The Initiator: Valorant tournament series revealed, but where are those player numbers?
Plus, who to watch this weekend.
Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Initiator, a biweekly newsletter about Valorant.
By Cameron Bray
Valorant Ignition Series announced, and the first official tournaments are this weekend
Riot Games announced Tuesday, June 16, that it would launch the Valorant Ignition Series, in which the developer will partner with more than 20 esports organizations and begin hosting official competitions for the game around the world. These tournaments, Riot Games said in its announcement, are:
The G2 Esports Valorant Invitational, which is partnered with the European club G2 Esports — will take place from Friday, June 19, to Sunday, June 21, with eight teams participating. Eight captains will lead their teams into battle, but — as an element of surprise by Riot Games and G2 Esports — they won’t learn who their teammates are until the day before the tournament. The prize is set at 15,000 euros, or about $16,900, according to a news release from G2.
The second tournament — the RAGE Valorant Japan Invitational, partnered with the Japanese club RAGE — will also take place this weekend, with 16 teams competing for a prize of 500,000 yen, or almost $4,660.
In addition to the overseas competitions this weekend, Riot announced the T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Valorant Showdown, the first North American competition in the Ignition Series. The 16-team Showdown will play from Friday, June 26 to Sunday, June 28, patterning with clubs T1 and Nerd Street Gamers. The prize pool is set at $50,000, the largest winnings to date in North America.
The Showdown will leave four spots available — out of 16 — for new teams to qualify. Two play-in events will be held Saturday, June 20, and Sunday, June 20, to determine which teams will fill these spots and make the tournament. These events are open to all players, meaning anyone can register.
Since release, Valorant has seen several tournaments take place among teams worldwide, although none were officially partnered with Riot Games as the Ignition Series will be. One of these tournaments — the debut, $200,000 Twitch Rivals Tournament — drew 300 players and included 16 teams from North America, Europe, South Korea and Japan.
Early reviews of Valorant: pretty good!
Released from its closed beta little more than two weeks ago — on Tuesday, June 2 — Valorant has already drawn tens of thousands of new and old players to its servers, millions of viewers to Twitch, and dozens of reviews to Metacritic and elsewhere.
Kyle Campbell of IGN, gave the game a 9 out of 10:
Valorant is the most fun I've had with a multiplayer FPS since Valve's Team Fortress 2. The flexibility of its magically-infused cast paired with a deep arsenal makes for a magnificent competitive canvas, if a tricky one to initially pick up ... It may not be the prettiest modern FPS around, but its visual simplicity enables excellent clarity in every fight.
Daniel Tack for Game Informer gave Valorant an 8.5 out of 10:
Valorant builds on what has made Counter-Strike a destination for decades. It adds hero-shooter nuance to a familiar arsenal of weapons. … Valorant doesn’t reinvent aspects of core tactical shooters, but it differentiates itself in meaningful ways by giving players new ways to glean information, protect areas, and obscure enemy perception. While Valorant’s characters may be mundane and its modes limited, I had plenty of fun with its precision shooting, careful planning, and soft footsteps.
Morgan Park at PC Gamer scored it 90 out of 100 and compared it fondly to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, another shooter:
Valorant is the more accessible Counter-Strike I didn't know I wanted. Abilities add an intoxicating dynamism to every round and expand the scope of teamwork for this style of FPS. I'm genuinely interested to see how new agents and maps keep things fresh in the years to come.
Metacritic is looking pretty good, too:
Currently, “Valorant” has a Metascore of 81 on Metacritic, based on 29 critical reviews — 25 of them positive and four of them mixed.
The game has only a 5.6 User Score, out of more than 2,000 ratings, but that value may be somewhat deflated because of review bombing.
The Big Question: How many players are we actually talking about here?
During its closed beta, Valorant set new viewing records on Twitch and on the Korean video streaming platform AfreecaTV, with more than 470 million total viewing hours. Riot Games says it broke Twitch’s viewing records immediately after its closed beta launch, with 34 million hours being watched in a single day.
In addition, the game peaked at 1.73 million viewers watching simultaneously on Twitch, putting it in second place behind only the 2019 “League of Legends” World Championship in first place with 1.74 million concurrent viewers.
Besides viewers on Twitch, Valorant drew almost 3 million daily players to its servers during its two-month, pre-release beta.
While those numbers are fairly encouraging — they put Valorant on par with its sister game League of Legends and other major esports such as Dota 2, Overwatch and Counter Strike: Global Offensive — many questions still remain about the popular new shooter.
Many critics are still “suspicious” whether Valorant can be the next big thing in the world of esports, as it is trying to be. And some are suggesting that we may not see the full success or failure of the game until next year — which is a fairer assumption.
“Can Valorant live up to the hype?” seems to be the question all video game critics — and even NPR reporters and CNBC investors — are asking, while major esports like Overwatch and Counter-Strike sit nervously in the corner. It’s an open question we should all be asking, even this newsletter, The Initiator, which pretty much rides or dies with Riot Games’ new shooter.
For now, enjoy the game for what it is — a fun new team-based shooter, and a free-to-play one, I might add — and let it take its own course. It’s Riot Games’ problem to determine whether the game is a commercial success or not.
