Twitch star Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek believes Valorant is going to “easily” surpass Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as the top FPS title around when it comes to esports.
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When Valorant launched back in June, players and esports organizations alike quickly moved to show their skills off and create rosters in a bid to get ahead of the curve.
Even in its infancy, pros from CS:GO, Overwatch, and other games decided to hop aboard the Valorant hype train and for some, it worked out as they’ve been able to rack up wins in online tournaments and build audiences on Twitch.
With the first-person shooter being backed by Riot, there are plenty of expectations surrounding its eventual growth in the esports world – with some, including Shroud, backing it to knock off the likes of CS:GO and perhaps even League of Legends.
During a recent stream, the former CS:GO pro had been discussing the landscape of Valorant’s esports scene – noting that the best teams in Europe and North America haven’t had the chance to do battle yet. Once that happens, and the game goes to LAN, Shroud believes it’ll pop off.
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“Dude, Valorant is just going to hit and it’s going to hit hard. Like, it has the perfect recipe right now, right,” he said. “It’s just like, CS numbers are dipping, but to be fair CS strives on LAN so that’s why they’re dipping, obviously once LAN comes back, it’ll be a little different.
“But still, if Valorant nails the timing of coming to LAN and tournaments are popping off, it’s going to blow the f**k up – even more than it already has.” As someone suggested that Valorant will take the top spot in the first-person shooter esports ranks, Shroud added: “Oh yeah, easily.”
The growing intrigue surrounding the world’s best teams not being able to play each other will, undoubtedly, work in Valorant’s favor.
It just remains to be seen as to whether or not it can cement itself at the top of the esports world. Plenty of games have come along and tried to do so, but the titans of CS:GO and LoL still reign supreme. For now.