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Blog entry by Olive Chuter

Why The World's Best Gamers Have High Hopes For VALORANT

Why The World's Best Gamers Have High Hopes For VALORANT

Even on the game's home page, digital wonderland the VALORANT touts its gaming specs . It also highlights its anti-cheat mechanisms. While the anti-cheat isn't without controversy , these things are both testaments to the fact that the developers created the game with high expectations for competitive p

_ Fortnite _ players frequently encounter these issues. The game changes rapidly and frequently introduces new mechanics. In the past, it did so days ahead of major tournaments and events, spurring outrage from players . Sometimes, these updates designed to appease its younger players are a headache for the game's competitive commun

Appearing on almost every stream, VALORANT has been showing a lot of promise with its fast-paced and strategic gameplay, as well as great emphasis to both raw mechanical skill and tactical mindset. While the game is only in closed beta right now, there's still quite a bit of information

The first of Phoenix's abilities is his powerful Blaze ability. When using Blaze Phoenix casts a far-reaching wall of fire. This wall of fire does damage over time and restricts the enemy and friendly player's vision from either side of the wall. When casting Blaze Phoenix is capable of curving and adjusting the angle to which the wall travels. Allowing Phoenix players to cover some tricky and crucial angles with this abil

Both agents have vastly different abilities that help them locate players, but Sova is a must-have on any team. While Cypher's abilities may allow for more damage mitigation, Sova can ultimately locate players faster and eas

Viper is fantastic for a brutal 9th rating, but hear me out. Her abilities, while useful, can be functionally replicated by those of other agents. Her Toxic Screen and Snake Bite abilities are very similar to Phoenix's; Her smokes can be replaced by Jett's, Omen's, or Brimstone's. Her Viper Pit is useful for spike plants, but can work against your team easily too. It is also impossible for enemies to die to the gas, leaving them at 1HP; If they see you first, you still may go d

Phoenix's ultimate is one of the most interesting in the game. As it provides the fire-casting character some of the best survivability in the game. Run it Back allows Phoenix to create a clone of himself which is set to a set timer. When this clone is cast Phoenix can travel from his "real" body and attack enemies, see their location, cast his abilities, or do anything he can in his set period. When the time is up he will travel back to where his "real" body is. If the Phoenix clone is defeated before the time is up than the clone will disappear and the Phoenix player will resume from his original location. This ability is one of the best abilities in the game and allows Phoenix players an unprecedented versatil

At the start of each round, there's a buying phase during which players can spend credits earned in previous rounds to purchase weapons, armor and some special abilities. In order to earn credits, a player needs to earn kills during the ro

To find the most success with Phoenix understanding how to use his abilities effectively is a necessity. Thankfully, Phoenix's kit allows for players of the character to combine his abilities to create a variety of synergies. Alongside the character's potential for some powerful team-related combination, Phoenix players are spoiled for choice when it comes to optimal p

Curveball is Phoenix's second ability in which the Pyromancer fires a flashbang-style fireball. When using Curveball the Phoenix player can curve the trajectory of the attack in either a right or a left angle allowing Phoenix to use the attack to blind players camping behind or around the corner of pesky choke points. This makes Curveball one of the best abilities for a team to use to counterattack a well set-up team and change the tide of battle in their fa

It’s still far too early to tell how much longevity _ VALORANT _ might hold as an esport, especially when competing with games that have established scenes like _ DoTA 2 _ , _ CS:GO _ and _ Starcraft II _ . However, with its recent introduction of a ranked mode , it’s obvious that Riot is eager to continue to fashion _ VALORANT _ into a highly competitive game, with the hope that such an emphasis will translate into esports succ

Interestingly, _ VALORANT _ is free-to-play. Theoretically, could lead to its adoption even by casual gamers. But it’s important to note that in its launch phase, it’ll be available only on PC. Top-tier companies design impressive gaming PCs to run games with the best game performance. This is contrary to Xbox and PlayStation , which are far more limited in terms of performance and lack customization options. Essentially, this means that the game favors these high-powered PC players. The hope would be that the game could drive the most elite gamers to play VALORANT instead of other games that are built for more casual communit

However, her ultimate packs the biggest punch. When her ultimate is ready, Raze fires a rocket launcher that causes a massive explosion wherever the rocket lands that deals devastating damage to those within the blast radius. This can be compared to Brimstone's airstrike, but there is far less warning for Raze's incoming roc

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