Elon Musk gets booed at Valorant esports finals

Billionaire and Twitter owner Elon Musk attended the final match of the Valorant Champions 2023 tournament, and the crowd wasn’t very happy

Billionaire and Twitter owner Elon Musk attended the final match of the Valorant Champions 2023 tournament, and the attendees at the popular Riot game’s big event weren’t very happy when they found out. Commentators at the tournament panned the camera to where Musk was sitting and pointed out who he was, and while over 1 million people watched online, the crowd of 11,000 people in the arena almost instantly started booing.

You can hear it in the clip YouTuber Jake Lucky posted on Twitter.

“Where’s that coming from?” one of the commentators asked. “That can’t be from in here, surely. Is that a bigger reaction than [professional Valorant player] tenZ got?”

Regardless of whether it was bigger, the reaction certainly lasted longer. The broadcasters tried switching back to the multiplayer game‘s finals, a match between Evil Geniuses and Paper Rex, but the crowd was having none of it. Right after the host said the “focus is back on the game,” the crowd started chanting “Brick back Twitter.”

It’s a reference to Musk’s drastic overhaul of the social media platform since he was forced to uphold his word and buy it for $44 million. Since then, he’s removed security features, changed algorithms, monetized subscriptions, and fired dozens of long-time staffers and engineers. He also changed the site’s name to X, though the implementation of that particular policy was rocky at best.

Meanwhile, the Evil Geniuses ended up winning this year’s Valorant championship.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Aim Lab will be the official training platform for Valorant esports

Riot Games is becoming a minority shareholder in Statespace.

Most people who love competitive first-person shooters are familiar with Aim Lab, the free aim-training software from Statespace. Think of it as a shooting range for your mousing hand. 

On Wednesday, Riot Games announced that it acquired a minority share in Statespace, and Aim Lab will become the official training and coaching platform for Valorant. Both companies are working to directly incorporate gunplay elements and physics minutia from the tactical shooter into Aim Lab.

“Riot has been the best partner, collaborator, and facilitator that we could have asked for,” Dr. Wayne Mackey, CEO of Statespace, said in a press release. “We are thrilled to continue to improve player experience through training, coaching, and scouting in Valorant and soon, in League of Legends.

What’s particularly noteworthy about this announcement is the League of Legends mention, confirming that Aim Labs will branch off into MOBA territory.

“We look forward to collaborating with Statespace on developing innovative training and coaching tools for Valorant and MOBA players around the world to improve their skills at every level,” Jake Perlman-Garr, global head of corporate development at Riot Games, said.

It’s certainly a curious development. Esports pros in the Apex Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Overwatch scenes all use Aim Lab as well. So Riot directly investing in the platform seems like a smart move.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Valorant patch 4.09 nerfs Chamber and changes Fade VFX

From VFX changes to rebalancing abilities, we’ll run you through all the changes in Valorant patch 4.09.

Valorant has seen a lot of excitement recently thanks to the addition of the game’s nineteenth agent, Fade. This powerful agent can track enemies down with ease, and keep them under control for other agents to take out quickly. Her addition has been well received by the community, and the only changes to her abilities in patch 4.09 are to the VFX.

Chamber wasn’t so lucky, as this patch rebalances his top-tier Trademark ability, nerfing it significantly. This ability lays a trap that slows opponents who get too close, but it was proving far too effective compared to other Sentinel tools. To keep it under control, the ability’s Cred cost has been increased, its uses have been reduced, and the range from which it can be heard has been increased, making it much easier to detect.

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Meet Fade, Valorant’s cerebral new agent

Here’s everything you need to know about the infiltration expert.

Season 3 of Valorant releases this week, and an exciting new agent is joining the fray.

Valorant’s new agent is Fade, a recon expert meant to give Sova some sneaky competition. According to Riot, she’s best in mid to close-range engagements and has no out-of-body skills. We’ll list all of her abilities below. Fade will be available alongside Valorant Season 3 on April 27, 2022.

Valorant Fade: Abilities and Overview

Haunt (E)

  • Equip a nightmarish entity. Press ‘fire’ to throw the orb, which plummets to the ground after a set time. Upon hitting the ground, the orb will reveal the location of enemies caught within its line of sight. The enemy team can destroy the entity, though players can re-use the ability to drop the projectile early in-flight.

