Okay okay, don’t form an opinion of this report as untimely or premature. This is not an aftermath, but an assumption based on the actions of both Valve & Riot Games throughout the decade. This opinion isn’t just because of the new FPS game, or the hype around the Closed Beta for Valorant, it is because of what we’ve been observing for years.
A somewhat closer look to the sequence of events on how Riot Games marketed Project A, revealed the name, got CSGO pros talking about it, releasing Anti-cheat, responding to allegations to the handling of servers amidst this flood of Closed Beta keys.
Valve, what they have been doing for so long is just milking too much on their successful game. The community, in general, have always felt disappointed with Valve’s offerings and response to the pointed bugs.
The way Valve addresses the issue of their world famous FPS, it feels it is never on their priority. It was never on their priority, until now. So what has changed? Valorant. The arrival of Riot Games’ new FPS game to compete with CS:GO. This could turn deadly for a 20-year-old franchise like Counter-Strike if Valve isn’t on their A-game. Ofcourse, CS:GO has the most loyal fan base of all time, but it might not stop them from moving to Valorant considering the similarities between the two games.
Why won’t CSGO fade
Numerous reasons are there to justify CSGO’s dominance in the overall competitive esports industry. Not just their loyal fanbase, the way they’ve kept the mechanics of the game intact for two decades, adds to the base of it. No superpowers, no out-of-the-box heroes, or overpowered skills. A balance skilled game with utilities and a rudimentary economics system at place.
Counter-Strike has been into gaming and what the modern world calls, esports industry for the longest period. The loyal fans of Counter-Strike franchise made a record during the recent quarantine scenario worldwide by hitting 1.3 million concurrent gamers on Steam.
The gameplay, mechanism CSGO offers is routine. It’s not complex, hence, people find peace playing the game. They know they’re evenly numbered, ofcourse with exception to hackers. Perhaps, largely, the game offers a pretty simple and skillful mechanics with no storyline or exclusive edge to someone who plays the game from a long time. Even if someone is grinding CSGO for over 5 years, and you, download the game today, will have the same resources available to you.
The in-complexity of CS:GO is what keeps its fanbase intact. But not if they’re treated as second-class gamers.
Why Valorant appears to have an edge over CSGO
It’s pretty simple, Riot Games are responsive. I am not getting into debates on their delays to League of Legends, but judging by their performance and activity so far towards Valorant, it’s impeccable.
The community craves for attention and that’s what Riot Games are feeding. They’re listening to the noise we make, they’re adding new stuff, they’re monitoring. And most importantly, they’re focusing on their ANTI CHEAT!! HELL YEAH!!
The way Valorant has been attracting new gamers and their unique way of awarding closed beta keys is the biggest talk of the online gaming world. They broke CS:GO’s record on Twitch in a day, yes in A DAY. Obviously it was being said there were loads of fake accounts watching the streams to gain access to Closed Betas, there are no concrete facts to ascertain the numbers, regardless.
But isn’t there more to it? Valorant offered 128-tick gaming experience unbelievably from their closed beta seasons, and CSGO is yet running at 64-tick as they are into their eight year of success. If you’re friends with one of the IT server managers they’ll tell you how ‘hard’ it is to switch to a 128-tick. Or if I failed the sarcasm attempt, it doesn’t take a dime for a company like Valve to move to 128-tick.
What adds the most of a game is both its casual and competitive community. And Riot has their focus correct. The competitive scene of Valorant is already on with players getting signed up, and Riot also teased about it a couple of times.
But.. but.. but..
Valorant has a task before it. The skin market created by Valve is just unbelievable, how they were able to create a market of that size with billions of dollars being traded is commendable. Valorant, on the other hand has not made a noise about it yet. But some of the community experts suggest, they won’t be as good as CSGO’s skin market.
