Though most of today’s most popular esports games are played on consoles, some are designed exclusively for the PC. Valorant is one of them, and as one of Riot Games newest titles, it’s already making its mark on the industry. This is mostly because it takes the best features of similar shooter games and brings them together.
Most esports players and fans would find it hard to argue with a game that combines features of League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Overwatch, three of the industry’s most popular games. Valorant is that game that brings together the best of multiple worlds.
A Valorant Overview
As a first person shooter game that supports the multiplayer format, it finds one team playing defense while the other team attacks. If you are a CS:GO player you will notice that the game’s main mode is very similar to Valorant’s. The team assigned to attack is tasked with planting their bomb. The opposing team then has to find ways to avoid letting the bomb detonate. After 12 rounds of playing defense, teams switch so that the defense team can now play offense and vice versa.
Each match of the game lasts 25 rounds at a run time of 100 seconds per round. Teams have to win 13 of the 25 rounds to be declared the champions. Rounds start with a 30 second window in which teams can buy the gear and weapons they will need. Players that die during the course of any round are left out until the next round starts. This is similar to the way the defuse mode works in CS:GO.
When it comes to maps, the full version of Valorant includes four of them. Though smaller than you might expect them to be, they are sufficient to get the game started. Future updates to the game may result in more and/or larger maps. Valorant is definitely still a work in progress. Even so, most players would agree that the current state of the maps is sufficient to provide the needed battlefields.
What is different in Valorant is that at the start of each round, players can pick the Agent they want. Since each Agent has their own special skill, picking the right one can be the difference between winning and losing. Agents gain one specific skill through killing and being killed. Their other skills can be purchased before a round starts.
Players start out with a pool of five Agents to choose from. After your first handful of games have been played, you gain access to additional Agents. The remaining Agents you can either work your way through the game to earn or purchase with your own money if you don’t want to wait.
The Characters/Agents Of Valorant
New characters are earned after roughly every 20 matches you play, give or take a few. For every character you can play, you will gain a further advantage in the game. They all have one trick or another up their sleeves.
It helps to be familiar with at least some of the Agents before you start playing. The top agents in the game are Cypher, Raze, and Sage. Ranked slightly below these three are Breach, Brimstone, and Omen.
Cypher is the one to choose when spying on the enemy is part of your game strategy. His flair for setting traps against his enemies makes him a valuable Agent to have. For players that choose this character, the best part is that he is capable of detonating a bomb no matter where he is.
Raze is your man if you want someone on your side who will demolish anything in his way. Players that are skilled at finding and punishing the enemy will be a good fit for him.
Sage is the medical expert of Valorant. She’s talented at taking down the enemy and helping resuscitate any fallen comrades. It’s best to keep her undercover so your opponent doesn’t know you have her as a line of defense.
Breach has a talent for blinding anyone who stands in his way. He can eliminate enemies, or just force them to back off. Though he has share of powers, he’s not equipped to run solo, doing better as part of a team.
Brimstone has an arsenal of weapons he uses to eliminate the enemy. He is excellent at manipulating the movements of any enemies he might encounter.
Omen has teleporting abilities that mean he can strike when the enemy least expects it. His supply of tools makes it easy for him to initiate a sneak attack on the enemy when they least expect it.
Ranked Mode
As we speak, Riot Games is set to release a patch for Valorant’s ranked mode. The original plan was to refer to the game’s highest rank as Valorant, but it caused too much confusion among players. The patch will instead change it to the much less confusing Radiant, referring to the power infused into each Agent. The matchmaking process when forming teams of players will also be different after the patch is released. Riot Games is scrambling to fix it so that grouped up players don’t have an advantage over solo players.
That’s not the only way it will change Valorant. Its competitive mode makes it easier for players to join their friends in placement matches, as long as all of them have the same general skill set. This keeps everyone on a level playing field.
The Future Of Valorant
The patch update means that each season/act of the game take place over the course of two months. With the arrival of the competitive mode, players can track their progress in moving up the ranks. Information you can track may include players’ ascent up the ladder for each Act, how many times they’ve won, and even the number of winnings a player has in the highest level they’ve achieved in the game.
