Riot Games’ Tactical Shooter ‘Valorant’ Screenshots Have Leaked Before Reveal

By Camilla Wolfe

During Riot Games’ 10th Anniversary celebrations late last year, the developer announced their first game outside of the League of Legends universe; a round-based tactical 5-v-5 shooter code-named Project A. You can watch the official announcement trailer below:

Today, excitement is building as fans of the game anticipate an official announcement from Riot, unveiling more details about the game, including its release title; Valorant. These predictions come from super sleuths on Twitter, Reddit, and Discord which have discovered various trademarks filed for the name the title ‘Valorant’ along with a leaked screenshot of one of the playable characters/classes, Sage, a Sentinel.

https://twitter.com/VALORANTintel/status/1233013614539411456?s=20

As well as this, it appears that the Twitter handle @PlayValorant and the matching Twitch channel have been registered using an email address from Riotgames.com. The Twitter account has posted zero Tweets so far but has been updated with a new profile picture and a new header, each displaying the same graphical stylings with little to glean from the design other than the number ’02’.  As simple as it may seem, speculation concludes that the ’02’ in the design refers to today’s date, March 2nd of 2020, the presumed date for the official reveal from Riot.

As for what we expect from the announcement, we anticipate information on an upcoming BETA for the game, perhaps as early as this month as insider VALORANTIntel on Twitter claims that big-name eSports figures from various games will have the opportunity to play the title mid-March at a unique event.

https://twitter.com/VALORANTintel/status/1232860750726733824?s=20

According to famed CS:GO Caster, Henry “HenryG”, who had the opportunity to play Project A earlier this year, the game is most similar to CS:GO on a surface level but with the addition of the better elements from class/hero based shooters such as Overwatch and Apex Legends. Generally speaking, said Greer, most class-specific abilities need to be purchased at the start of a round, instead of earned during gameplay. This is similar to the economy system in CS:GO where players can opt for an eco-round, purchasing low-cost weapons with less firepower and conserving currency for another round or to maximize their chances of winning with a full buy later. Following this, he said the gameplay and gun mechanics are “super slick and satisfying“, claiming that the build that he played felt well balanced and that the weapons had notably unique features, including identifiably different spray patterns. Greer noted that while nailing a successful combo using abilities was surely gratifying, players will still have a great time playing without having to rely too heavily on abilities to assist your playstyle, perhaps a comforting revelation for CS:GO fans and FPS traditionalists.

If this isn’t enough to get you excited about the upcoming release, then Greer’s final words on the game should surely entice fans of the competitive shooter genre:

At this stage, we don’t have much else to share about Project A while we patiently wait for word from Riot. In the meantime, you can be sure that we will be updating you as soon as we have more information.