Frist Strike VALORANT featured e

Category: Valorant

Riot Games reveal more details about VALORANT First Strike event

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

Yesterday, Riot Games revealed more information about the highly anticipated First Strike event. In this article we’ll be covering everything you need to know, heading into First Strike.

First up, lets go over some of the general player eligibility rules:

  • Player age requirement: In order to be eligible to participate in an Official Competition as a player, an individual must have reached 16 years of age or older
  • Rank requirement: All players on a Team’s roster must have held a ranking for VALORANT of “Immortal 1” or above at the time of registration, or during the preceding Act, for any Official Competition.
  • Regional requirements: Each team must maintain, at all times during any Official Competition, at least three players on its Starting Roster that are Residents (as defined below) of the Team’s home Region

Pretty simple requirements for such a huge event. Age 16+, Immortal 1+ rank, and 3 players must have the same region.

Want to have a deeper look at the official rules and regulations for First Strike? You can head to Riot’s official blog post, or download the PDF Rule book by clicking here.

Screenshot
Credits: Riot Games

First Strike Competitive Format:

8 teams will compete in a best of 3 single-elimination bracket. The finals will be best of 5.

First Strike North America – NSG Tournament

North America will be the first region to host a First Strike event. This event will be a collaboration between Riot Games and Nerd Street Gamers. The event will feature several qualifying stages in order to get into the final stage of the event.

October 26-30

  • Firstly, the NA Qualifying stages start on the 26th, and end on the 30th with the NSG Open Qualifier. Only the top 16 teams will advance  to the first qualifying tournament.

November 4-8

  • The top 4 teams advance to VALORANT First Strike event directly
  • The teams that placed 5-8th receive a spot at the 2nd UMG tournament

November 11-15

  • 12 teams from the UMG tournament advance to the second qualifying tournament

November 18-22

  • The Pool includes 4 teams from the NSG qualifying tournament
  • The top 4 teams then advance to the First Strike event

December 3-6

  • 1st Day – 3rd of December – Quarterfinals
  • 2nd Day – 4th of December – Quarterfinals
  • 3rd Day – 5th December – Semi Finals
  • 4th Day – 6th December  – Finals
VAL FS Cover Art C Banner
Credits: Riot Games

It will be very exciting to witness the first ever VALORANT event hosted by Riot Games. The competition, production value, and the prestige, all on the line thanks to the First Strike series.

Be sure to never miss out on any important esports news by keeping yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com!

T1 finalizing VALORANT Roster with Spyder

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

T1 have just announced their final member of their VALORANT squad. The T1 organisation will be finalizing their VALORANT roster with their newest edition, Spyder. Here is their announcement.

This is how T1’s VALORANT roster is looking with their recent additions:

Players:

Coach: 

  • Daniel “fRoD” Montaner

T1 finalizing VALORANT Roster with Spyder – Who is Spyder?

Alongside him joining the organization under a different name, he has also opted to change his in-game name from Sayaplayer to Spyder. Sayaplayer / Spyder was an Overwatch professional player for Florida Mayhem for about 3 years and will now be representing T1 in Riot Games’ new FPS title, VALORANT.

Here below are some of Sayaplayer / Spyder’s best results in Overwatch:

T1 finalizing VALORANT Roster with Spyder – Why Spyder?

When it comes to VALORANT, Spyder hasn’t been really active in tournaments and events; however, he has been grinding the game since its release and has definitely raised some heads. He was considered an inactive Overwatch pro back in May 30th, due to his health issues, but Spyder took his time to pursue another chapter in his esports career.

T image
Credits: T1

This T1 roster is definitely going to be one of the top contenders in NA for VALORANT. Hopefully the changes and additions they have made are beneficial and help the team move forward!

Be sure to keep yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

New VALORANT map ICEBOX Tutorial

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

With the release of the third VALORANT act, we’ve seen several additions and changes to the game, one of them being a new map, Icebox. In this featured article we’ll be going over a basic tutorial of the map, with some tips and tricks depending on the agent you’re using.

