Valorant's current eSport/competitive scene

The world perceives a sport to be purely athletic, that you need to exercise for hours and train every day. The definition of what a "sport" is has narrowed down to a single meaning. This is precisely why when "esports" arrived, people discriminated against the fact that it's not a sport as you're not exercising your body and you're not training. To them, it's simply a game in which people take part in as their past time or hobby. However, little do they know that the esports scene is rising. You can see various tournaments filling up a stadium with millions of dollars worth of prize pool that's on the line. Esports became more than a sport- it became a culture. There are various of esports out there similar to Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rocket League, and League of Legends. However, there is one game in particular that's new to the esports scene- and that's Valorant.

Valorant pro scene

When the beta version was released, a lot of the retired pros from the Counter-Strike community went back to pro gaming just because Valorant was that impressive. One of these is Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, who is well known in the Counter-Strike community. His former team, Cloud 9, won the first ever major that North America could ever get a grasp on. Running side by side with him is his former teammate, Braxton "Swag" Pierce. Swag technically didn't retire from Counter-Strike, he was banned from Counter-Strike just because of the match-fixing accusations that he was included in. Despite this, T1 took Brax to run the team with Skadoodle. Another well known professional Counter-Strike player is Spencer Martin, who goes by the name "Hiko" - The inhuman reaction. Hiko is one of the smartest players that the NA Counter strike has ever seen. However, with the reputation of having bad luck, Hiko jumped around team after team after team, until he decided to just stream for a little bit. After Valorant's release, Hiko fell in love with the game and the game loved him back. Fast forward to now, wherein he's currently playing for 100 thieves.

There are still multiple of names that went from Counter-strike: Global Offensive to Valorant. There have been a lot of speculations that Valorant will surely replace Counter-Strike in the upcoming years in the esports scene, which is highly debatable. However, with the rise of Valorant, anything is possible.

One of the remarkable things about Riot is that they know how to market their product effectively. They know how their market ticks, and they're confident that having a story behind the game will fire up the players. Riot Games is well-known for bringing up stories to their games, leading you to a surprise that you never saw coming. One of the reasons why League of Legends is a hit- it's not just because of its gameplay- it's also because of the story that Riot games built. Riot released a statement that they'll be unfolding various stories that will make Valorant what it is today. They're also known for making great animations for marketing their game. Another reason why Valorant esports is going to be a hit.

Valorant competitiveness

Competitiveness in Valorant is similar to every esport, but with a distinctive twist. In Counter-Strike, you can clearly see who's the winner by observing the scoreboard. In Valorant, however, it's a whole different thing. Just because the scoreboard is set against you, you can't go down easily. You can be guaranteed that there will be multiple chances for a team to get back up in order to get it all. This just goes to show how balanced the game is with proper team play, proper use of utilities, and proper utilization of the set of agents that your team has. You need more than a good aim and cross-hair placements to win games. Proper call outs are a must. The map is incredibly compact, you can run into an enemy once the round starts. This is why various agents can challenge tight corners, and some agents can secure those tight corners for the proper setup. There are also agents that can easily re-take a site and agents that can hold a site all on their own. The game is so well-balanced. That's why a lot of retired pros came back from their own perspective retirement homes just to play this amusing game on a professional level.

However, with all the hype that it has, Riot knows that the viewership count of the recent tournament called "Ignition series" is quite subpar. They know that the esports observer tool needs a lot of work and they're taking notes to configure everything, to be better for the viewers. Despite this issue, this doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of well-known teams which are investing in Valorant. There are teams that started off in League of Legends that currently have a Valorant team. One of the examples above was T1, and another example is Gen. G.

Valorant competitive is something more compared to any other shooting game. The game itself is anticipating to play and watch. Since the game is brand new, people are still discovering the meta, which the game currently has. Watching a pro match will fire up every players' perspective. They will learn a lot of strategist and team compositions. The skill ceiling of this game is so high that even the pros aren't scratching the surface of it quite yet.

Valorant esports will surely rise up in the upcoming years. Some even claim that Counter-Strike is still at the top, no matter the time frame, and I agree on that. However, Valorant proves to be on a distinct level, different from that of Counter-Strike.

Valorant is a combination of a first-person shooter with a dash of RPG. Put some skills on them, so they can use them as utilities. You have healers, entry fraggers, and supports that can set up an attack or a defend, Lastly, you have someone who can lurk from behind to attack the unaware. Call them Agents, so that players will never get bored amidst playing them, and there you have it, Valorant.

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