Riot revealed esports plans for its new tactical shooter, Valorant, by announcing the Ignition Series, which will kick off this weekend with two tournaments. The G2 Valorant Invitational will be held on June 19th at 3 pm CEST, with a RAGE New Generation Esports event to follow on June 20th & 21st.
This announcement arrives at a crucial juncture for Valorant, after suffering a rocky initial reception. While the title was wildly popular on Twitch during the closed beta, the number of streams and viewers have sharply declined since launch. Furthermore, Valorant was subject to review bombing by CS:GO players claiming the game is nothing more than a Counter-Strike clone. Competitive play is a huge draw for Riot's flagship League of Legends, however, so these official events may be the shot in the arm the Valorant community needs.
Valorant's blend of tactical magic-like abilities and gunplay was clearly built with esports in mind, though it is interesting to see Riot partnering with preexisting esports organizers and brands rather than establishing a proprietary league as per League of Legends' LCS, or Blizzard's Overwatch League.
This is likely an attempt to foster grass-roots support for the title, or a means of making official tournament play more accessible to a broader pool of players. It is hard not to feel like the competitive cart has arrived before the horse, however, seeing how Valorant's built-in ranked play system won't go live until next week.
Valorant is free-to-play now on PC.
Source: GameSpot