Valorant is a tactical 5 v 5 FPS game that involves “precise gunplay.” It is the second biggest game from Riot Games, number one being League of Legends. The origin of Valorant is theorized to come from the famous game Counter Strike Global Offensive also known as CSGO. Riot wanted to create a game that people would be interested in for a lifetime. In Valorant, there are two teams, the attacking and defending teams. The attacking team wins if they take out the entire enemy team or plant and successfully defend a spike placed on an objective. The defending team wins if they prevent the spike from detonating or kill the attackers before it’s planted. Valorant is a fun game to play with your friends because you can form parties and play on the same team. Although Valorant is known as the fun FPS game you can play with your friends, the popularity of the game mostly came from its memes and competitiveness.
One thing you can relate Valorant with is memes. In addition to different kinds of guns, Valorant also involves abilities that create tactical opportunities to win the fight. There are multiple memes including the “precise gunplay” meme, “abilities don’t kill” meme, and “run and gun” meme. As you can probably tell from the name, the “abilities don’t kill” meme came from the overuse of characters’ abilities where they would get multiple kills with a single ability. Despite the fact Valorant is supposed to have “precise gunplay,” players still try to get kills by shooting their guns while moving which is not really “precise gunplay” thus creating the “run and gun” meme. Although Valorant is a fun and tactical game, players still get upset over people exploiting the use of the meta in the game such as overuse of abilities and “run and gun” tactical gunplay.
Valorant is still progressing therefore the popularity and competitiveness of the game continue to grow. Valorant is relatively a new game considering it started in the summer of 2020. More competitive players are joining the game and playing in competitions to build their reputations. Valorant Champion Tour organizes most of the Valorant tournaments and allows different kinds of teams to compete for a variety of awards. There are multiple tournaments including Regional, Open Qualifier, Closed Qualifier, Masters, and international tournaments. So far, Sentinels, a North American team, has dominated the scene in most of the Valorant tournaments. Sentinels even managed to win the very first international tournament, Masters Reykjavik, which earned them the title of the best team in the world. Even though there are a lot of top tier teams that dominate the Valorant scene, the Valorant Champion Tour allows new teams to enter and challenge the top tier teams including Sentinels, 100 Thieves, Envy, and Gambit. Despite the competitiveness, Valorant tournaments not only provide spaces for the competitors to compete but also build relationships with each other.
Most importantly, Valorant is a fun game to play individually and with your friends. With growing popularity, players will always have players to play with and against. So, why not give it a try?
