Current state of competitive valorant

Name: Nikhel Fernando

 Student id: 00009934

Introduction 1
Background 1
Better understanding of valorant 2
In-game economic system 2
Playable characters(agents) 2
Duelist 3
Sentinel 3
Initiators 3
Controller 3
Ranked system 4
References 5
Annexure 6
Introduction
According to my research, Valorant is a team-based game set in the near future. Players play one
of the set agents that can be selected before the game starts, characters which are based on
several countries and cultures. In the main game, players are assigned to either attacking or
defending with 5 players on each side.

Background
Each agent has a unique set of abilities each requiring a certain charge, as well as an ultimate
ability which charges through kills, deaths orbs, or objectives. The standard match (unrated) is
played as first to win 13 rounds wins the match. The attacking team has a bomb device known as
a “spike”. They must deliver and activate the spike in one of the multiple specific places known
as a bomb site which are usually marked as A, B or C site. If the attacking team were able to
protect the activated spike for 45 seconds, it explodes. Thus, Winning the round and gaining a
point. If the defending team can deactivate the spike, or the 100-second round timer expires
without the attacking team planting the spike, the defending team will gain a point. If all players
of a team are eliminated before the spike is activated, or if all players of the defending team are
eliminated after the spike is activated, the opposing team gains a point. After the first 12 rounds
of the game both teams switch sides, attackers go to defending and defenders go to attackers' side
this is known as a half. If both teams win 12 rounds in unrated, sudden death occurs, in which the
team that wins the final round wins the game. In a competitive match, if both teams get 12
points, overtime occurs and the first team to win 2 rounds in a row in both attacking and
defending overtime will not end till the team either draws or wins 2 rounds in a row. There are
currently 7 playable maps in valorant. Each map has different strategies and based on the utilities
of each agent some agents fit better in different maps.

A research done by Molen, K. van der tell us the difference between valorant and premium
priced-games where valorant earns its money with the in-game cosmetics that serve no
competitive advantage and how valorant changed the world of lifestreaming.

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Better understanding of valorant

In-game economic system

Valorant has an in-game economic system: all weapons, charges for abilities and shields can be
bought with the in-game currency known as “creds”. Purchasing items are done during the buy
phase- a period of 30 seconds before the round starts, the better the weapons the better chance of
winning the round.so managing your economy is essential for winning the game.
In the start of every half, players are given 800 creds and a classic. From there on out, every kill
and the outcome of every round will contribute to the number of creds you earn. You can earn a
max of 9000 creds, after that additional earning will go to waste. At the end of the half every
player's creds total will go back to 800. In the event of an overtime, all players will have 5000
creds for each round winning the round or getting a kill won't affect the number of creds for the
next round in overtime. Econ is distributed as follows: You earn 200 creds per kill, When on the
Attackers side, you and your team earn 300 Creds each for planting the Spike, You and your
team earn 3,000 Creds each for a round win.

However Cred distribution becomes a bit more complicated when losing, You and your team
earn 1,900 Creds each for a round loss, You and your team earn 2,400 Creds each if you’re on a
2x loss streak, You and your team earn 2,900 Creds each if you’re on a 3x or more loss streak. If
you survive a round you lost, you only earn 1,000 Creds regardless of loss streak (without getting
killed to the spike or the enemy) This rule is in place since you get to carry your weapon and
armor over to the next round. As such, make sure you die if you’re about to lose a round and are
carrying equipment worth less than 1,000 Creds.

Playable characters(agents)
Valorant currently has 20 agents to choose from and each of them are categorized into 4 separate
roles, which are Duelist, Sentinel, Initiator and Controller.

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Duelist

According to Valorant, "Duelists are self-sufficient fraggers who their team expects, through
abilities and skills, to get high frags and seek out engagements first." Duelist's main objective is
to create space in a site for their team, getting information and making entering a site easier with
their kits which mainly consists of flashes (which blind enemy’s sight) and movement-based
abilities that allow them to cover large distances faster than other agents. Duelist's main purpose
is to serve the attacking side. On defending they can hold chokepoints like the entrance to a site,
get a kill and be able to fall back easily. The current duelists are Jett, Reyna, Raze, Yoru, Neon
and Phoenix.

Sentinel

Sentinels are defensive agents, during defense they lock down sites with their abilities and help
other teammates. Their abilities mainly consist of static 'objects' that are obstacles to the enemy's
sentinel's main objective is to slow down an enemy push into a site during attack; they are more
of a wild card. The current sentinels are Sage, Killjoy, Chamber and Cypher.

Initiators

Initiators are offensive agents that are really useful on both sides. Their main objective is to
break enemies' defenses and get information. Their abilities consist of flashes and revealing
enemies' location. The information gathered would help take control of the site much easier, and
on defense the abilities can be used to know where the attackers are about to go. And helping
their teammates retake a lost site(when the attackers have the spike down and no defenders are
on site).the current initiators are Skye, Breach, Kay/O, Sova and Fade.

Controller

Controllers specialize in cutting off dangerous areas of the site like entrances and chokepoints.
All controllers have a type of ability that blocks off portions of the site and other abilities unique
only to them. During attack controllers can smoke off certain entrances and use their crowd

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control on common defensive spots to force enemies into the open. During defense they smoke
entrances to delay enemy pushes. The current controllers are Brimstone, Viper, Omen, Harbor
and Astra.

Ranked system
Currently, there are 9 tiers in the Valorant rating system - starting with Iron and ending with
Radiant. All Valorant ranks except Radiant have three sub-tiers, with the first being the lowest
and the third being the highest. Therefore, excluding Unranked(when a player hasn't played
ranked before), there are 25 tiers of Valorant. All the ranks are shown in figure 1. Additionally,
the top 500 players in each region will get Radiant rank, and approximately the top 2% will get
Immortal rank. according to the research done by Esports Tales on rank distribution among
players in figure 2.
Additionally according to my research it's very similar to the results taken by Esports Tales with
a lot of players being in the lower ranks such as gold and silver(shown in figure 1)and
throughout all the ranks the agent reyna was picked 13.7% out of the 51 responses. Shown in
figure 3 and figure 4.

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References

Esports Tales. Valorant Rank Distribution and players percentage - August 2021. [online]
Available at:
https://www.esportstales.com/valorant/rank-distribution-and-percentage-of-players-by-tier.
Molen, K. van der (2022). Valorant and the Platformization of Free-To-Play Games. Press Start,
[online] 8(2), pp.21–43. Available at:
https://press-start.gla.ac.uk/index.php/press-start/article/view/199 [Accessed 23 Nov. 2022].
playvalorant.com. VALORANT: Riot Games’ competitive 5v5 character-based tactical shooter.
[online] Available at: https://playvalorant.com/en-gb/ .

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Annexure

Figure 1.

Figure 2

Figure 1. Figure 2.

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Figure 3

Figure 3.

Figure 4

Figure 4.