Riot Games Director of Esports shares competitive Valorant gameplan
Riot Director of Esports Whalen 'Magus' Rozelle recently shared Riot's vision for an esports scene centered around Valorant, starting with organic build up of the scene.
As Riot goes hard into the Valorant closed beta, attempting to sweep the world off its feet with a new team-based competitive shooter, the obvious question arises. How long until Riot launches an official competitive scene? Though there have been some efforts at creating independent tournaments already, eyes are on Riot when it comes to putting anything to the effect of League of Legends’ global scene together.
On April 15, 2020, we got a bit of an answer on the matter as Riot Director of Esports Whalen “Magus” Rozelle presented a little bit of what Riot Games has in mind for the future of first-party esports in Valorant. According to Magus, while Riot is thrilled with the enthusiasm from its audience to get a competitive scene going in the game, it’s also not a matter that the studio is rushing by any stretch of the imagination.
“We’re not looking to force anything too quickly without knowing what’s best for esports fans,” Rozelle wrote. “As such, a primary focus early on will be forming partnerships with players, content creators, tournament organizers, and developers - unlocking them to help us to build out this ecosystem.”
As such, Riot Games also shared community competition guidelines by which tournament organizers are expected to follow to qualify for Riot support, as well as opening submission for digital products, such as production tools and in-game features which would support a competitive format and viewing platform. It would seem that a full-on, Riot-backed esports league in Valorant is still a little ways off being in that the game is still only in closed beta as of yet, but with time and the enthusiasm players have been showing in trying to get in and play, that could change sooner than later.
After all, Riot did reveal the worldwide Galaxies Championship as one of their first major moves in Teamfight Tactics esports recently. Beta or not, on a similar timeline, perhaps we’ll see an official Valorant league as soon as 2021. Until then, make sure you’re following our Valorant coverage and guides to make sure you’re the best you can be as competition heats up in the game’s scene.
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