What Is VALORANT Missing?

In a very short time, VALORANT has built up a sizable esports scene. Overwatch, CS:GO, PUBG and Fortnite pro players are flocking to this this title and are trying their luck. But the game is actually quite young and lacks a few features that we know from other competitive games. We take a look at the pros’ wishes and answer the question whether VALORANT is missing something.

DEMO REPLAYS

Rainbow Six: Siege, the super-tactical shooter by Ubisoft, will receive a replay system in the coming months. This will enable players to review games as an accurate snapshot of the action that took place. Regular tournament stream recordings only show one perspective and offer only little information. With a replay-feature, the matches can be dissected, analyzed and discussed. Aspiring competitors can inspect their favorite pro’s gameplay. If you wants to learn from a pro, you can simply rewatch the entire match from their perspective.

Siege is joining a long list of esports titles that boast this replay functionality. For instance, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Dota 2, or Overwatch offer this feature. Professionals can only do so much with tournament VODs. Rainbow Six’ tactical depth will benefit massively from such a system and at least RIOT have indicated that they’re going to work on replays too.

MAP CHOICE

In Counter-Strike, players could always decide on which maps they want to play ever since the introduction of matchmaking. In theory, they can just choose one map and play it until they have perfected their gameplay there. Games like Rainbow Six: Siege or VALORANT don’t offer this option. The developers argue that they don’t want to fragment the player base and thus keep waiting times low.

In their scrims, pro players can use their own servers to set up specific conditions. The rest of the player base doesn’t have this option, so Ubisoft force potential esports enthusiasts to play on random maps. Theoretically, it can take them hours until they finally arrive on the map they actually want to pactice on. At the moment, they’re still in luck, as there are only few maps available in VALORANT – which brings us to the next issue.

THE GAME NEEDS MORE MAPS

How do you play a Best-of-Five with just four maps? Many organizers structure their tournaments in a way that gives the Upper Bracket team a 1-0 map advantage in the Grand Finals. So only four maps are required, but this isn’t a long-term solution for the scene. Games like CS:GO and Rainbow Six offer a considerably larger pool, which in turn increases the skill ceiling of the game. After all, these four VALORANT maps are quick to master. At one point or another, teams will have nothing to add or invent, leading to a stillstand on the competitive front. This moment will come quickly if they are only given this little material to work with.

Agents-wise, the VALORANT devs have already introduced a host of different characters, which helps towards achieving dynamic gameplay. But if RIOT aren’t careful here, they might actually damage their competitive scene. Balancing is a vital aspect of any esports title. If weapons or characters are ‘overpowered’, then they negatively impact professional competition.

IS VALORANT GOING THE OVERWATCH ROUTE?

Precisely because of balancing, League of Legends is such a popular esport – it rarely occurs that a champion is so strong that they take over the entire game and ruin the competition. If something like this happens, RIOT are usually quick to pull the plug on the champion and rework them. Boasting almost 150 champions, they hold an impressive balance. VALORANT has to maintain this equilibrium, but some agents like Raze make this quite difficult.

Skill ceiling is also a frequently discussed topic. For years, esports personalities have criticized Overwatch for its characters being too easy to master. It gets even worse when the heroes’ abilities don’t even require any skill from the player. Soldier 76′ ability, for instance, reads as follows: “Automatically aims your weapon at targets in view.” So the ability is designed in a way that doesn’t require the player to put in any kind of effort in order to get a multi-kill. Should something like this be a part of competitive shooters?

VALORANT is supposedly built on the principle that the abilities are only there to help the players towards achieving kills through mechanical skill and cunning strategy. While this sounds great on paper, RIOT don’t follow through on their mantra all the time. Killjoy, the newest agent, can set up turrets that deal damage even in her absence.

The damage isn’t that great, only 11HP per burst, but RIOT have obviously introduced a component that lowers the skill ceiling. Still, VALORANT is a long shot away from the issues plaguing Overwatch. After all, it doesn’t hand out free kills. The positioning of the turrets actually requires some intelligence and game sense as well.

IS VALORANT A GOOD ESPORTS TITLE?

No other competitive shooter has been this polished and popular upon release as VALORANT, this much is certain. But with growing age, the expectations on the game are also rising. New maps have to come our way, otherwise the developers risk boring their competitive and casual players alike. RIOT have laid the foundations for a great esports scene, but now they have to follow through and keep their player base entertained. But the competitive side of VALORANT is pretty solid already, and the existing problems are tiny in comparison to other shooter titles.