Seize (Q)

  • Equip an orb of horrific ink. Press ‘fire’ to throw another orb that plummets to the ground after a set time. Once the orb hits the ground, it’ll explode into an inky mess and create a zone in which enemies cannot escape through normal means (if they’re caught within its radius). Players can re-use the ability to drop the projectile early in-flight.

Prowler (C)

  • Equip a Prowler. Press ‘fire’ to send the Prowler out, causing it to travel in a straight line. The Prowler will lock onto any enemies or trails in their frontal vision cone and chase them, nearsighting them if it reaches them. Hold the ‘fire’ key to steer the Prowler.

Nightfall (X)

  • Equip the power of Fear. Press ‘fire’ to send out a wave of nightmare energy that can pass through walls. The energy creates a trail to the opponent and deafens and decays them.

Check out Fade’s slick CGI trailer below. She’s pretty different from Neon, the previous agent.

Nicholas Smith, one of Valorant’s many designers, claims that figuring out how Fade’s trails work wasn’t easy.

“How the trails would work alongside many other agent utilities was definitely a challenge to figure out,” Smith said in a press release. “When enemies would teleport via ability or Bind teleporter what do we do? How would the trails actually get to their target (we had versions that started from Fade but felt that gave up a lot of synchronous information), how much visual noise to account for when all five were trailed, and how to best make this readable when there were many on-screen.”

Valorant Act 3 Battlepass Cosmetics

With another act comes a fresh new battlepass. We’ll list all the free and paid unlockables.

Free cosmetics

  • Ragna-Rock Out Buddy
  • Look Behind You Spray
  • UltraBright Torch Buddy
  • Yellows on Rails Player Card
  • Coalition: Cobra Frenzy

Paid cosmetics

  • .SYS Vandal
  • .SYS Axe (melee)
  • Hue Shift Phantom
  • Hue Shift Shorty
  • Backseat Coaching Spray
  • Terrible Day for Rain Spray
  • Unstoppable / Phoenix Player Card
  • Deep Divisions Buddy

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Valorant Agent tier list 2022: All you need to know

We’ve compiled a list of all Valorant agents and categorized them into five tiers based on the current meta.

The meta in Riot Games’ first-person shooter, Valorant, revolves around the constant changes made to its agents, requiring players to adapt to the evolving gameplay.

With the start of the latest Episode and the introduction of the speedster, Neon, the agent pool has expanded into 18 different agents. This makes things a bit complicated for players while selecting agents for their team. 

With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of all the agents from the pool and categorized them into five tiers based on the current meta to help you make the best decision. The list ranges from the S-Tier to D-Tier, S being the highest tier and D being the lowest.

Valorant Act 4 kicks off with a new agent and battlepass

Patch 4.0 is a monster.

Act 4 of Valorant  is finally here, and with it comes a new battlepass, competitive season, and agent character.

The most exciting addition is, without a doubt, Neon — Valorant’s  new high-speed agent, which we already outlined a bit last week. Her toolkit should shake up the meta in interesting ways; at least, that’s what everyone is hoping.

Of course, with Act 4 comes a new battle pass. This time, there are three new skin lines, including the Hydrodip Frenzy, Schema, and Velocity variants for several weapons. There are also new sprays, player cards, and gun buddies.

Finally, the new competitive season is rebalancing several aspects of Valorant. Several weapons like the Spectre, Ares, Guardian, and Bulldog had firing rates or bullet spread adjusted. Read the complete balance changes here.

Act 4 also got a fantastic new trailer which you can check out below.

Valorant  is slowly but surely becoming one of the best multiplayer FPS games. It might even round out our  best shooters of all time  after a few years.

It’s an intimidating thing to pick up, though, so if you’re at all interested in Valorant  but don’t know where to begin, check out our  guide that breaks it all down.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Neon is Valorant’s speedy new agent

Gotta go fast.

Riot Games is about to shake up Valorant  in a big way with Neon, the electrifying new speed demon agent.

