What is Valorant?

Formerly known as Project A, Valorant, a free-to-play 5v5 first-person shooter game, is expected to launch internationally sometime in Summer 2020. This is the most awaited shooter game since its announcement on stream during Riot Games’ 10-year Anniversary Celebration.

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The goal of the game is to win 13 rounds out of 25 by either successfully planting or defusing spikes (or bombs) or eliminating all the enemies on the opposing side. Each character will have 4 upgradeable special abilities aside from the basic attack they’ll have from their primary weapon which they’ll buy at the start of each match from earning money.

Unlike other shooter games, Valorant aims that all characters will have similar hitboxes to avoid overpowered small and fast characters that sweep right through your team. A problem which games like Apex Legends has been facing was that characters with large hitboxes had to compensate by having large health pools or big shields. Riot Games aims to feature player skill caps by focusing on the player’s ability to use the champion and not because the champion is overpowered by itself (which raises skepticism since Riot Games isn’t exactly known for making balanced characters).

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An In-depth Look into the World of Valorant

Unfortunately, the events which transpire in the game of Valorant are not set in the worlds of Runeterra. The game takes place on the planet Earth, which explains the origins of the characters, where a life-changing event called the First Light which has caused certain individuals to develop certain special abilities and powers. These individuals are called Radiants.

To combat the misguided Radiants, an order called The Valoran Protocol (which is also the name of Runeterra’s Valoran region) was established comprised of Radiants or individuals with access to Radiant technology. These individuals are called Agents and are the main task force who battle in the front line. Each of the Agents come from a different country on Earth, each have different backstories, personalities, and powers which make them unique from each other.

While Riot Games has not yet finished developing the entire lore of the Valorant series, we can expect that at least 12 Agents will be made available upon release. Much like how the players have grown with the stories of League of Legends character, the Riot storyboard will be focusing on creating an immersive world where players can connect with the characters.

What makes Valorant so special?

Unlike the paid model of Overwatch and Rainbow 6, Valorant is completely free-to-play! The team charged in making Valorant has taken all the good qualities of other games at the same time removing qualities which were heavily criticized. Since Riot Games has grown into becoming a mega-company with several departments and teams in various departments, it is highly likely that the game won’t have trouble finding success.

That being said, even without the official release the game has already garnered much interest in social media. There was an instant boom of tweets regarding the @PlayValorant official name and gameplay footage release. In less than 24 hours, the official Twitter Page has reached 300,000 followers.

Some notable personalities in both FPS games and League of Legends fans have also expressed their share of the hype by joking (or may seriously) about switching to taking a professional career in Valorant.

Nice try, Ocelote but that won’t stop you from getting 0-3’d at worlds. Anyways, in order to prepare for the eventual professional scene, various organizations have already started looking for members to join their roster. Even though the game hasn’t been officially released yet, some teams have already finished making the arrangements of transferring members from their Pro FPS Rosters to the Valorant roster.

Well, is there going to be a professional scene?

Of course, Riot Games is known for bringing one of the best competitive scenes in eSports history. With hundreds of thousands traveling from across the world in order to witness the World Finals in League of Legends, you can surely expect that Riot Games has no plans of making something smaller in scale. Even Teamfight Tactics, a spinoff of the popular auto chess series, has made its name through numerous streamers.

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This won’t be for a long time, however, since the game is in its early developmental stage and has a lot of room left to grow. With only 12 Agents in a 5v5 tournament, it would be hard for the games to show any diversity especially if the players figure out the moving forward in the game.

What else should I expect from Valorant?

To be blunt, you shouldn’t expect too much from a game so new. With popular titles already established in games like Overwatch and Paladins, you might find it easy to criticize a game despite being relatively young. Games like these require time and money to develop. The developers will need to go through several trial and error phases in order to fully polish the game.

Given that almost every part of the entire world has already heard of the release of this game, you might find that there are already existing communities where you can talk about Valorant. Look for discord groups, subreddit pages, or even Facebook groups where you can talk about news and speculations about the direction of the game. However, don’t initiate or start any toxic conversations on these groups (we’re talking about you, League of Legends players).

That’s about everything there is to know about Project A or Valorant. To be updated with everything League of Legends or relating to Riot Games make sure to follow our blog here at LolFinity.

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