Valorant: The Uprising Esport
It has been a terrible year for everyone, also affecting the mentality of the youth that it has become a struggle to overcome. And amid the pandemic, online games and platforms took their way to the top.
Students use it as an escapade from reality, for which they claim it as one form of stress reliever. It binds them with their peers, and it brings joy to one and all through it.
Striving for a spot in the teenage world, Valorant has become a top-grossing online game for youth gamers all around the world.
Dominating your foes with valor is what gives a competitive atmosphere between players. Headshots or riddling them with bullets somehow gives off a phenomenal feeling for players in the virtual world.
Valorant provides you fun and competitive gameplay. It was officially released on June 2, 2020, and is published by Riot Games, the famous developer of League of Legends (LoL) and League of Legends: Wild Rift or known as LoL:WR.
The software-developed game is described as child-friendly. It is suitable even at the age of 13 because it teaches them sportsmanship and the most important lesson: even in a higher position, you are all still the same players who want victory.
What does Valorant mean? The game was called Valorant in which has a meaning embedded in it. ‘Valor’ means courage and being brave, while the ‘-ant’ suffix means having the ability to. Therefore, by combining it, Valorant means having the courage and braveness in one’s within.
Valorant is a 5v5-shooter which can be played via personal computer (PC), Its game style is similar with the famous first-person shooter (FPS) game, CS:GO’s search and destroy. The objective of this game is to win each round by either defending or attacking successfully. And then each start of the round they would be rewarded credits, the amount depends on the performance of the player.
These creds or known as credits are the in-game currency of Valorant that were used to purchase weapons, shields, and even abilities during the Buy Phase each beginning of the round. It can be used also to purchase weapons for teammates who have low creds. Also, creds would reset after the first half of the game (12 rounds after), which is switching from defense to attack or vice versa.
Teams are composed of five (5) players each with the agent they have chosen before the matching started, and divided into two sides: the attackers and the defenders. The attackers’ main objective is to plant the bomb (called spike) and defend it at the same time on the selected planting site. If the attackers have successfully planted the spike, and killed all defender or could have remaining players on the other side but they have run out of time to defuse the spike, they’ll win the round. Planting a spike would take up to 4 seconds.
The defenders’ objective is to protect the plant sites by killing the attackers and having the spike planted go off by defusing to win a point/round. It takes 7 seconds to have the spike defused, uninterrupted.
What if there are still remaining defenders and the spike exploded? It doesn’t matter, the attackers still win the game as the objective of the defenders is to either eliminate all attackers or defuse the spike to win a round.
There are four (4) maps introduced that players could choose from during matchmaking: Ascent (has two plant sites), Bind (has two plant sites, this one has teleporters), Haven (has three plant sites), and Split (has two plant sites).
The match between the defenders and attackers is truly a challenge as it highly requires teamwork and strategies that could bring them victory. If for example, the attackers were not able to plant the spike within the given time frame, it will be an automatic win for the defenders.
Valorant consists of two halves, which both teams get to play as attackers and defenders fairly. Each half consists 12 rounds before switch, and the first team to win 13 rounds claims the victory. In any case that the scores tied at 12-12, they’ll get to an opportunity to play two more rounds — an equal footing for fair chance to win the match.
Just as other games, it has its ranked matches which motivate players to be competitive just to attain the highest rank they could as possible before season reset. Every player who just joined the game starts from Iron, and as playing competitively with other players, gradually they’d attain points to rank up: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum to Immortal, whereas the highest rank in this game is Radiant.
The game design is mostly sci-fi in genre. Although the guns are realistic, some items, characters and their skills, and the display and graphics are all hard-core science-fiction wizardry.
With Valorant’s unique gameplay and an active community, it has obtained the award “Game of the Year 2021” at the Esports 2021 despite the fact that it was just officially released a year ago.
