Riot Games’ foremost 5-on-5 tactical first-person shooter (FPS) seems to have big plans for South Asia and India. Launched in June 2020, Valorant gained massive popularity consistently across regions. The game was launched in a phased manner across countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the enthusiasts took no time to find ways to access the game before its release in their respective countries.
While it broke viewership records on Twitch in the beta phase itself, the game witnessed 1.7 million concurrent viewers in the first week of April 2020. However, as the previous year was essentially overshadowed by the pandemic, esports had its own share of hassle. A lot of events were canceled initially, though, the latter part of the year saw numerous online events lined up.
Riot Games scheduled its first event First Strike in October 2020 to establish regional champions. On the other hand, several organizations hosted community events that were whole-heartedly welcomed by the masses across Europe and North-America.
India and South Asia too witnessed a series of events with massive registrations and viewership numbers. To name a few, Skyesports League 2020, Agni Series by Nodwin and India Today League: Valorant Cup among others are some of the prominent Valorant events of 2020.
Recognizing the potential, Valorant is overseeing and paying attention to the region. In a Tweet earlier today, Valorant said, “We’re thrilled with the response to our launch of VALORANT in India and South Asia and are assessing our plans for next steps on our presence in the region, including esports.” It further thanked the players for their love and support.
The developers have been actively listening to the region and they have duly established its presence with local servers to provide lag-free and low-ping competitive matchups. Riot has, earlier, revealed a road map for esports in 2021. It will be interesting to see what the developers have in store for India and South Asia.