Introduction to Icebox

If you still haven’t logged into VALORANT or seen any footage of the new map, worry not. Icebox is set in an icy atmosphere (as the name suggests) and has quite a standard layout. It features 2 bomb sites, A being a much larger site than B and it also has the standard three lane layout which most maps have. Some of Icebox’s core features are the zip lines which are attached on both bomb sites, as well as the verticality of the map. Here below are images of Bombsite A and B:

Icebox A site
Icebox A site
Icebox B Site
Icebox B site

Map Callouts

With regards to names of locations on Icebox, it shouldn’t be too complicated. Most of the areas have standard in-game callout names, such as: Garage, Screen, Rafters, Back, Kitchen, etc… And to make it easier, in most of the B bombsite area, there are coloured containers which you can refer to by their own colour (Blue, Green, Yellow and Orange). Here below is an image of the map layout:

Screenshot e

Ultimate Orbs

With regards to ultimate orbs, there is the standard amount of 2 orbs spread around the map. One being in the pathway to the B bombsite, just next to Green, and another orb in the middle of A site. Here below are images of both orb locations:

Screenshot
A site Ultimate Orb
Screenshot
B site Ultimate Orb

The best way to gain access to these orbs and obtain them safely are by using smokes. In the video below easy lineups are shown for both orbs.

ICEBOX Tutorial – Best agents

With the verticality of the map, it is very easy to identify which agents will shine the most on Icebox. This is because agents like Omen, Jett and Raze have movement-based abilities which allow them to get to high places. Omen has his Shrouded Step, Jett has her Updraft, and Raze has her Blast packs. Here below is a video identifying the advantages you get when playing one of the above agents.

ICEBOX Tutorial – Tips and Tricks

Omen

Omen is by far the most strongest agent on this map. Not only does he have 2 short ranged teleportation abilities, but also his Paranoia ability can be used in many spots around the map due to its huge flash range. Here below is an example of the flash being used in Mid ramp.

Omen is also excellent at getting into places really quickly due to his Shrouded step. In the video below you can see an example of 2 tips and tricks you can use to startle your opponents.

Raze

Raze is also a great agent when it comes to surprising your enemies. Her Blast packs are an excellent piece of utility which can be used to get into high places, very quickly. In the video below there are 3 examples of where and how her Blast packs can be used.

Sova

Here’s an easy Recon Bolt lineup for a quick A site push. Simply line yourself on the corner outside A main, aim above the 3rd arrow from the right, and release when the bar hits the half. This recon bolt lands exactly on top of A site, and reveals most of the corners that the Defenders might be sitting at.

How will Icebox impact the current Map pool

With Icebox being the 5th map being added to VALORANT, the options are quite narrow. I personally feel like Icebox is a far more tactical map due to its size and verticality, and will most probably be preferred over Split. The important thing that comes with Icebox is that now, in tournaments that have a best of 5 format, teams will not have to play a map twice in the same series if it goes the distance. This will not only be better for the players participating in events, but will also aid the spectator / viewer experience.

Icebox e
Credits: Riot Games

Overall, the map is quite different from any other map we currently have in the map pool. As mentioned above, it will certainly aid the competitive side of VALORANT due to its uniqueness and availability in a best of 5 format. All in all, we’ll just have to wait and see how the community develops and adapts to Icebox.

Be sure to stay tuned to www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

VALORANT ACT 3 – Ranked changes, Battlepass, new map, new agent – what to expect

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

As you all may know, the second ACT of VALORANT is approaching its end, and the VALORANT ACT 3 is only just beginning. Here in this article, we’ll be covering all the changes and updates implemented and what to expect.

Ranked & Queue Changes

First and foremost, lets cover what Riot has changed with regards to ranked and competitive queues. First of all, any players that have completed their ACT Rank, will be receiving an ACT Rank Badge based on their performance during ACT 2. Now with regards to queue changes, you can now select your most preferred server/s, to increase the chance of playing on the server you want.

A huge change to ranked is that the rank disparity when queueing, has now been changed to 3 tiers instead of 6. This means that if you’re currently ranked Platinum 3, you can play with players 3 ranks above or below you (Gold 3 / Diamond 3).

Screenshot
Credits: Riot Games

Another big change to ranked (targeted at high level players) is that Immortal+ ranked players will have their matches impacted only by wins and losses, instead of performance.