The official announcement for Neon came Wednesday with a dazzling trailer that already has fans stoked beyond measure. While Riot Games has yet to outline Neon’s abilities, we can glean some details from the trailer. She appears to have a dash-slide ability similar to how movement works  in Apex Legends. Furthermore, Neon has a double smoke wall, which will undoubtedly come in handy while breaching choke points. 

Check out the Neon reveal trailer for yourself below. Personally, Neon’s character design and toolkit look interesting enough to get me  playing Valorant  again.

Additional details regarding Neon are sure to drop soon, as the current season of Valorant  ends on Jan. 10, so information on the following competitive arc can’t be far off at all.

It might be a bit soon to call Valorant  one of the  best first-person shooters of all time, but it’s getting there. Heck, most esports pros think calling anyone  the best player  is even a little too soon. However, with how monstrously huge the game is getting, it shouldn’t be long until it’s heralded as one of the greats. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Valorant director is working on a secret new project at Riot Games

Joe Ziegler is moving on.

Joe Ziegler, game director on Valorant, has left the development team to work on a different project at Riot Games.

Over on Valorant’s official website, Ziegler shared a heartfelt goodbye while also detailing who’s taking over as lead on the free-to-play first-person shooter phenomenon in his stead.

“After eight years of working on Valorant, building it from the ground up with a team of dedicated and passionate developers who’ve worked tirelessly to serve you all with the respect and admiration that you deserve,” Ziegler said. “I am giving up the mantle of game director of the Valorant tac-shooter to my good friend, Andy Ho.”

However, Ziegler is not leaving  Riot Games — far from it. He isn’t going to start working on League of Legends  or any other game at the company that’s publically known either. Instead, it seems he’s taking over a new yet-to-be-announced title. 

“As for me, I’ll be starting something new (*wink, secrets…) in the hopes that we can even scratch the surface of the amazing impact Valorant has already had so far,” Ziegler continues. “Thank you to everyone who has supported and continues to support Valorant, and a special shout out to all who’ve supported me and my work. You’ve made my time as your game director a truly joyous and memorable experience.”

We can only speculate about this new project, but given how Riot Games seems to be working on titles in  just about every genre these days, it’ll likely be something we’re not expecting. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Riot promotes Whalen Rozelle to global head of esports operations

As League of Legends and Valorant continue to grow, so must Riot.

Whalen Rozelle is now the head of global esports operations at Riot Games.

Previously Rozelle was the senior director of global esports and global head of Valorant  esports before Riot created the global esports operations position. In this new role, Rozelle will provide consultation and mentorship for all of the company’s games, including League of LegendsValorantWild Rift  and Teamfight Tactics.

“It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the impact Riot Games has had in elevating esports into the burgeoning industry that it is today, and I’m thankful for the opportunity over the past nine years to contribute to that growth,” Rozelle said in a press release. “There is so much about our community that I love, and that’s what keeps me inspired every day to build the best experience for both our players and fans. I’ve seen first hand the growth, change, and potential that we’ve just begun to scratch the surface at within esports.” 

Given the astronomical success of the  2021 League of Legends World Championships, it’s a pretty significant move for Rozelle. John Needham, global head of esports at Riot, had nothing but good things to say about Rozelle’s track record.

“Whalen joined Riot at a time when esports was primarily an idea, and he helped build LoL Esports into the world’s leading esport,” Needham said in a press release. “Whalen joined Riot at a time when esports was primarily an idea, and he helped build LoL Esports into the world’s leading esport.”

As Riot’s audience continues to grow at a staggering rate, Rozelle is taking on the extra responsibilities at an exciting time.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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The History of Riot Games, an industry juggernaut built on a free game

This is the story of Riot, League of Legends maker and a self-styled ‘player-focused’ studio.

League of Legends has around 115 million monthly players. One hundred and fifteen million. Its developer Riot Games has a consumer base about as big as oxygen does, then, but it’s also something of an enigma. 

The studio’s only been around since the late noughties and has released just a handful of titles in its history. As the games industry expands and most of its major players take on the image of cold corporate entities, Riot retains a knack for talking to its community like a collective of like-minded human beings. And it’s kept its debut title, a free-to-play MOBA based on a 2003 Warcraft III mod, relevant to a massive audience. This is the story of Riot, a self-styled ‘player-focused’ studio.

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