Valorant has been winning over many hearts for almost two years now. It has become a sensation and has garnered many tournaments in its name. Riot Games, the creative studio behind League of Legends, published and developed Valorant. Its development started back in 2014. The game was launched in June, 2020, after a closed beta period. 

The Gameplay

Valorant is a 5v5 first-person shooter and tactical shooter set on the near-future Earth. The player plays as one agent in the set of agents. Each agent has a range of unique abilities.

 The main game mode of Valorant is attackers vs. defenders. A side is randomly given to each team before the match starts. Each team has five players playing on its own side. The attacking team’s objective is to wipe out the team against them and plant a bomb known as Spike. Whereas the other team’s aim is to defend the map. They are required to eliminate the attackers and prevent the rival team from planting the bomb or defusing the bomb if it gets planted.

The game is divided into two halves; after 12 rounds, teams swap sides. The first team that wins 13 rounds is considered the winner of the match.

At the start of every round, there is a Buy Phase, where the players get to purchase various items like shields for extra health, abilities exclusive to each agent, and weapons to fight the enemy. The players gain more money (called Creds) by completing certain tasks, like planting or diffusing the bomb, getting kills, and winning a round.

Game modes

Valorant has a myriad of game modes for you to choose from. There are four permanent modes: Competitive, Spike Rush, Unrated, and Deathmatch. The others are rotating game modes like Escalation, Replication, and Snowball Fight that change with every patch update.

Plant/Defuse

It is a core game mode where you play as an attacker or defender. The player gets one life per round. 

Unrated 

A standard Plant/Defuse game mode involves all the principal features of the game, such as agent selection, buy phase, and standard gameplay. The teams first play rounds on either side, attacker or defender, and then switch sides after 12 rounds.

Competitive

In this mode, a player competes against others for a rank, which depends upon performance, wins, and losses. 12 rounds per half are present, and the first team to win 13 rounds is the winner. With a tie at 12-12, overtimes of 1 round each can be played till a win of 2 rounds in a row is observed.

Spike Rush

It is like a quick taste of the Valorant experience. This mode is split into two halves of 3 rounds each, where 4 rounds are required to win the game. In this game mode, rounds are shorter, and there is no buy phase.

Replication 

All the team members in this mode play as the same agent. For each half, there are 4 rounds. The first one to win 5 rounds wins the round.

Deathmatch 

A game mode where the aim is to kill the enemies. This mode helps the player hone their gunplay skills for the actual match. After 40 kills or at the end of 9 minutes, the match ends.

Escalation 

This is a 5v5 Deathmatch where each team receives a unique range of weapons and abilities. There are 12 levels in this mode, and killing the opponent team helps a team to progress.

Snowball Fight

A 5v5 Deathmatch in which players only use snowball launchers to kill the enemy team. The first team to get 50 kills in a match wins.

Agents

There are about 20 agents in Valorant as of now, categorised into these four classes: Controllers, Sentinels, Duelists, and Initiators. A well-balanced team requires at least one agent from each class. 

To begin with, every player gets these five unlocked agents: Jett, Phoenix, Sage, Brimstone, and Sova. You can unlock two more agents just by completing the intro mission. After the introductory mission, you will unlock more contracts. Each contract will have multiple levels, and by completing these levels, more agents will unlock. 

Duelists:

Phoenix, Jett, Reyna, Raze, Yoru, Neon

Controllers:

Brimstone, Viper, Omen, Astra

Sentinels:

Killjoy, Cypher, Sage, Chamber

Initiators: 

 Sova, Breach, Skye, KAY/O, Fade

Maps

The matches unfold on various maps with distinct styles and layouts. There are 7 maps for the opponents to battle on. At present, there are eight maps in Valorant, with one of them being just for practice and training purposes. There are seven active locations in rotation in Unrated and Competitive. These seven maps are Bind, Haven, Ascent, Icebox, Breeze, Fracture, and Pearl.

Bind (Rabat, Morocco)

Haven (Thimphu, Bhutan)

Ascent (Venice, Italy)

Icebox (Bennett Island, Russia)

Breeze (Atlantic Ocean)

Fracture (New Mexico, USA)

Pearl (Lisbon, Portugal)

Weapons 

Each agent has a variety of weapons depending on their play style and requirements. Different agents can buy weapons before each round in the Buy Phase. In Valorant, there are two categories of weapons: Sidearms and Primary weapons. Sidearms include pistols, and Primary weapons comprise SMGs, Rifles, Sniper, Machine Guns, and Shotguns. 

Conclusion

So there you have it, an overview of Valorant. 

This is a free-to-play game, and one can easily download this game from Riot Games’ official website. Valorant has established itself in the global esports scene. The developers of the game are actively working towards opening new horizons for the game and the players. And with esports Fantasy on FanClash, an additional dimension opens up for Valorant enthusiasts. Through this platform, they can play fantasy on Valorant tournaments, take part in various contests and earn real money.