For the first time, the developers of VALORANT have a more detailed statement on the subject of esports. The new concept differs greatly from the riot monopoly known from League of Legends.
A new statement about the plans regarding esports has been published on the official VALORANT website. There, Director of Esports Whalen “Magus” Rozelle addresses the community of the fledgling tactical FPS.
First things first: The developers themselves want to keep the development of the game in the Esport segment at a distance for the time being. The first tournaments will be organized by the community. Unusual words from Riot Games. These are known through LoL for wanting to pull all the strings themselves.
We know VALORANT has the makings of a global esport, but want to make sure we're building it right – and together.@RiotMagus talks first steps toward building the VALORANT esports ecosystem and our community tournament support: https://t.co/2b9Wk4zPNj pic.twitter.com/WGICR4XJsT
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) April 15, 2020
Natural development should be the main focus
So while Riot “looks first for partnerships with players, content creators and tournament organizers,” everyone else can already organize tournaments. But Riot does want to have a say in larger organizations. In order to define this, they have divided non-riot tournaments into three categories:
– Small tournaments – up to $10,000 prize money and organized by players or people from the community. Are mainly organized for fun and competitive thinking.
This is where Riot gives free rein.
– Medium-sized tournaments – up to $50,000 in prize money and organized by smaller companies or esport organizations and brands. Serving the varanstalkers to monetize or promote their own brand, are usually not part of the “VALORANT Global Esports Ecosystem”.
Riot will make arrangements with the respective organizers for such tournaments. These vary according to the size and circumstances of the tournament.
– Major Tournaments – Tournaments of the largest Esports Organizations ( Riot explicitly mentions ESL, Dreamhack and OGN as examples), the tournaments are monetized and part of the “VALORANT Global Esports Ecosystem”.
Riot demands a say in these tournaments as well. The requirements are the strictest for tournaments of this kind, but the production quality should be enormously high. What exactly the Global Esports Ecosystem is supposed to be is not yet known.
New competition for Counter-Strike and co.
This news probably causes a headache especially for Valve as developer of CS:GO. VALORANT has solved exactly one big problem that has plagued Counter-Strike from the very beginning in its search for big sponsors: advertising friendliness.
While in Valves Shooter terrorists lay bombs, in VALORANT there are only attackers and defenders. The bomb is not called bomb, but Spike. Even the blood spatter that spurts out of the opponents when hit can be eliminated if necessary.
If the game prevails for a long time, the reactions of the competition will not be long in coming. The Esport market for shooters will be very interesting in the next few years. The first large organizations are already forming teams in VALORANT.
"What's gonna keep you playing VALORANT?" ~@BanKsEsports
LIVE Interview with @Officialbonkar
📺 https://t.co/ngMrxXJ9O2#GONINJAS #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/89fh9L9xqP— Ninjas in Pyjamas (@NIPGaming) April 15, 2020
Will you pursue VALORANT as an esport? Tell us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!
