To start playing competitive mode matches, you’ll need first to play 20 unrated games. Once you qualify, you’ll be able to queue for competitive play with up to four other players, provided you’re all within two ranks of one another.
Riot Games
If you’ve played a recent Blizzard game or League of Legends competitively any time in the last couple of years, Valorant‘s ranking system will be familiar. In all, there are eight ranks: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Immortal and Valorant. Besides the final one, Riot has divided each into a further three tiers.
When you first start working your up the ladder, the game will factor how you play during matches. Your performance will become less of a factor as you move up, to the point where at the Valorant rank winning and how decisive your matches were are the only variables the current system will take into account. The reason for this is that Riot says, “at the highest levels of competitive play, we trust you and your teammates have earned your way there.”
The studio claims it has also designed the system in such a way as to prevent smurfing, a practice wherein high-skill players will create new accounts so they can play against less experienced opponents. The decisiveness factor is there to prevent players from throwing matches, something that can be a major issue in League of Legends.
Once the Valorant is officially available sometime later this summer, the studio will reset the ladder. In the meantime, you can try to get into the closed beta by watching other people play the game on Twitch.
Plus, I think everyone sucks at security and few things are as bad as app security. I know this can be done right. I understand the security, privacy and cultural constraints of how to make a contact tracing app successful while not trampling our human rights. But does anyone pushing us to the inevitability of contact tracing apps get it?
That said, contact tracing apps are not just unavoidable; we desperately need them. They’re already in use in different countries, yet implementation is slow for Western countries. Basically, we’re next.
Contact tracing is when health workers stem the spread of a disease by locating an infected person, documenting where they went and with whom they came into contact then finding out if those people have symptoms, and determining potential testing and quarantine. It has been used all over the world when fighting contagious infectious diseases like Ebola. Right now, contact tracing with quarantines and widespread, accurate testing are absolutely vital in stopping the COVID-19 pandemic.
The phrase “contact tracing” as we know it online has become a catch-all for digital alternatives, such as apps that reduce risk time, minimize everyone’s exposure and save lives.
It could also save a lot of money; our economy is bleeding out before our eyes. But it’s also not cheap to implement. “Contact tracing on a national level could cost in the billions of dollars and require hiring more than 100,000 people,” NBC News reported.
“Every clinician in the city who cares for someone with COVID-19 and every laboratory that processes a positive test must report the case to the Department of Public Health, which is how San Francisco is building out its database of contacts,” NBC further explained. The implementation of contact tracing is labor- and time-consuming:
San Francisco plans to use a workforce of 140 people, including medical students from the University of California, San Francisco, librarians and staff from the city attorney’s office, to go through lists of people who have tested positive for the virus and interview them.
While SF gears up for at least 140 people for its 883,000 citizens, on Wednesday California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state is readying to train up to 10,000 contact tracers.
San Francisco’s health department is employing the use of software for its contact tracing, though that software is used by the tracers themselves to track and monitor people’s cases. It’s not being forced on the city’s population. On Monday SF’s public health director, Dr. Grant Colfax, told press that “participation in contact tracing is voluntary and no one will be asked about their immigration status or for their Social Security number or bank details.”
That’s reassuring from a privacy and anti-surveillance perspective, which is the aspect filling so many of us with crushing dread. Make no mistake, we’re talking about an event — the coronavirus pandemic — creating an opportunity for a worldwide digital security and privacy apocalypse. We can be sure that the dictators and data dealers are all salivating over all that Big Brother brand toothpaste that can never be put back in the tube.
That’s probably what brought the DP-3T Project, a group of digital security and privacy professionals, to publish an astonishingly comprehensive report this week: The Privacy and Security Risk Evaluation of Digital Proximity Tracing Systems. In it, they plainly explain that all contact tracing apps use Bluetooth to estimate proximity between two phones, and all the system needs to do is inform the phone’s owner they’ve been near an infected person. “The system does not need to reveal to anyone who the potential contagious contact was with, or when and where it happened.”
