Is Valorant the new standard for esport games?

Before its release in June 2020 Riot Games’ Valorant was known as “Project A”. Even under the ambiguous name, and before its completion, many gamers compared the shooting and movement mechanics to developer Valve’s most popular game, Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO). Despite the similarity of the core mechanics, Valorant proved to still hold differences, such as “Agents” and their abilities replacing generic characters and realistic grenades from CS:GO and the art style being much brighter and more cartoonish.

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CS:GO’s esports struggles

A possible reason for Riot’s will to make a similar game to CS:GO is the game’s struggling esports scene. Valve takes a very hands-off approach to CS:GO esports, mostly only involving themselves in the scene during “Major” events, seen as the most prestigious tournament for a team to win.

There has been discussion in the CS:GO esports scene about the issues it faces structurally, including a recent podcast-esque discussion between Erik “Fl0m” Flom[1], Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat[2], Rod "Slasher" Breslau[3], and Peter “ptr” Gurney[4]. The discussion mainly revolved around the clash between the many tournament organisers (TOs) in CS:GO. There was back and forth discussion about whether TOs, specifically tournament organiser “Blast” were being greedy by having so many matches played simultaneously and the amount of events per year. This is during a period where TOs are signing CS:GO teams to semi-exclusive contracts such as the ESL Pro League.

As well as TOs competing against each other for the best teams and calendar time, CS faces a major problem with sponsors. Due to the game revolving around a battle between “Terrorists” trying to plant a “Bomb” and “Counter-Terrorists” trying to stop the bomb being planted or defusing it, the game struggles to find sponsors. As could be expected, in a game full of real-life weapons, grenades and terrorist themes, many companies are unwilling to sponsor the esport.

Without LAN events being possible, esports is in a lull, a perfect opportunity for Riot to build Valorant esports’ infrastructure.

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Importance of LANs in esports

The abbreviation LAN means Local Area Network, which is a computer network through which the computers on the network are connected to the same internet connection through Wi-Fi or ethernet. However, in the world of esports, an offline event where competing players are connected to a server directly, resulting in zero latency is known as a LAN.

The importance of LANs in esports is paramount. Zero-latency is a key factor to competitive integrity, as latency depends on one’s network connection and proximity to the online server which can drastically affect in-game performance.

Other than competitive integrity, LANs offer the opportunity for fans to attend events and watch matches in person, adding atmosphere and a sense of importance, as LAN events are generally only hosted at the highest levels of an esport. The lack of atmosphere and competitive integrity at the highest level of esports due to the pandemic may discourage some from watching, as the results of those events may not truly indicate the best teams/ players in the world and make the events less exciting. LANs also allow for further sponsor opportunities such as Mastercard x League of Legends’ “Fans of the Day”.

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Riot’s solution

Riot Games’ Valorant counters almost every single problem CS:GO’s esports scene suffers from. In Valorant, the game is fought between “Attackers” and “Defenders”, the bomb from CS:GO is named “the spike”, and the spike’s detonation animation is more of a sci-fi black hole than CS:GO realistic explosion. The game even has the option to turn off blood and ragdolls (which are default settings in professional matches), furthering the esport’s attractiveness to sponsors.

Riot’s solution to CS:GO’s TO problem is to have a hands-on approach to the esport, which they have plenty of experience with, in League of Legends, the biggest esport in the world. This also solves the issue of co-streaming which Riot has given many big streamers such as Myth and Shroud permission to do. In 2019 Valve ruled that all esports content was owned by the TO, therefore requiring permission from the TO to be co-streamed. This came after streamer "Fl0m" was issued a DMCA strike by TO Starladder for co-streaming a tournament, something many CS:GO streamers had been doing for years. Riot allowing for big names to co-stream their esport will no doubt allow for it to grow further.

So how does Riot’s esport rank with others, and more importantly, CS:GO? According to newzoo.com Valorant is the sixth most-watched esport in February of 2021, with 2.9 million hours of esports content watched. In comparison to CS:GO’s 22.4 million, the number is small if Valorant is trying to outperform CS. However, considering the game released last year, in a pandemic when LAN events are not possible, and still having more esports hours watched than Fortnite and Rainbow Six: Siege combined, it’s not half bad.

Riot’s biggest hurdle to overcome will be the die-hard CS:GO fans who love CS esports, even with all its problems. After all, the Counter-Strike series has been around for 20 years. It will take some time, if possible, for Riot to convert the true believers.

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Other than CS:GO

Obviously, there are other tactical shooter esports, the two biggest being Overwatch and Rainbow Six: Siege. Some Overwatch players have already made the transition from the declining viewership of the Overwatch League (OWL) to Valorant, including its league MVP “Sinatraa”. Players like “nvk”, from the former Evil Geniuses R6: Siege roster have also made the switch.

With the declining viewership of OWL and only 2% of hours watch for Siege being for esports in February, Riot chose the perfect time to release Valorant and push its esports scene. However, in February only 4% of all hours watched for Valorant was for esports content. Though these figures could be skewed as it is not clear whether co-stream hours are also included in this statistic, it should be a worrying sign for Riot Games. The company must ensure to learn from the mistakes of others and find fixes to issues that cannot be avoided. A strategy they use in League of Legends is to integrate esports into the client, creating hype for important games on a player’s home screen, and selling team-specific skins, something that can be easily taken from CS:GO’s Major stickers system.

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The nail in the coffin

Perhaps Riot’s most underappreciated change from CS:GO is its art direction. With much brighter colours and a cartoony look, as well as the option to turn off all blood and dead bodies, compared to CS:GO’s realistic style, Valorant is much more appealing to children and their parents. Parents will be more willing to allow their kids to play a shooter game where all blood and gore can be turned off than a game in which that is not an option. The art direction of Valorant is most comparable to Fortnite or Overwatch, both massive successes in esports at one time.

Valorant map "Ascent" (left), CS:GO map "Dust II" (right)

According to Statista.com, in a 2019 survey, “32 percent of internet users worldwide aged between 16 and 24 stated that they watched esports, compared to only six percent of respondents aged between 55 and 64.” Many under 18’s in western society will have more time than adults to consume content and play video games, with their only responsibilities often being going to school and doing homework and chores. When looking to increase hours watched, children have the most potential to do so. With the average professional esport player being 26 years old, appealing to children makes the most sense to increase the number of potential professional players. This in turn creates steeper competition between players, raising the “skill bar”, and overall creating a more competitive and exciting esport.

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So, will Valorant be the blueprint for games built for esports?

In short, yes, Valorant entered the FPS esports scene at the perfect time, while CS:GO is having monetary issues, OWL viewership has been declining, and Siege’s player base is not embracing its esport.

But Riot’s work is far from done, the multi-billion-dollar company needs to be sure to learn from other’s mistakes and push their esport to their huge player base. However, until LAN events are finally possible again, Valorant’s full potential in esports cannot be reached.

In the next 10 years, I predict a battle for esports domination, spearheaded by Riot Games. Seeing as they already have a MOBA, auto-chess, an FPS, and an online card game, with a fighting game (Project L) on the way, Riot has covered almost every major esports genre. If other game developers do not keep up, Riot will have a monopoly over esports, and with the incredibly fast growth of the industry, developers cannot allow that to happen. Therefore, we will see gaming industry giants such as Activision-Blizzard and Ubisoft battle Riot for esports games, using other popular but problem-ridden esports as the basis for their games, as Riot has done with Valorant.

[1] CS:GO Streamer; Owner and founder of Team Mythic and Mythic League [2] CS:GO Shoutcaster/ Host [3] Esports Journalist [4] Professional CS:GO Player for team “Bad News Bears”