As of yet, Riot Games hasn’t released any official figures for Valorant since release, leaving us with no new player numbers and viewing hours since its last announcement in May. Those missing numbers will probably be released gradually and strategically as Riot Games and its new partners began their Valorant Ignition Series, the first official competitive series for the game.
But some unofficial viewing numbers will fill in the blanks for now and help us get a sense of how popular the game is, and has been, since launch. According to TwitchTracker, Valorant in June currently averages more than 83,000 viewers per day and is the eighth most watched game on Twitch.
Those numbers have declined sharply from May (194,576 average viewers per day) and April (478,682 average viewers per day), when Valorant first came into beta, but they may rise again once the Ignition Series and other tournaments start up and begin drawing hordes of viewers online. We won’t know until we experience the full force of the competitive scene later this month.
Only time will tell whether Valorant survives the release period, when interest in the game starts to cool and hype starts to settle, or whether it thrives as a major esports title.
3 Valorant streamers to watch this weekend:
In the meantime, while we await the coming success (of failure) of Valorant, let’s turn our attention to some of the best streamers currently playing the game.
I’m going to recommend three players I’ve enjoyed watching on Twitch over the past few weeks since release. I think as some of the best of the best currently playing Valorant, they’re going to be the ones to shape the game in the months ahead. Plus, as they’ve already shown at the Twitch Rivals Tournament, they’re going to be a major force in the newly emerging “Valorant” competitive scene.
Hiko
First, I’ll recommend Spencer “Hiko” Martin, whom I’ve already mentioned. Hiko is a former Counter-Strike player turned professional “Valorant” player, and he’s now captain of 100 Thieves, which is forming its own team based around Valorant. Hiko will usually play Valorant for six-or-seven hour streams on Twitch most days and will announce his streams on Twitter, so be sure to follow him on both if you want to watch.
Out of all three players on this list, I’ve likely put in the most hours watching Hiko play Valorant. He first caught my eye at the Twitch Rivals Tournament, but lately, I’ve been watching him in a lot of casual play. On Wednesday, I watched as he played Omen on Split, shooting enemy players in the face as he turned around on a dime, and making good use of Dark Cover, Omen’s shadowy, vision-blocking Signature Ability. Hiko’s lightning-fast reaction times — clearly honed by years of playing Counter-Strike — and his incredible split-second decisions make him a fascinating player to watch, and his calm and steady personality also make him an easy player to follow. He’s a good player to start with if you haven’t had much experience watching tactical shooters like Valorant or Counter-Strike because he’ll make you feel like you have a basic handle on the gameplay, since he’s so methodical, strategic and skilled in how he plays.
Brax
Second, I’ll recommend Braxton “Brax” Pierce. Like Hiko, Brax is a former Counter-Strike player who has migrated to Valorant, but Brax has signed with T1, another team. Brax and T1 made a big splash at the Twitch Rivals Tournament, where they were huge favorites to win the North American competition almost two weeks ago. And at the tournament, they certainly didn’t disappoint, taking home the trophy and the prize money. During the championship Sunday, June 7, Brax and his teammates at T1 went head to head with Team Myth, composed of TSM’s starting lineup for “Valorant” and famous TSM streamer Ali “Myth” Kabbani. Against Myth and TSM, Brax and his teammates fought for three pulse-pounding games until Brax’s requested teammate, Keven “AZK” Larivière, as Breach, helped Brax and T1 win the deciding third game on Bind. For Brax, his finest moment during the tournament came when he racked up an ace against Team Aceu as Omen, killing off all five enemy players by himself. But he certainly had plenty of other highlights from the tournament as well.
This weekend, Brax will be doing seven-hour streams from midnight to 7 a.m. EDT each day, so check him out on Twitch and follow him on Twitter if you’re a night owl — like me — or an early riser.
Mixwell
Third and finally, I’m going to recommend Oscar “Mixwell” Cañellas Colocho, a Spanish former professional Counter-Strike and League of Legends player who recently signed with G2 Esports to captain their new Valorant team. One of the most attractive and valuable free agents on the market, Mixwell drew the attention of many clubs in Europe and North America before choosing G2.
Since the closed beta for Valorant started in April (and ended Tuesday, June 2), Mixwell has won five tournaments in total, including the European championship of the Twitch Rivals Tournament. With his team, Mixwell swept the previously undefeated Team ONSCREEN in the final round Sunday, June 7, posting 13-5 wins on both Haven and Bind to claim the first-place prize of $12,250.
Mixwell and his team at G2 will certainly be a major competitive force going forward, so be sure to watch him on Twitch and follow him on Twitter. Team Mixwell will take part in the G2 Esports Invitational this weekend, which gives you all the more reason to watch him play in the first official European tournament. His first game starts today at 3 p.m. Central European Summer Time, or 9 a.m. EDT, and the tournament continues until Sunday, June 21. So best of luck to him.
Cameron Bray is the lead writer for The Initiator, a recently created newsletter about Valorant produced by Numlock News. He also contributes to No Bid Nation, a new sports blog about William and Mary basketball. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @spike_cameron or send him an email at cameron@numlock.news.