Deathmatch

  • Increased player count from 10 to 14 players
  • Updated spawning algorithm to encourage safer spawns
  • Removed periodic location pulse, which means that you can only receive a pulse right when you respawn
  • Increased match length by increasing max kill reach from 30 to 40. Time limit also increased to 9 mins from 6
  • Kill Reloads: On every kill, players get an automatic, immediate full reload of their active weapon (Ares & Odin get 30 bullets back)
  • XP gain increased from 500 to 900 XP
  • Honestly, 500 XP felt a little low for Deathmatch. We’re bumping this up to 900 to account for the increased match length with some extra on top.

Battlepass

Now onto more fun stuff other than the competitive changes, the ACT 3 Battlepass. This time round, Riot have opted to add skin variants to some of the skins which are included in this Battlepass. Here are some datamined images of the Battlepass skins.

Battlepass
Battlepass
Battlepass
Credits: Riot Games

New Map – Icebox

Finally, we have a new map in VALORANT, Icebox. This new map gives more of an icy feeling and is very different from the other maps we currently have in the map pool. Here below is a tutorial by Rain from Dignitas, showcasing the main areas of the map.

New Agent – Skye

Lastly, we have Skye, the newest agent coming soon to VALORANT in ACT 3. We have already gone over her abilities in a previous article so make sure you check that out! Riot have stated due to them prioritizing the map release, they are delaying the agent’s release by 2 weeks.

Skye new agent
Credits: Riot Games

Skye, being similar to Sova in terms of info gathering, will definitely find her place in the current agent pool. With her flashes, healing and overall utility, she’s definitely a force to be reckoned with and will certainly be a very impactful agent.

This ACT is going to be the biggest update to VALORANT by far, and we could not be more excited! Make sure you keep yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com for more VALORANT and esports news!

Skye new VALORANT agent – Abilities revealed

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

This past week, Riot Games have been teasing stuff that is dropping in ACT 3 of VALORANT. One of the teasers was an image of Skye, a new VALORANT agent which will be released in ACT 3. Here’s an image of Skye below:

Credits Riot Games e
Credits: Riot Games

Skye’s abilities:

  • C – Regrowth
    • Skye equips a healing trinket. If fire is held, the ability is channeled and heals allies in range of the line of sight. This can be reused until her healing pool is fully depleted. One thing to bear in mind is that Skye cannot heal herself.
  • Q – Trailblazer
    • Skye equips a Tasmanian tiger trinket. If fired, the tiger is sent out and the player takes control of the trinket. While in control of the tiger the player can shoot again to leap forward and explode in a concussive blast to all enemies in range.
  • E – Guiding Light
    • Skye equips a hawk trinket and when fired the hawk moves forward. If the shoot button is held the hawk can be guided in the direction of the crosshair. If the ability is activated while the hawk is in motion it transforms into a flash, and blinds all in the vicinity.
  • X – Seekers
    • Skye equips a Seeker trinket. When fired it sends out three seekers to track down the three closest enemies. If a Seeker reaches its target, it nearsights them.

How will Skye impact the current Agent pool?

Skye’s abilities as shown above seem very similar to Sova and Breach’s kit. She is excellent at gathering information, map control, as well as flashing an area when necessary. In terms of who she will be replacing within a team composition, it is hard to predict; however, it will certainly include an initiator agent being swapped. The current initiator agents at the moment are Sova and Breach, which is why her ability kit is the combination of both.

With a lot of agents receiving nerfs lately, and buffs arriving to initiators, we’ll definitely be seeing Skye in a modern team composition. She can not only gather information about a particular area, but can also flash the area to assist her teammates in having control around the map.

More news about Skye will be released soon, so be sure to keep yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

FunPlus Phoenix win VALORANT Contenders Cup

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

With another weekend coming to a close we saw FunPlus Phoenix taking a win at the VALORANT Contenders Cup. The team has seen a lot of success in top tier events lately, and it was about time that they achieved a victory.

