On the 3rd of April, Riot Games announced that they have partnered up with Twitch to showcase their new FPS tactical shooter, Valorant. With this partnership, it enabled viewers of certain partnered streamers to receive access to Valorant closed beta. There were multiple streamers showing their highlights that they had during the weekend in which they were allowed to play the closed beta, and there were some streamers that were giving out tips and information about the game. On the 3rd, Valorant peaked in terms of viewership, reaching a million viewers on twitch and trended top 3 on twitter.
In this article you will find everything you need to know about the closed beta, whether it be the characters, their abilities, the maps involved and the gameplay.
Characters and Abilities:
In total, there are 9 different characters as of now, and are split into 4 archetypes (Duelist, Sentinel, Initiator, and Controller). Each character has 4 abilities, the 1st and 2nd abilities, which are set to “C” and “Q” on your keyboard are optional abilities which you can purchase in the buy menu at the start of a round. However, your 3rd ability gets refreshed at the start of each round. After using the 3rd ability, depending on the character you are currently using, it will have a different cooldown method. It can either cooldown by time, whereas other characters will have the 3rd ability refreshed by kills. Finally, the 4th ability, more commonly known as the ultimate ability is the most crucial ability in a character’s tool kit. You can charge up the ultimate by either kills or collecting orbs which are spread around the map. Keep in mind that you need 7 orbs/kills in order to refresh the ultimate ability cooldown.
Brimstone
Brimstone drops a beacon on the ground which creates a highlighted area around it. All characters standing in this area will get a faster fire rate.
Brimstone shoots an incendiary grenade in the form of a grenade launcher which spreads a flame and deals a significant amount of damage over time. Important to note that this can also cause friendly damage.
With this ability, Brimstone is able to smoke off multiple areas on the map to obscure vision from his opponents. This ability can either be used offensively to take a bomb-site or used defensively to block off any enemy attacks.
Choose a location of where you want to unleash a full orbital strike on your enemies. Can be avoided easily if players spot the ultimate, although if stuck in the epicentre of the ability, it will kill you pretty quickly.
Jett
Jett throws out a cloud of smoke to obscure vision in an area. One cool thing about it is that once the smoke is thrown, it then follows your crosshair. This allows for a lot of different smoke throw combinations and throwing smokes into hard places to get to.
This ability can be used to get up to high places and to get a better position on the map by having an aerial advantage over your opponent.
Jett is also able to dash forward, backwards and sideways by using her third ability, tailwind. It is important to note that tailwind will dash towards the current direction that you’re moving.
Jett equips accurate throwing knives that recharge upon killing an opponent. It has 2 different throwing methods, the first method being to throw out a single knife one by one, and the 2nd method is a sort of shotgun shooting mechanic were you throw out all remaining daggers at your target.
Phoenix
Phoenix throws out a wall of flames to block vision from both sides. However it is not only used to obscure vision, this also does damage to opponents if they decide to go through it, and it also heals Phoenix if he stands in it.
Phoenix throws an orb of fire to flash his enemies. The cool thing about it is that it can be thrown sideways only. Curveball can blind enemies, teammates and yourself, so keep that in mind.
With this ability Phoenix throws an orb of fire in front of him to do a substantial amount of flame damage in an area. Similar to Brimstone’s 2nd ability with the only difference being that Phoenix can heal from his flame based abilities.
Phoenix places a marker on the ground which will serve as a checkpoint, and from there Phoenix can agress forward, get information on his enemy team and once the timer runs out or Phoenix dies he will get teleported back to the marker.
Sage
With this ability, Sage places a solid wall to block both movement and vision. The wall is then removed after a certain amount of time or if it gets shot at by players. It can be also used to reach high places if the barrier is created below you.
Sage throws out an orb which creates a glacial area which makes any characters standing in that area move very slowly while making a very loud ambient noise.
This orb is used to heal a substantial amount of the missing health of an ally teammate. This can also be used on Sage herself.
Sage’s Ultimate ability is a revive ability. If a teammate is killed during a round, Sage can choose to revive an ally if she stands close enough to the corpse.
Sova
Sova enables a drone to fly out around the map for a limited amount of time. The drone can be destroyed by enemy players so be aware of where you are flying it.
Sova throws out an arrow from his bow which deals damage upon collision. If an enemy is at the centre of the collision the arrow deals the most damage, and if enemies are next to the explosive radius they get dealt fewer damage.
