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The Valorant closed beta has been out for a little over a month. And it seems like some of the top eSports teams in the world can't help but invest a lot of money in creating an official roster for the game.
If a few recent tournaments are something to go by, we can clearly see how popular the game has gotten in just a few months. However, this is not all that surprising.
Valorant is by far one of the most accessible tactical first-person shooter games to have hit the gaming industry in a very long time. It mixes both the elements of CS: GO and Overwatch, and creates a platform which fans from different FPS genres will be able to enjoy.
In both the T1 Invitational and the recent Twitch Rivals, we could see just how many players played and enjoyed the game. The winners even took home a big prize pool, which for a game that is still in its beta stage, is just ridiculous.
Valorant is here to stay in the eSports industry
With the amount of popularity that it has garnered in just the first month of its release, it’s plain to see that Valorant is going to be very successful in the eSports scene. The game is scheduled to officially launch later this summer.
Riot’s senior director of eSports, Whalen Rozelle, released a statement on Riot’s Valorant website, stating:
“We're overwhelmed by the initial interest and excitement in Valorant. We have massive dreams for what this game can be as an eSport, and we're excited to embark on this long eSports journey with our players. Our primary focus early on will be forming partnerships with players, content creators, tournament organizers, and developers -- unlocking them to help us to build the Valorant ecosystem."
Rozelle might be hinting at a future competitive league for Valorant, just like with Riot’s other game League of Legends, which has its own regional series and a World Championship.
Many eSports organisations are investing in Valorant
Both Twitch Rivals and the T1 Invitational drew a lot of big names and organisations from across the globe.
The T1 tournament was an incredible hit, and was the second most-watched event in Twitch streaming history, capping over 1.73 million viewers.
So, why are these big organisations investing in a game that’s still in its beta stage?
Well, behind the scenes, Riot has seemingly been personally meeting big eSports titans to discuss the future of Valorant. Riot has reportedly been presenting them with a road-map of Valorant, that states where they want their game to be once it officially releases.
However, this is surprising. No matter how successful the IP is during its launch or even in the closed beta, the developers never really pursue a competitive scene for it before it completes at least a year.
There is still a lot of speculation regarding which eSports giants the Valorant developers met, and whether they are discussing tournaments or franchised leagues in the future.
Apprehensions about too many tournaments
Over the last few weeks, Valorant has had an incredible number of tournaments. Organisations have shelled out big bucks to host as well as participate in various competitions.
However, too many cooks may just spoil the broth. And in the case of Valorant, streamers such as Summit1G have voiced their concerns and apprehensions about how too many tournaments can completely ruin an IP's eSports scene.
Summit1G is no stranger to controversy, and he is famous for hitting out at developers if he feels that they’re not properly handling their games.
In the past, he was quite vocal about his criticism of Valve, and how they have been ruining CS: GO for a majority of the player base.
When it came to commenting on Valorant, he recently tweeted: “Valorant. Don’t let tournaments ruin our game category like Counterstrike did. Thanks.”
To him and many of the streamers who love the game, less is much better, and perhaps Riot will be working towards that in the future.
But for now, the immense popularity of the game and the variety of tournaments being held on it has given the developers a lot of information and stats to work on. Hopefully, they will be listening to their fan base while moving forward.
