(Picture Courtesy of Riot Games)
By Arran 'Halo' Brown
We are under 24 hours away from one of, if not, the most anticipated game in history, hitting it's closed beta stage. 1 million people tuned in to Twitch on April 3rd for the Valorant Showcase, to watch some of the best players in the world in their respective games, show off Valorant's gameplay and praying to Valorant's gods that they would be lucky enough to obtain a beta code drop. With the closed beta starting tomorrow April 7th, haloofthoughts spoke with gdolphn, Goldenboy, Kephrii, Mysca and RyanCentral who were just some of the streamers who were involved with the showcase, to obtain the 1 tip they felt was essential to know, going into tomorrow's beta.
Riot Games, Valorant, has been hyped like no other game since they released the initial Project A trailer back in October 2019. The first trailer was a part of Riot's 10 years of League celebrations and the hype has picked up at an incredible pace since. Bringing together the emphases on aim, tactics and the buying system from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with the unique character abilities we have seen associated in both Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege and the fact that they have showcased an anti-cheat system that seems to be superior to any of its potential competition. Riot has created a game that appeals to players, of all First Person Shooting backgrounds. With the streams soon to start, professionals and casuals trying to find ways to improve their gameplay, before they have even played the game. The excitement levels that prospective players have for the closed beta at fever pitch. With that in mind, here are some essential tips from some of those streamers or professional players who have played the game so far.
Martin 'gdolphn' Skrydstrup
Apex Legends Pro player
If I was just starting out, I would recommend trying every character in the game. While the guns are the same the unique character abilities are what can make or break a game. Knowing your character and what you are going to be facing is key.
Alex 'Goldenboy' Mendez
Professional Esports Commentator/Host, Global Icon and National Treasure.
My number 1 tip is to go to training! I cannot stress enough the importance of getting used to the Agents and how the weapons work. If you come from a game that isn’t counterstrike like myself, then you will feel a little out of place, so being able to go to training and learn to understand how the weapons work, learn how your agent's abilities work and furthermore just get a grasp on how the recoil is in the movement for your character and you’ll feel way better when you go into the unrated playlist and start to play your first few matches
Brian 'Kephrii' St.Pierre
Overwatch and Variety Streamer
While having a line of sight is crucial in gunfights, your abilities are best used when your opponent can't see them coming. Abilities can be directed after release, meaning that knowledge of angles and timing the movement will allow you to take your play to the next level. Relating to Jett, be as creative as you can with her Smoke, it can be the difference to winning or losing the round.
Mysca - Hitscan
Variety Streamer
Don’t Force Ability Usage!
There’s a lot of emphases put on abilities right now as that’s obviously what’s characteristic about Valorant and all of its characters. When in-game though, the gunplay really has to be enabled by those abilities, rather than the abilities being forced into the gunplay. It’s very common to see people die trying to use an ability when they don’t necessarily need it, rather than staying focused on gunplay. If you instead take the role of that player that catches opponents off guard by listening for sound queues for abilities being equipped, you’ll set yourself up for success early on into your game time.
Don’t get me wrong, abilities are a huge part of Valorant but try to focus on 2 or 3 agents early and really learn how long it takes to use all of their abilities. It’ll help you massively with timings in a match!
RyanCentral
Overwatch and Variety Streamer
Be proactive with movement!
Lots of abilities, especially aggressive abilities, can give away your position. Breach's fault line ability is a great example of an ability that gives away your position completely due to its trajectory effect left on the ground. Smart players can work out where you're standing and get an easy kill if you don't move. Make sure that when you use an ability or get a kill that you're mixing up your positioning to keep the enemies guessing where you are. This is going to be even more impactful in the early days when callouts of places in the map aren't quite common knowledge yet. The clip below from Shroud, doing this in-action is really good at highlighting this point. Every time he got a kill he moved to another position.
Today is the first chance we will all get to see Valorant played live after Friday's showcase and while you may not have access to take part in Valorant's beta starting at 5 am PDT, 1 pm BST & 2 pm CEST, you are still able to watch live across the multiple streaming platforms and have the opportunity to receive a beta key drop, on any of the Valorant streams with drops enabled.
(You can find more Valorant related content over on Twitter @haloofthoughts)
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