VALORANT was Riot Games’ biggest surprise for all FPS players. The tactical based shooter was first announced in late 2019, during Riot’s anniversary event, and it has already reached 7 months since it’s full launch. In this article we’ll be going over VALORANT’s remarkable 2020, what made it what it is today, and how it impacted the esports industry.
VALORANT’s remarkable 2020 – Game Release and First look
VALORANT’s closed beta kicked off on the 7th of April. To gain access, one had to get lucky enough to get a key by watching a featured twitch streamer. Unfortunately for some, there were a select few regions that were whitelisted, and they were; Europe, Canada, United States, Turkey, Russia and CIS countries. VALORANT officially launched on June 2nd, and just 2 weeks after its release, Riot introduced the Ignition Series, the first step to building VALORANT’s esports scene.
VALORANT’s impact on CS:GO and other Esports
VALORANT’s release impacted many Esports games and genres, especially FPS games. But the one game that suffered the most was CS:GO. Riot Games made VALORANT with the intention of competing with the current top dogs of FPS Esports. And at the helm, was none other than Valve’s Counter-Strike Global Offensive. When VALORANT was first introduced, Anna “SuperCakes” Donlon, Executive Producer for VALORANT addressed new features which CS:GO lacked. For example; server tick rates, peeker’s advantage, and most importantly, the Anticheat. This was the game’s main selling point, and there’s no doubt that it paid off.
In fact, North America’s CS:GO scene has been pretty much stated as dead. This was due to the few remaining teams that flew over to Europe and competed there. The majority of tier 2 CS:GO players departed their main game to pursue a new career in VALORANT. And some were lucky enough to find a solid team, whereas others, not so much.
Fortnite and other battle royale games suffered quite a bit as well. With VALORANT’s release, prominent figures like Ninja and Psalm switched over to the new FPS game, with hopes to go pro, or at least pursue a new esport title.
As mentioned above, VALORANT kicked off its esports scene with the Ignition Series. The Ignition Series allowed 20 esports organizations to host their very own versions of a VALORANT tournament. There were 26 tournaments overall, and a total of $571,847 was distributed as prize money between each and every event. G2 Esports were renowned as Europe’s most dominant roster, and in North America, we had TSM and Sentinels trading places for the #1 spot.
VALORANT Tournaments
After the Ignition Series’ concluded, Riot Games’ introduced the VALORANT First Strike event. This was the first event hosted by Riot Games themselves. First Strike was considered as VALORANT’s biggest event, equaling to what a Major in CS:GO would look like. The event consisted of multiple stages of qualifying, so that every single team with potential could reach the main event. Here we saw major upsets happening in Europe, as G2 fell against the eventual winners of First Strike Europe, Team Heretics. And in North America we had a new and fresh 100 Thieves roster dominating their region to claim #1.
VALORANT’s remarkable 2020 – Conclusion
Riot Games have taken the best approach when it comes to creating a new FPS game. In its 7 months of release, the game has already impacted the lives of many. Riot have impressed us all year long, and we cannot wait to see what they have planned next, for 2021.