Final Standings + Winnings:

  • 1st – FunPlus Phoenix – €1,000
  • 2nd – SUMN FC – €500
  • 3rd – need more DM
  • 4thOxygen Esports
  • 5th-6th – AoeXe
  • 5th-6th – LOL-
  • 7th-8th – iPon Team Horizon Reapers
  • 7th-8th – Project SW
  • 9th-12th – Zeitgeist
  • 9th-12th – DPE
  • 9-12th – Wave Esports
  • 9-12th – Entropiq
  • 13th-16th – Zarplata
  • 13th-16th – Giants Gaming
  • 13-16th – Godlike Inside Games
  • 13-16th – avg25iq
VALORANT Contenders Cup
Credits: Razer

FunPlus Phoenix win VALORANT contenders cup – How did they do it?

Bracket

FunPlus Phoenix were matched against AoeXe in the 1st round of the upper bracket, and the match ended 13-4 in FPX’s favor. They then faced off the recently picked up Oxygen Esports and lost 13-9, which meant that FunPlus Phoenix would be dropped down to the lower bracket.

This is where FPX dominated team Entropiq with a 13-6 win to advance to the 3rd round of the lower bracket versus Project SW. FunPlus Phoenix replicated their score and won 13-6 versus Project SW to advance forward and face off LoL-. The turkish lineup was no match for FPX and got eliminated 13-7. This allowed FunPlus Phoenix to go up against Oxygen esports in the 5th round.

This time round FPX prepped much better, and this led to them getting a much better result overall, winning the best of one 13-4. They were then matched up versus NeedMoreDM in the lower bracket final, which was a complete stomp by FPX, winning both maps (Bind: 13-4, Haven: 13-7).

Screenshot
Credits: Razer

Grand Finals

Finally, they had arrived in the Grand Finals to face off SUMN FC, which was one of the strongest up and coming teams in Europe. Rounds went back and forth, but FunPlus Phoenix were just better in every possible way and managed to win both maps 13-9 to win the VALORANT Contenders Cup.

What’s next for FPX?

We already know what this team is capable of achieving, despite some very rare disappointing results. All they need to do is prove it at the highest level so they can take down G2’s crown and end their regional domination.
Make sure you don’t miss out on any important esports news by keeping yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com!

NRG looking to create VALORANT team

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

According to a report from RushBMedia, the prestigious North American organization NRG is looking to create a VALORANT team. Here is their report:

NRG looking to create VALORANT team – Who are they picking up?

The team will consist of recently retired CS:GO coach Chet “Chet” Singh as their VALORANT coach. With regards to their players, they will be picking up ex-Gen.G player Damian “daps” Steele, as well as currently active player for Gen.G Sam “s0m” Oh.

Chet

Chet has been coaching since 2016 and is now known as one of North America’s best coaches. His most memorable moments in his career was when he was coaching the NRG/EG roster, where they managed to win quite a few events. Some being: StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8, Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Shanghai & ESL One: New York 2019.

Chet Starladder e
Credits: Starladder

Daps

Damian has had quite a long CS:GO career as he started competing back in 2012, and has been guiding teams to the top ever since. Daps already has some synergy with coach Chet as they had already played together under NRG back in 2018-2019.

Screenshot
Credits: Dreamhack

S0m

18-year old s0m has only been competing since 2017, but has already made a name for himself under Team Envy, as well as Gen.G. The young North American star, under the leadership of Daps has definitely gained a lot of experience, and this might be why NRG are interested in picking him up.

sm Dreamhack e
Credits: Dreamhack

The report does not indicate any ETA as to when NRG will be announcing their roster; however we will certainly be getting an announcement in the very near future. North American VALORANT is loaded with organizations that have invested into the game, and it’s very weird to see more and more organizations investing in the region, whereas in Europe there are very few Major organizations that have invested into the esport. The current health situation definitely has had an impact on these decisions, but VALORANT is still in its infancy, which means there will be plenty of time for unsigned European teams to get picked up!

Make sure you don’t miss out on any important esports news by keeping yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com! 

New VALORANT agent Stealth revealed by Data miners

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

With VALORANT’s latest update, which included major changes to some of the weapons, especially the Operator, some data miners found brand new information regarding VALORANT’s newest agent.

What information did they data mine?