With this ability Sova is able to get vision of his enemies location, without having to be close to his enemies. Sova throws out an arrow which can be bounced around by using the alternate shooting method and all enemies that are in direct line of sight of the recon arrow are spotted. It is important to note that once the recon arrow is stuck to a surface, it can be shot down by enemy players.
Sova’s Ultimate gives him the ability to shoot 3 arrows which are wall-piercing arrows. If an enemy is hit he receives a chunk of damage and he is revealed through walls.
Breach
Breach equips a fusion charge which can be thrown through walls and after a short period expands and any enemies caught in the area receive a chunk of damage.
This ability is quite similar to Breach’s first ability, but instead of damage, this ability throws out a flash through a wall to blind opponents on the opposite side.
With this ability Breach is able to equip a seismic blast which creates a quake in front of him. All players caught in the zone are dazed and are hit for a significant amount of damage.
Breach’s last ability enables him to knock back enemies by sending out a quake in a direct line in front of him. This ability is best used when paired with other abilities from teammates as this is not a damaging ultimate but more of a crowd control ability.
Cypher
Cypher throws out a trap between two walls which is invisible from afar, but if an enemy gets close to it the trap reveals itself and can be spotted. The trap slows and reveals the enemy’s location upon getting caught by the trap.
Cypher throws out a beacon which is then activated to create a sort of cylindrical cage. This is mainly used to obscure vision and lock down an area.
Cyper places a camera on a surface which can be used to spot enemies if they are in directly line of sight to the camera.
With his ultimate ability, Cypher is able to throw his hat unto an enemy he has recently killed and for a short duration he is able to spot his enemies on the map.
Omen
Omen’s 1st ability allows him to teleport to a designated area. This can also be used to reach high places to get an aerial advantage over your opponents.
With this ability, Omen throws out a projectile which can pass through walls and will briefly reduce the vision of an enemy if it hits them.
Omen throws out a shadow orb which is very similar to other character’s vision obscuring abilities. Important to note that this orb can be thrown at a high position and it will slowly drop down to the ground.
Omen’s Ultimate ability is a global ability, which can be used around the entire map. Once the ultimate takes action, opponents will have their map impacted with a shadow-like feature to inform everyone that an Omen has used his ultimate ability.
Viper
Viper equips a chemical launcher which releases a canister of poisonous area. All enemies in the area will get a substantial amount of damage.
Viper equips a cloud emitter which she can throw to create a cloud of poison which obscures vision. All enemies caught inside the cloud will get a chunk of damage but it will not kill them. The least amount of Health points that they can reach is 1%.
Viper releases a series of beacons in a straight line, which similar to Phoenix’s “Blaze” ability is a wall to obscure vision and deal damage.
Viper’s Ultimate ability allows her to equip a chemical launcher which creates a poisonous sphere around Viper. It is important to bear in mind that this ability can be used indefinitely, as long as Viper remains in the area. Once she leaves the poisonous sphere a timer is shown on the screen indicating the poison fuel left for the pit.
Maps
There are currently 2 maps in Valorant at the moment, which are Haven and Bind. The map you’re all probably familiar with is Haven. The map was showcased in the Valorant gameplay trailer titled “The Round”. If you haven’t seen the video, here it is:
Haven consists of 3 bomb-sites and it has a very basic map structure. As for Bind, it does get a bit complicated. This is because Bind has portals which transport you to the other side of the map. Even though the map only has 2 bomb-sites it does get a little intense when you’re dueling someone next to one of these portals.
Weapon Analysis
In terms of weapons, if you’re a CS:GO player you should be able to adapt easily to the weapons that are used in Valorant. This is because most of the weapons can be correlated to CS:GO’s very own weapons. Here’s a clip below of Summit1G explaining what the weapons relate to:
All in all, the characters that we have so far in Valorant are amazing. All characters are unique and have a very interesting tool kit. The majority of players that have tested the game have been praising it for its very simple concept and fun gunplay. Closed beta keys continue dropping tomorrow, the 7th of April so make sure you tune in to some Partnered twitch streamers channels to get a chance of getting early access to the Valorant Closed Beta.
For more esports news be sure to tune in to https://www.esportsguide.com/news for all your latest updates on what’s happening.
