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Riot Games announces Valorant esports Ignition Series

The first global series of Valorant esports kicks off this month.

Donovan Erskine

June 16, 2020 5:00 AM

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From its inception, Riot Games’ Valorant was poised to be an esports titan. Designed from the ground up to provide the most competitive and balanced first-person shooter experience possible, many hardcore FPS fans have taken to the new title. Including the closed beta, there have already been over 100 Valorant invitationals put on by third-party organizations. Now, Riot Games has announced the Ignition Series, a global Valorant tournament put on by the publisher itself. 

Riot Games describes the Ignition Series as “the first step toward building a global esport around the game.” For the tournament, Riot has partnered with over 20 esports organizations around the world. In addition, the publisher will be collaborating with Red Bull, a common name in the esports world. Fans interested in watching the action won’t have to wait much longer.

The Valorant Ignition Series is set to kick off on June 19 with the G2 Esports Invitational in Europe. The company also announced the Rage Valorant Japan Invitational. Riot Plans to host these events in different countries around the globe, and promise more details will come soon. Riot hopes that this new initiative will make it  “easier to follow competitions through a more organized cadence of events.”

It’ll be quite interesting to see how Valorant’s first major global tournament series shakes out. Many esports organizations have already announced signings and roster changes in order to put together squads for Riot’s first-person shooter. With the game already having such a dedicated audience so early in its lifespan, there’s a good chance for Valorant to take off as the next big name in esports. 

Valorant delivers as an excellent competitive shooter, as highlighted in our review of the game. As more Valorant esports news breaks, we’ll be right here to break it down for you on Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_