Everything is about to change, again.]]>The VCT 2023 season, the first season of VALORANT partnership under the new ecosystem, has finally come to a close. This year’s script saw Evil Geniuses go from a team considered worst in VCT Americas to the ultimate underdogs, to villains, to world champions.
A busy offseason so far has included ambitious new rosters being formed and a handful of reunions. Arguably the biggest story has been the EG roster breaking apart, with almost all the players fleeing the organization for new homes after a tumultuous post-Champions offseason.
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Four players on stage, but five earned their championship.]]>Hours before the VALORANT Game Changers Championship finals, Shopify Rebellion’s in-game leader Melanie “meL” Capone tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to lead her team in the Grand Finals off-stage. Despite that, they won it all, with meL leading Shopify to the 2023 championship.
Shopify Rebellion beat Team Liquid Brazil 3-2 in the VALORANT Game Changers Championship finals, overcoming the local fan favorites in São Paulo to earn North America its second international title across the VCT and Game Changers circuits.
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Select players will be able to stream their own games at the Vegas Open.]]>Most of the biggest streamers in Teamfight Tactics are going to and competing at the Vegas Open from Dec. 8-10, meaning they likely wouldn’t be able to stream. Yet, Riot has adapted its co-streaming rules so that these players can both play and share the event with their fans.
Popular TFT players, most notably streamers like Disguised Toast and Michael “k3soju” Zhang, are co-streaming the Vegas Open while they are competing in the event. Soju, in particular, has a unique setup where he will co-stream games, but if he is playing, Bryce “esportslaw” Blum and Dan “Frodan” Chou will take over his stream to commentate.
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The game helped plenty get some trophies on their shelf.]]>The eighth annual Esports Awards brought together many of the best players, content creators, and teams across esports to celebrate the best. As it turned out, plenty of awards involved VALORANT, as either players, coaches, or developers won some of the largest awards of the event.
Fitting for the victors of Champions 2023, Evil Geniuses took two different Esports Awards home, while one popular analyst won Desk Analyst of the Year. However, it all culminated when VALORANT won Esports Game of the Year, over strong contenders like League of Legends, CS:GO, and Call of Duty.
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This final reward is too tough to get, so why try?]]>Out of all the potential trait rewards in Teamfight Tactics’ tenth set, 8-bit promises a big reward if a high score is beaten. At launch, beating that high score is almost impossible, and even if done, players are agreeing that it just isn’t worth the effort.
Considering how the trait counts the damage you’ve done as a team since 8-bit activates, you can keep it up over the course of an entire game, trying to beat the high scores to increase your damage output. To get this final reward, players need to get 8-bit active early on in a game, then acquire an emblem for her as early as possible to hit the six threshold, and pray the game will stretch long enough that they will do over 456,789 damage as a team.
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Now all the music is easily accessible.]]>Teamfight Tactics’ Set 10 introduces an assortment of music tracks that change based on which traits and units are on the board. Not only are the songs absolute bangers, but fans are enjoying it so much that someone has already made a site where players can pick and choose their own mixes.
This Set, dubbed Remix Rumble, is focused on music—from the traits to the units themselves. The best addition to TFT with this Set, however, is the unique music that changes throughout the game for each player based on their teams. The melody stays remotely the same as the game progresses, but the instruments and tone shift entirely, giving each a distinct song along with their gameplay.
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Didn't have that on your off-season spreadsheet, did ya?]]>The 2023-24 VALORANT off-season hasn’t been without its surprises, from the lack of movement from the world champions to American players signing to Pacific teams. Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker made a big move to BLEED as an import, and T1 didn’t want to feel left out.
T1 signed American initiator player Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo on Nov. 9, formerly of Turtle Troop, FaZe Clan, and TSM. This marks T1’s fourth signing of the off-season, now rocking a seven-man roster it can potentially experiment with heading into VCT 2024.
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Roster almost complete.]]>Across the 2023-24 VALORANT offseason, Gen.G has been picking up some great Korean talent available in free agency to rebuild after a disappointing season. Now, after T1 picked up Gen.G’s Lee “k1Ng” Seung-won, Gen.G is picking up a player from T1.
Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom was officially acquired by Gen.G today, marking the team’s third signing of the offseason. After spending the start of his VALORANT career with Cloud9 Korea, he helped Crazy Raccoon reach international play and proved to be a great pickup for T1 when he joined partway through the 2022 season. With this move to Gen.G, he joins a different Pacific League team, connecting with some other highly-rated Korean talents as the fourth player on Gen.G’s 2024 roster.
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Avoid certain death.]]>VALORANT’s latest duelist, Iso, has a unique ability that gives him a shield that can absorb one blow from an enemy if he lands his shots. Little did most players know, this also can apply to the spike when it detonates.
Iso’s Double Tap shield can absorb some damage from the VALORANT spike explosion, which can potentially save players from what is supposed to be a guaranteed death. This came to light via a clip on Twitter this week, where an Iso with the shield active was able to squeak out of a detonation and save their weapons, despite clearly getting caught.
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More frame rate control is in the beta.]]>The Valve Steam Deck console is now getting more frame rate options, allowing players to choose different variations to improve its performance while keeping the games fun and portable.
For all the benefits the Steam Deck offers to people who want to play some great PC games on the go, the mobile nature of the device does lead to some game performance concessions. Lowering the Steam Deck’s frame rate was always an option to balance that out, with specific settings at 15, 30, and the common 60 FPS. With Valve’s November update, however, new options will be added to that list, including 10 and 20 FPS modes.
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