Brianna Jarzomkowske

A photo of the Valorant Episode 8 Act 1 loading screen opening up.

Valorant has done it again. Winning the Esports game of the year is already a huge accomplishment but to do it for the third time in a row is outstanding and much rewarding! The Valorant community is continuously growing, standing at 11.81 million players being a part of it, so this award is no surprise. 

The Esports Awards in general are dedicated to showcasing top performances by players, media, games, events, and much more. The nominees for Best Esports Game of the year award were League of Legends, PUBG Mobile, Dota 2, Counter Strike 2, and Valorant. All of these games were very successful in 2023 so this is a huge achievement for Valorant to come out on top again for the third year in a row. 

Valorant is a FPS (First-Person-Shooter) game that was published in June of 2020 by Riot Games. The game consists of “players being assigned to either the attacking or defending team with each team having five players on it.” While playing, you are on what is called a map that could either have two or three sites to defend or attack on. There are currently five maps in the map pool since Episode 8 Act 1 was released last week.

In game, there is a “Buy Phase” where you can purchase all your weapons and abilities before the round actually starts. Each round is around 2 minutes long. There is also something called your economy where you need to learn what weapon and ability to buy in certain circumstances. The money made in your game depends on the amount of kills and planting spike. 

 Valorant also has 6 different game modes that you can play. 

1. Unrated which is where you play till someone wins 13 rounds. The game is split into two halves of 12 rounds each (one half defending and one half attacking). This game mode can last up to 30-40 minutes.
2. Competitive which has the same rules of an unrated but you are competing to win RR (points determine a player’s rank) to rank up. Compared to unrated, you honestly don’t know how long this specific game could take. If the score ends up getting to 12-12, it goes into overtime until a team wins two rounds back to back. All the ranks are listed here https://support-valorant.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047937633-VALORANT-Competitive-Mode-FAQ 
3. Swiftplay which is a shorter version of unrated that plays only up till 5 rounds are won.
4. Spike rush is an even shorter version of the unrated mode that is played until 3 rounds are won. The game itself is faster paced and there are different orbs you can pick up to get certain abilities or advantages.
5. Deathmatch is a nine minute game mode where you play with no abilities, only weapons. You are also solo insead of being on a team with 4 other people. Many people use this as a warm up for comp to practice their aim. 
6. Team Deathmatch is a nine minute and 30 second mode that is similar to deathmatch but you are on a team of five people with abilities that generate every so often. There are levels throughout the nine minutes that change the guns to a higher damage level. First team to 100 kills, wins.

While playing Valorant, you aren’t just any other character, you are an “agent”. There are four categories within the agents: controller, duelist, initiator, and sentinel. The controller role “allows them to assist their teammates by cutting enemy vision and taking control of an area.” The duelist role takes on the responsibility of entering onto the site and engaging with enemies. The initiator role is to detect where enemies are with their utility/abilities. Lastly, the sentinel role helps the team hold down a site and watch out for attacks from behind. In total, there are 24 agents and here you can view everything about them! (https://valorant.fandom.com/wiki/Agents) Everybody is also excited for the new controller agent to be released in Episode 8 Act 2 to make it 25. 

Another cool feature about this video game is that they include a shop. Every day at 7 pm EST, the shop rotates four different skins for either a melee or weapon. In order to purchase these skins, you must have “VP Points”, which you can acquire by purchasing them with money. Be careful because from personal experience, it is very easy to spend a lot of money. A new shop just opened, but it is for accessories from previous battlepasses that you could not normally access. 

I personally really enjoy playing Valorant and I hope the community continues to grow. It would not hurt to have more positivity spread around in the community!