Why ‘Valorant’ is poised to be the next big esport

If you’ve been anywhere near Twitch lately, you’ve seen one game breaking viewership records and leading the charts by a wide margin at nearly all times: Riot Games’ new tactical team shooter, Valorant. If you haven’t been near Twitch lately: Hello! It’s time to talk about Riot Games’ new tactical team shooter, Valorant.

The game, which has been in closed beta (access is available by watching the game on Twitch, one of the reasons the game has been so popular on the platform) since April 7, has had a massive hype train following it since it was first known as “Project A,” and seems to be on the path to be the next big thing in esports.

Let’s go over what it is and why that’s the case.

Valorant is a 5-vs-5 tactical shooter, combining the core gameplay elements of legendary esports title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the character selection and ability usage of other titles like Overwatch and League of Legends (the latter being Riot Games’ massive success in the MOBA genre).

There are currently three different playable maps and 10 unique characters. Each character has four different abilities (e.g. crowd control like slows/stuns/blinds, smokes to impair vision, heals, dashes/jumps, etc.). Each character also has an “ultimate,” a very powerful ability that charges up over the course of the match.

What does that all look like in practice?

Here’s a highlight from a recent Twitch-hosted tournament, featuring former CS:GO professional Skadoodle, using smokes and good positioning to pick off multiple players.

And one more highlight, featuring former Apex Legends pro dizzy:

There are a lot of contenders in the esports space, and many of them in the shooter market alone. Overwatch, Fortnite, CS:GO, Rainbow Six: Siege, Call of Duty, Halo, just to name a few — many are household names even for people who don’t closely follow video games. Even in such a crowded space with established esports scenes of varying scales, Valorant looks poised to blow up. Why? A few reasons.

If you’re new to the world of esports, you might not have heard of League of Legends, Riot Games’ major product to this point. But League is arguably the biggest esport in the world, with professional leagues in more than a dozen countries, nearly 8 million concurrent players daily, and an average of 21.8 million viewers per minute for the 2019 World Championship, per data Riot has released.

Riot’s had success with League in what I consider the three pillars of grand-scale modern games success: a massive international player-base, an army of creators/influencers using the game and its IP to make content, and esports viability/popularity. It’s hard to think of a studio better positioned to repeat that success with Valorant.

The model

Riot got one thing right early on with League of Legends: ease-of-access. Yes, the game is notoriously difficult to learn (even Valorant doesn’t have as steep of a learning curve), but Riot’s games are free-to-play, and don’t have high system requirements or storage space needs like many other competitive shooters. Valorant’s system requirements are so low, most cheap PC laptops can run it.

This allows people around the world and of different financial backgrounds to take part, not just people who can afford the expensive parts required to play titles like Call of Duty. It’s one of the reasons League has thriving esports ecosystems and dedicated playerbases in so many countries across the world.

Following the CS:GO gameplay model is also a great choice. The game is one of the most venerated esports titles of all-time, and the tactical shooter genre is singular for its combination of skill and strategy. In Valorant and CS:GO, shooting is more important than in games like Overwatch and Fortnite. In tactical shooters, just a few shots will kill you (or one well-placed headshot).

The strategic possibilities are endless in a way reminiscent of traditional team sports. Each five-person team will have their own unique approach on attack and defense, and with each round must adjust as they learn about their opponent (who, in turn, is adjusting to them). Like many of the best traditional sports, there’s only so much you can prepare before a match: what matters most is how you adjust in-game.

Valorant also allows for great individual showdowns in the midst of a team game, in a way similar to the pitcher-batter dynamic in baseball. Usually, players will defend the same site over the course of their defending half. So for example, let’s say I’m defending the “A site” on a map from one particular corner. The past two rounds in a row, I’ve killed the same attacker attempting to get onto the site from the same angle. For round three, I’m expecting the attacker to change their approach, knowing where I’ve been the last two rounds. I can change the spot I’m defending to account for that — but what if the attacker is expecting that, as well? These mind games give added depth to the genre beyond just the team play.

Riot has also made some key changes to the CS:GO formula which should help its broader marketability. In addition to adding character selection (each with unique abilities), Riot has also made it a requirement for tournaments to turn off the “show blood” setting (an option that does not exist in CS:GO). Also notable is the two teams in CS:GO are called “terrorists” and “counter-terrorists.” As you might imagine, that can occasionally cause a wedge when attempting to land major corporate sponsors for events. And Valorant’s art style, as you’ve seen above, is purposefully not very realistic — unlike CS:GO, a game in which it looks and feels like you’re shooting real people (or at least something close to that).

The talent

For starters, the team of developers is filled with former CS:GO pros and other all-stars from the genre. In fact, there was an exhibition match recently where current esports pros and streamers took on a team of developers. The developers smoked them.

There’s also the broadcast talent: former CS:GO commentator Lauren “Pansy” Scott has been casting early Valorant tournaments, as has former CS:GO pro player-turned-commentator Jason “moses” O’Toole. And former CS:GO host Alex “Machine” Richardson was recently hired by Riot to work with their European League of Legends broadcast. It’s easy to see a future where Machine transitions over to the Valorant broadcast team.

But the talent I’m mostly talking about here is of the currently playing variety. We’ve seen an exodus of professional talent from CS:GO, Fortnite, Overwatch and other top-tier shooters. You may have noticed in the clips above that those players used to be pros in other game titles. Many of them have released statements indicating they’ll be moving to Valorant full-time. (In fact, on the day of publishing this article, one of the highest-profile defections yet happened: reigning Overwatch League MVP Sinatraa, who will reportedly retire from Overwatch to play Valorant).

Just read this quote, from 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals runnerup Psalm:

“Valorant is the next gaming titan and will have the most saturated and diverse pool of talent we’ll have ever seen,” Psalm told ESPN following his announcement. “I know Riot will crush it and have a stable competitive scene. I want to be a part of that and be at the top of yet another game and genre.”

The level of genuine excitement from people whose literal job it is to play first-person shooters has been building for months, and it’s been spreading to the larger playerbase. Riot’s roll-out of player access through Twitch drops has certainly helped — for those unfamiliar, by watching someone streaming Valorant on Twitch, you have a chance of getting access to the closed beta. The door is technically locked, but you can get a key if you tune in (thereby getting you even more excited).

We’ve seen a few different paths for emerging esports in recent years: Blizzard’s bold $20 million price tag for the first group of franchise teams in the Overwatch League is certainly among the more audacious, but the more common path runs through community-organized tournaments generating organic interest over time before a more structured approach develops. Whalen Rozelle, Riot’s director of esports, wrote a blog post about the company’s plans for the beginning of Valorant esports, and it looks like they’ll be following the second option to start things out, sanctioning tournaments (many have already been played).

As part of our Authenticity principle, we want to let Valorant grow naturally; we’re not looking to force anything too quickly without knowing what’s best for esports fans. As such, a primary focus early on will be forming partnerships with players, content creators, tournament organizers, and developers — unlocking them to help us to build this ecosystem.

Riot also released a series of community competition guidelines, broken into separate tiers based on the size of the event and including some general rules about trademarks, promotion, prizes and broadcasting (and the aforementioned rule about turning the “show blood” option off).

So keep an eye out — Valorant tournaments are going to continue to pop up, and it might not be long before we see some sort of official esports structure. In the mean time, if you’re interested in the game, feel free to watch on Twitch — if your Twitch account is linked to your Riot account, you may just get access to the game yourself. I stream the game occasionally as well, so feel free to follow me there too!

Got any more questions about Valorant, or esports? It’s a good time to learn. Let me know in the comments.