Five Years Later, Valorant Has Risen to the Top of ESports

Valorant started making waves the moment it was announced. The first-person tactical shooter released for PC on June 2, 2020. Though Valorant was likely to see success regardless of its release date, as titles from its developer and publisher, Riot Games, have humongous fan bases, Valorant was released during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Valorant was a source of comfort for many gamers during those uncertain times.

But the largest impact Valorant has made in its five-year history is arguably within the esports community. Riot Games primed Valorant for the esports scene early into the shooter’s history when it launched the First Strike tournament in 2020. This tournament laid the groundwork for Valorant’s place in competitive gaming, making it one of the most popular titles in its field.

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By Mukul Dutt

Valorant Dominates ESports

The First Strike tournament was ground zero for Valorant’s esports presence, but the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) is the major event most gamers associate with the shooter. VCT was announced only five months after Valorant debuted. The year-long tournament circuit consists of three levels: Champion, Masters, and Challengers. These levels are divided based on location, with Champions acting as VCT’s world championship, Masters acting as a series of international competitions mid-season, and Challengers establishing who will qualify for Masters through a series of regional competitions. This system of competitions ran from 2021-22 in what is known as the Open-qualifiers era.

Valorant has since moved to a partnership system, initially with thirty franchised teams collaborating with the game. Champions and Masters remain largely unchanged in the partnership era, but a new set of International Leagues act as qualifiers for both Masters and Champions. These competitions are divided into four regions: the Americas, China, EMEA, and the Pacific. A non-partner system still exists for Valorant, where the Challengers tier now plays its part. Ascension runs on the same four-competition structure as the International Leagues, acting as their qualifier.

Professional esports aren’t the only arena that Valorant has taken on. Recreational and college teams exist for the Riot Games shooter. Valorant also added a Premier gamemode with a worldwide release back in 2024. Premier allows players to form their own teams and practice competitive gameplay, with the explicit goal of training players who hope to become professional competitive players. Though other shooters, like Marvel Rivals, may be incredibly popular, Valorant has seen major success when it comes to streaming and video content. Content creation and Valorant’s esport success have seemingly gone hand in hand, with plenty of professional Valorant players also making content for TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch alongside professional play.

How Valorant Has Grown and is Celebrating its 5th Anniversary

But, of course, Valorant’s success as a game would not have been sustainable without new content for players to test out. Valorant’s 1.0 roster included eleven agents and four standard play maps. This initial roster has since ballooned into twenty-eight agents and eleven standard play maps. The game’s lore has expanded further, with Easter eggs unraveling the ties between Valorant’s Alpha and Omega Earths always hidden in the game’s battle passes and maps.

Valorant is celebrating its fifth anniversary at several Riot Play Clubs in the UK, Ireland, Finland, Norway, and Comic Con Stokholm. On top of these in-person celebrations, Valorant has plenty of fun new treats for players in-game. Some of these rewards are free for players in the VAL5 Event Pass and even reference previous cards and sprays. Shop items include the Beta Bundle, which includes weapons that were available in Valorant’s beta back in April 2020. But there are also big changes headed into the game, like a new map that will be added to Valorant’s competitive rotation at launch. Riot Games has also confirmed that a replay system will officially head to PC in v.11.06 this September and consoles later this year. It’s clear that Riot Games is continuing to push Valorant in the esports scene, but the updates headed to the game in Patch 10.10 show that, if players’ opinions are heard, Valorant can succeed for another five years.