With Riot Games' release of their most recent leaderboards, comes a plethora of discussions regarding the various regions in the Valorant scene.
How do you stack up?
NA Ranked leaderboard is here. pic.twitter.com/vobLUh46GI
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) October 20, 2020
The North American region particularly has its own fare share of talking points especially with the inclusions of CS:GO and Fortnite players in the leaderboards. Riot's progress with their first person shooter game are signs that their decision to diversify their choice of games is inching towards success. Since Valorant offers a unique twist in the first person shooter genre by combining the mechanics of other games, players from other esports titles are enticed to try it out.
Below are the biggest takeaways from the recent NA leaderboards.
OVERWATCH PLAYERS HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO
Prior to the release of Valorant's alpha phase, casual gamers would consider the game to be an Overwatch rip-off since both games feature characters with abilities stemming from a MOBA game.
However various streamers and influencers have reported their experiences with the game, stating that Valorant shares more similarities with Counter-Strike more than Overwatch due to the tactical precision required in utilizing the abilities of these characters. Some would even point out that CSGO players have the edge over Overwatch players if ever they transition to Valorant.
The recent NA leaderboards have already proven that argument as majority of the members shown in the list were once professional CSGO players. In fact the number one spot was taken by a former CSGO player named Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, who once played for Cloud9. Other notable CSGO players that were part of the list included 100 Thieves’ Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk (ranked 3rd), Cloud9 member, Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham (ranked 9th), and Team SoloMid’s Matthew “Wardell” Yu (ranked 10).
Other CS:GO players who are part of the list included Braxton “brax” Pierce (ranked 29th), Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan (ranked 43rd), and Sean “sgares” Gares (ranked 58th).
CS:GO wasn't the only game that made its mark in the rankings as three former Fortnite players were included namely Harrison “psalm” Chang (ranked 46), Mickaël “Kyro” Cerdan (ranked 84th), and the most controversial of them all, Damion “XXiF” Cook (ranked 20th), who received a ton of backlash for cheating in the Fortnite World Cup.
Overwatch players who made the leap to Valorant have yet to be featured in this list, proving the challenges in their transition.
MASSIVE EXODUS OF CSGO PLAYERS
Signs of professional CSGO players making the transition to Valorant have proven that Riot's first person project is slowly inching its way towards massive success. This actually bodes well with the rumors swirling around that the CSGO scene is dying in the NA region.
In one of his streams, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek mentioned that the CSGO scene is dying in the NA region since the game doesn't have the same support as compared to its EU counterpart. This statement came as a response to the news of 100Thieves' stepping away from the scene.
He wasn't the only one who proclaimed the game's fizzling support as Tarik “tarik” Celik a notable player for Evil Geniuses confirmed this as well to the point where he desperately asked for the assistance of the other regions.
NA CS IS OFFICIALLY DEAD, I WENT & SAID IT.
PINGING EU CS FOR HELP, RT TO SPREAD AWARENESS.
THANK YOU.
— tarik (@tarik) October 13, 2020
The leaderboards likewise supported these revelations as the NA leaderboards was stacked with CSGO talent as compared to the EU leaderboards.
Given the state of CSGO, the rising popularity of Valorant, and the similarities between the two games, players may be inclined to make a switch to Valorant. It's possible that the succeeding leaderboards will predominantly feature former CSGO professionals.
JETT IS THE BEST AGENT
In the game's initial release, many players loathed Jett primarily because of the skill level required to play her. Some would argue that she isn't even meant to be played at the high-tier level since most of her abilities proved to be underwhelming. Given the frustrations surrounding her, some members from the community would place her at the bottom of their tier list.
However the recent leaderboards have proven that she is without a doubt the best agent. The fact that 60% of the players in the top 10 of the NA region are Jett mains proved her stature. She was even heavily played by top 10 players in the EU region as well.
One key reason why Jett is now heavily favored is due to the improvements in the community's tactical understanding of the game. Jett's abilities are best played with the right synergy of teamplay and a keen understanding of the environment. This makes her one of the most intriguing characters to play as she allows the player to learn a profound tactical insight about the game.
This factor alongside the recent meta changes have further enhanced her role in the game.
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