The report goes on to list risks everyone will need to know about. That includes the potential for app makers to abuse all the data (including access to people’s social graphs), that in all Bluetooth tracing systems “a powerful antenna can trigger false alerts,” adversaries could track users, and more.
The thing is, in order for contact tracing apps to work, they must be universally adopted by everyone. It would help enormously if makers of these apps addressed the concerns and risks in DP-3T Project’s paper. Because contact tracing apps are working in some places, but not others, and it all comes down to voluntary adoption.
Everyone’s doing it… differently
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Contact-tracing smartphone apps are already in use by countries including China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan — all with varying results. Australia and the UK’s NHS plan to, and so do EU member states, which is why the European Commission (EC) just published guidelines for EU app devs.
The US is also interested; different states are pursuing their own solutions, with around 20 different state and local governments interested in using MIT’s open source “Privacy by Design” Private Kit. New York announced his week it will launch its own tri-state virus tracing program (with a huge cash infusion from Michael Bloomberg).
Then there’s Google and Apple’s unholy alliance; the companies are building APIs -— the actual contact tracing phone apps will come from public health orgs. The tech giants are calling it “Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing,” and they already hit a few snags with the UK’s NHS.
“Apple and Google are encouraging health services worldwide to build contact-tracing apps that operate in a decentralised way, allowing individuals to know when they’ve been in contact with an infected person but preventing governments from using that data to build a picture of population movements in aggregate,” reported press.
“But the policies, unveiled last week, apply only to apps that don’t result in the creation of a centralised database of contacts,” Guardian explained. “That means that if the NHS goes ahead with its original plans, its app would face severe limitations on its operation.”
Meanwhile the US federal government chose Peter Thiel and Palantir to create the HHS Protect Now “single source” COVID-19 data tracking platform. Protect Now integrates 187 Palantir data sources, which according to press includes “hospital capacity and inventories, supply chain data from the government and industry, diagnostic and geographic testing data.” A government spokesperson told Daily Beast HHS was also relying on “private sector partner contributions of data.” Yeah, because seamless data sharing between government and private companies always ends well.
“Palantir has already done work for the Trump administration, providing profiling tools to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of the president’s draconian border crackdown,” Vanity Fair reminds us. “And then there’s Thiel’s personal links to Trump. An early Facebook investor and board member, Thiel joined Trump and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for a private dinner last year at the White House and he reportedly influenced the social media giant’s policy on political ads.”
The point is, it’s convenient for companies to argue that all the Hoovering of our data they’ve done over the past 10-15 years could make them uniquely positioned to ride in on a big, white syphilitic unicorn and save us. (We’d just need to surrender to a deeper surveillance state while a seamless data sharing deal is made between the private sector and the government.)
Except it won’t save us, at least according to a white paper from the ACLU Turns out, COVID-19 is a very unique situation.
“We have spoken with engineers and executives at a number of the largest US companies that hold location data on Americans’ movements and locations and generally they have told us that their data is not suitable for determining who was in contact with whom for purposes of Covid-19,” ACLU concluded in its April 8 paper, The Limits of Location Tracking in an Epidemic.
Implementation vs. adoption
But wait: let’s back up to the part where I mentioned all the different countries around the world that are already using contact tracing apps with varying degrees of success. On the one hand we’ve got China and Israel going full police state with invasive citizen surveillance, while countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan have balanced privacy and virus tracing.
“Top of mind has been whether authoritarian regimes have an edge over democracies, because they can mandate top-down measures like lockdowns and digital tracking of infected people’s movements and contacts,” wrote Harvard Business Review. But “the top and bottom performers in Covid-19 containment span the spectrum from autocratic to democratic. It’s true that China is effectively flattening the curve, but so is South Korea, a vibrant democracy. Other democracies — the U.S., Spain, Italy, and France, are faring less well.”
