One of the lesser-used abilities at Brimstone's disposal (for good reason) is his Stim Beacon. Tossing this out will grant you and any allies in the radius RapidFire either while standing in the effect, or for four seconds after leaving the area. This RapidFire can doesn't honestly make a huge difference and isn't going to do much for your team, but if you're pushing with a few teammates into the same area, you may as well give everybody the bo

This was likely done to raise the skill floor for Valorant to draw in more players and make the gap between casual and hardcore players less severe. With that said, a coordinated team that uses vision denial skills frequently could negatively impact the gun skill this game emphasizes so greatly. Agent balance will be critical for this to not become an is

Viper - Also a zone control character, although she uses poison. She can create pools of acid, or place a poison cloud emitter that she can pick up and move. Her signature move is a wall of poison gas, and her ultimate is a zone of poison that fogs enemy vision, outlines enemies who stand in it (for her), and stays as long as she stays in it (it doesn't hurt h

Phoenix - A zone control character who manipulates flame. He can throw fireballs that explode in an area or create a wall of damaging flames. His signature move is a curving flash grenade, and his ultimate lets him mark his location and teleport back there on de

It's not an overstatement to say that T1 and Nerd Sreet Gamers' tournament was incredibly fun to watch. From Hiko's insane 1v4 clutch to EliGE popping off at every possible moment, VALORANT proved that it can live up to the hype as an esp

This is a fantastic way to take care of an enemy planting the spike if you don't have a line-of-sight on them; they can try to stick the plant through the damage, but they'll pay for it with their l

Each map shown thus far has unique angles of approach and great map flow that separates itself from tri-lane map design that is commonplace in most FPS titles today . While having solid maps is key to a great competitive scene, starting with 4 might bore even the most devoted of players unless Riot can release more post-launch promp

This smoke can be used offensively to great effect too, used to block off valuable enemy sightlines allowing for you and/or your team to enter a site without defenders having access to their most favorable positions. Defenders are going to adjust to this as the match plays out, and you'll have to feel out which areas they're moving to in order to continue getting value out of these the longer the match g

Communication also allows for some sneaky plays within a match. Being able to ask a Brimstone to call in a sky smoke to hide where the spike is being planted gives your team a humongous advantage over a team of uncoordinated players. There are several abilities within the title that rely on a team's coordination, and without solid communication, they are almost usel

The system closely resembles what Overwatch has, where the game adds up the player's scores to make a total instead of pairing up players with similar scores and experience. This is another small change that would go a long way in attracting an audience to this platf

Players like sinatraa and brax, who were both high-profile signings, did shine but so did lesser known players like mouseSpaz's Yassine "Subroza" Taoufik and Prospects' Ryan "Winsum" Johns. It's possible that the rush for organizations to start bidding wars over big name players may be misguided. It could prove beneficial for teams to do their own scouting, and sign lesser known players for less mo

Even with the game's similarities to CS:GO , Riot designed VALORANT to be a unique experience. Although it's possible an established pro from another game will come and prove themselves the best, it's more likely that some fresh young talent will emerge and find his calling in VALOR

This phenomenon is exactly why a player should learn multiple agents. So that a player isn't just a one-trick pony. For multiple reasons, the one-trick pony dilemma is a starladder Berlin major issue in these types of games. If a match is playing out and your Phoenix is constantly being shut down by the enemy team, then you probably should switch to another agent that counters what is shutting your Phoenix down. Or as mentioned, someone locks you out of your main, you should always have a backup character if nee

Gen.G, seemingly had the greatest understanding. Despite being arguably outclassed mechanically by Team Brax, Gen.G's defense often seemed impregnable and their offense would steam roll through teams caught off guard. Michael "MkaeL" De Luca's Cypher play was masterful, and the information he gained allowed Gen.G's defense to become a brick w

The Incendiary can get into areas that you may not even be able to see too, since it can bounce around corners. This is another ability that's really going to reward map knowledge; once you've got a really good understanding of the map, the angles, and the areas that enemies are likely to be in, you can get a lot of use out of the Incendiary Launcher without even having to put yourself in harm's