How will Valorant attract esports fans?

Valorant has conquered the attention of millions of players in just a couple of days. Riot Games is now looking for a new challenge to propel a second game to the front of the esports scene.

Riot Games launched the beta of Valorant with limited access earlier last month and it will be available to everyone in a few weeks. This new project is the creation of a competitive first-person shooter inspired by games such as Counter-Strike and Overwatch. Within this article, we will try and decipher what strategies will Riot Games be using to seduce esports fans.

The approach can be the collaboration with large tournament organisers such as ESL, ELEAGUE and FACEIT. Such organisers currently take care of the majority of esports tournaments around the world, in particular, international tournaments on games such as Counter-Strike.

Furthermore, they might be surrounding themselves with smaller providers who will be responsible for organizing tournaments hosted by the players themselves. These tournaments will allow players who possess outstanding skills to put themselves forward and gain notoriety.

In addition to partnerships, the gaming community will have a great role to play. Without this community, it is impossible for the game to exist in an esports setting. The community can be a force to put proposals forward while actively participating in the competitive development of the game. Key stakeholders such as streamers who offer tons of content on different streaming platforms (for example, Twitch and YouTube) can have a huge effect on the general community and they are a big factor in making or breaking a game in today's esports industry.

Esports organisations will also have a determining role in catapulting Valorant on the esports scene. Organisations such as Team Solomid, Cloud 9, Fnatic, SKT and G2 among others will probably occupy a place at the forefront. These teams are already posses a huge deal of experience on today’s popular games such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike and can be easily applied to a new game like Valorant. These are the organisations that will form teams made up of different professional players. Something that has already begun, with a clear example being the recruitment of “Brax” a Counter-Strike player by SKT (South Korea Telecom) one of the biggest esports teams in the world.

With esports being very present in our daily life, there is no doubt that the creators will quickly set up an economic model which will conquer a large audience. They’ve already seduced the world with League of Legends, can they do the same with Valorant? We will have an answer in the coming months!