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VALORANT offers new opportunity for FPS players

The plurality of Riot Games is finally coming to fruition. Originally dubbed “Project A”, VALORANT, the developers take on a first-person-shooter, has just hit closed beta with a bang after an exclusive alpha phase limited to certain content creators.

With Riot’s partnership with Twitch, VALORANT broke Twitch’s single-day hours watched record in a single game category just within the first few hours of the Closed Beta Tuesday, April 7th. VALORANT surpassed 1.7 million peak concurrent viewers – which is second only to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship Finals.

All eyes are on VALORANT right now as the new hot thing in gaming, and in esports. It offers an opportunity not only for seasoned players to try something new, but for newer FPS players who may find it difficult to “break through” in other games and esports.

Riot is known as a powerhouse in esports with how it handles League of Legends, and while the system for VALORANT will be different, it actually gives more opportunity for lower-level players. By splitting tournaments into three tiers – small, medium, and major – players will have chances to grow from competitions at every level.

There is so much untapped talent in FPS games that VALORANT could really be a place for players to get their shot. As it’s the hottest thing right now large organizations are really going to be looking to get teams organized. Teams like Ninjas in Pyjamas and T1 have already signed teams to prepare for not only when the game launches completely, but when Riot announces it’s esports plan.

Riot’s approach to making sure the hype train keeps chugging creates a special challenge for new content creators, though. By making beta access hunters watch hours of someone else’s stream, Riot is unofficially promoting these pre-selected streamers as VALORANT’s default stars and now, everyone that streams can drop VALORANT beta access. For all you content creators out there, find a unique angle, your unique voice, do something different than what you’re seeing so far. When you create VALORANT content that is uniquely you, the community you attract will be with you for life. See you in-game!

JB