents”. Before the match, each player chooses an agent — a special character with a set of unique characteristics and skills. The choice of agent depends on the tone of the entire game, and also determines the role and tasks that the player must adhere to in the competition. There are a total of 4 roles or classes in the game:

• Duelists
• Instigators
• Sentinels
• Specialists

The characters’ skills are determined by their classes. Proper interaction between teammates, the precise execution of individual tasks, and the timely use of special abilities of agents is the key to victory in this game.

Valorant and eSports

Riot Games originally conceived their project as an eSports discipline. Many people believe that Valorant is a new generation electronic sport, which should turn the usual idea of shooters upside down. This is a bold statement and one that could be questioned if we didn’t know that Riot Games really can and do make legendary games.

At the moment, Valorant eSports is represented by several tournaments, the number of which is constantly increasing. The Champions Tour tournaments are considered to be the top events. They, in turn, are crowned by the main annual event — the World Championship, where the sum of $1 million is raffled off. Thus, having burst into eSports, Valorant is increasing the pace of development and is becoming more and more popular among professional eSports players and their fans every day.