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This new shooter shares similarities with popular titles such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch. Valorant is set up into two halves. The first team to 13 rounds wins. Each half has each team switch sides, from attacking to defender and vice-versa. The attacking side must plant a spike that explodes, before the time of the round is over. The defending side must defuse the spike before it goes off to win. This gameplay is heavily similar to the round structure of Counter-Strike. In conjunction with this round structure, abilities instead of grenades are used. Sounds like Overwatch doesn’t it? With this conglomerate of Counter-Strike style gameplay and abilities from Overwatch, it is sure to turn heads and change the minds of professionals of both respective games. 

Many professionals have already switched over to Valorant, notable ex Counter-Strike players Brax and AZK have already made the switch. They now reside in T1, a notable professional team that has dabbled in the likes of League of Legends. Many streamers have already started to stream Valorant as their main form of content. With the immense hype, Valorant in the first few days of closed beta reached a massive amount of viewership on Twitch.tv amassing a million individuals all watching at the same time. 

Many professional players have given high praise to Valorant, Shroud a widely known streamer and ex-professional Counter-Strike player gave high praise to Valorant before the close beta. He states, “It’s one of the greatest games I’ve played in a very, very long time” He also states that it is a “gem” of a game. Additionally, retired Dota 2 player Jacob “Maelk” Toft-Andersen has stated in a roundtable that, “It can create this fps niche of its own where it takes all, or a lot of the good things from Counter-Strike but also has its creations and has things from other games as well”. Shox, a professional player on Vitality for Counter-Strike has also stated in a QnA that, “The game itself gave me a lot of positive vibes and it was enjoyable to play Valorant”. Valorant puts a new perspective of gameplay on players as it will ultimately be a hectic combination and new creation of multiple titles. 

Other players have also stated their concerns, for example, Fl0m (a popular Counter-Strike player and Semi-pro player for Mythic) has exclaimed, “A SLIGHTLY more normal spray at least initially. Just a touch. Maybe it’s the cs in me. I don’t necessarily want a full 30 bullet spray pattern but some fights feel so off”. Many others have also stated their complaints about game mechanics and game balance. 

In terms of future E-sport endeavors, Valorant is shaping up to be a competitor which will affect the efforts of Valve and Blizzard on their games. In response to Valorant’s closed beta, two new Counter-Strike updates were implemented. Hopefully, this is only the beginning of updates as competition will allow all of these titles to flourish and be better versions of themselves. The future of Valorant is looking bright, with support from fans already and professional players already switching to Valorant, marketability, and future updates almost look guaranteed. 

See exactly what the pros say!