Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney has given his verdict on Riot Games’ new FPS title, Valorant, and explains why it has no chance of stealing away Fortnite’s player base, for one key reason.
While the majority of the streaming community was full of praise for Riot’s new tactical FPS, one of the biggest streamers on Twitch, Tfue, was the complete opposite, calling Valorant “boring” and an “old man’s game”.
Tfue is best known now for his Fortnite skills, considered one of the best players in the game, but before Fortnite he was also a top player in other shooter titles, including PUBG.
Although he almost exclusively plays Fortnite now, his viewers were still interested to hear his verdict on the new game of the moment, Valorant, so he dived in for a couple games on April 7, as the Closed Beta began.
It didn’t take the Fortnite pro long to come to the conclusion that this simply wasn’t the game for him though, explaining that he found the general gameplay loop “boring” and the pace of the matches too slow.
“It’s pretty f**king boring dude, I don’t like playing on a team with people. I just like 1v1,” he said, after a viewer doubted how much they’d play. “This game is boring me. I mean, it’s a good game, it’s just boring.”
He went on to say that it’s for “older people”, and that he’d “rather just play CS:GO.”
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“I feel like [Valorant] is like CS:GO, but except for like skill, you just kill people with abilities,” he concluded, before jumping into a match.
Losing a close game by 9 rounds to 10, Tfue explained to his Fortnite duo Scoped why he doesn’t think Valorant will be a hit with younger players – Fortnite’s primary target audience.
“It’s just so f**king slow, kids aren’t going to want to play this, it’s more of like a patient, strategy-based, old man’s game, you know?”
Eventually, Tfue’s team lost the match by 13 rounds to 11, and he quickly exited and went back to Fortnite, where he and his duo got back to winning ways.
His comments may not deter Riot Games though, as they likely weren’t targeting the younger gamers who would rather play Fortnite, given the more punishing gameplay in Valorant. Instead, they’re more likely targeting players who favor games like CS:GO, Rainbow 6 Siege or Overwatch.
The beta got off to a hot start on Twitch too, pulling in over 1.7 million concurrent viewers at its peak. Although some of this will be down to the drops for access to the beta, which could only be acquired through watching streams.