First up is the newest agent’s codename being “Stealth”. According to data miner Mang0e, this agent has been in development since the Alpha version of VALORANT. Currently, only the textures and materials have been leaked, here are image of them below:

Screenshot e
Credits: Mang0e

New VALORANT agent Stealth – What else did they uncover?

Along with this information regarding the character, data miners also uncovered what could possible be one of “Stealth’s” abilities. While they were searching for new findings, there were files that indicated an ability related with invisibility. They’ve also found an image of what seems like a geographical mesh indicating “Stealth’s” Ground Hole ability.

Screenshot e
Credits: Mang0e

New VALORANT agent Stealth – When will this agent be released?

According to VALORANT’s ACT calendar, this agent should be coming in 2 weeks time, as ACT 3 will be kicking off by then. Similarly as to what they’ve done with Killjoy, Riot are expected to release more information regarding this new agent very soon.

Credits Riot Games
Credits: Riot Games

How will this affect the current agent pool?

With the agent map pool always developing according to Riot’s nerfs and buffs, we cannot really tell how “Stealth” will be affecting the agent map pool. However we can definitely say that this agent will certainly involve a new way of playing VALORANT, especially if it’s dealing with something as dazzling as invisibility.

The 3rd ACT of VALORANT is approaching, and we cannot wait to uncover more details regarding this new season. 

Be sure to stay tuned to www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

Gambit reveal VALORANT roster

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

Gambit esports have just announced that they will be entering VALORANT with a full russian roster. There were already rumors regarding Gambit set to reveal their VALORANT roster sometime this week, and they have finally released the announcement.

Gambit reveal VALORANT roster – Who did they pick up?

The majority of the roster (nAts, Chronicle & Engh) had previously played for FishkaVTom. Another full russian roster competing at the highest level of VALORANT. D3ffo has played with mixed teams, and has played as a stand-in for a lot of teams as well. Sheydos on the other hand has spent most of his VALORANT career under team xz, an international mixed team.

Why did they pick up this team instead of an already formed team?

We’ve seen a common trend with teams choosing to pick up players from different teams, rather than picking up the unsigned team itself. The reason for this could be that organizations would like to have their very own star fragger, Team Liquid have this with Scream, and FPX has it with Zyppan. It could also be that the original plan was to pick up the entire team of FishkaVTom, however due to internal conflicts plans were changed.

Gambit Featured
Credits: Gambit

This is how Gambit’s VALORANT roster is currently looking like:

Players:

  • Danila “Sunset” Soloviov
  • Nikita “d3ffo” Sudakov
  • Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov
  • Bogdan “sheydos” Naumov
  • Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin

Coach:

  • Andrey “Engh” Sholokhov

Gambit entering VALORANT is not only good news for the European scene, but also for the CIS scene as before the announcement, the only CIS organization involved was ForZe. It will be very exciting to see this team perform in upcoming VALORANT events. So make sure you don’t miss out on any of the action by keeping yourselves updated on www.esportsguide.com!

FPX signing Peca as General manager

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

FunPlus Phoenix has just announced that they will be signing peca in a General Manager position for both VALORANT and CS:GO divisions. Here is the announcement:

FPX signing Peca as General manager – Who is peca?

Petar “peca” Marković has been in the esports industry since 2012. He has worked in multiple positions and had quite a variety of careers in the past few years. His most memorable moment in his coaching career was when he was coaching for Valiance & Co back in 2017. He is now back in a managerial position under FPX wishing to bring more trophies to the organization.

Screenshot e
Credits: Valiance&Co

What will this mean for FPX?

VALORANT, is not going to be the only focus for peca, as he will also be building a strong and structured roster in CS:GO. As you may know, FPX have previously tried to sign a roster back when the 1st Season of Flashpoint was taking place, earlier this year. Their original plan was to sign the roster representing Heroic at the time, however Astralis interrupted that discussion by poaching es3tag from the lineup. Then they tried to approach a North American team in Swole Patrol, however no deal was finalized.

This time round, FunPlus Phoenix seems more structured, even with their approach towards signing a team. They’ve already had some success with their VALORANT roster, and it will be certainly exciting to see who they will pick up eventually with regards to their CS:GO team. FPX signing Peca as General manager is only the beginning and we can’t wait what comes next for the organization!

Be sure to stay tuned to www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!