It’s no coincidence that the locations seeing success with contact tracing smartphone apps have at least two things in common: governments behind the apps are tech-savvy, and the places they’re working are those with more collectivist societies — specifically, those in East Asia. Most of those tech-savvy governments emphasize controls on digital privacy (like South Korea and Singapore), easing issues of trust that might create avoidance.
In the US, states have been fractured by the federal government and the union is splintering. States are forming coalitions and fighting the federal government for citizens’ survival. A contact tracing app from the federal government will never gain universal adoption for more reasons than can be listed here.
Alexander Drago / Reuters
That’s okay, they’d just screw it up anyway.
Digital contact tracing for COVID-19 is inevitable. Because this means mass installation of a surveillance app on everyone’s phones in order for it to work, it’s a moment when we can decide that fighting for survival means fighting for our future, too.
I hate this moment in so many ways, and for so many reasons. I hate that this should be the moment that all our privacy and security mistakes with apps, companies, and people’s lives are just staring us in the face, screaming for someone to pay attention. Because this should be the promise of all this stupid technology, that when we are dying and oppressed, that we could use it to find a way and toss everyone who abused apps and tech to harm us.
There should be a contact tracing app that I want to use, and that I can trust. Not another grubby shitshow of vulnerabilities and privacy violations made by people I hate and corporations trying to make sure I have no choice.
That contact tracing app would do exactly what it needs to do, and no more — just as described in The Privacy and Security Risk Evaluation of Digital Proximity Tracing Systems. And we’d use it as part of the things we incorporate to get through the next part of this game’s nightmare level, another tool for our arsenal of resilience, an acceptable accessory while we shift our perspective from preoccupation with fear and loss to focus on strength and resetting our worlds.
It would not sell us out, but instead help us survive and adapt — both COVID-19 and the murderous, anti-science, profiteers and grifters trying to deep-six our freedoms and futures. Turns out survival and adaptability are evolutionary traits — science! A definite advantage when your country’s idiot CEO is literally talking about blowing sunshine up your ass to cure the plague.
Lyft isn’t waiting until the end of April to decide on the fate of its free scooter rides for critical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ridesharing firm has extended its LyftUp Scooter Program through May, giving free rides to healthcare, emergency and transit workers in six cities another month. Employers will still have to enroll staff, but registered workers will continue get as many no-cost 30-minute rides as they need to commute without having to get close to others on public transportation or in rideshare cars.
The program is currently available in Austin, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Monica and the metro DC area. Lyft has also promised stricter cleaning protocols to make sure the scooters themselves are cleaner.
There are other Zoom-like features, too. Messenger Rooms will have “immersive 360-degree backgrounds that transport you to beautiful and iconic spaces, from the beach to a luxe apartment on the water,” along with “14 new camera filters that offer ambient lighting to brighten your space and your face.” Facebook also notes that there are no time limits for video chat sessions
Messenger Rooms is starting to roll out now, and will be live in the US “in the coming weeks.”
The update comes as Facebook says it’s seen a massive surge in calling across its chat apps, with more than 700 million people making calls on Messenger and WhatsApp every day. And on WhatsApp, Facebook is also increasing the number of people who can join a call, doubling it from four to eight. That update is launching next week.
Facebook also announced that it’s integrating Messenger’s video calling into Facebook Dating, so users can participate in “virtual dates” while they can’t plan IRL get-togethers. The update will be available “in the coming months.”
You can now listen to just the audio of live videos on Facebook, which is a handy data-saving option Twitch has long offered, and some pages can even offer a toll-free number you can call to listen to streams. Most public live videos are available on the web too, so you won’t necessarily need a Facebook account to watch.
As for game streaming, the company released the Facebook Gaming app this week, through which you can stream games from Android devices. You can now set up tournaments, and the feature’s coming to the mobile app soon too. Facebook’s also expanding the availability of Stars to more countries and pages. They’re Facebook’s answer to Twitch Bits — you can buy and donate them to streamers, who receive a cent for each one.
Facebook is also expanding live streaming on Portal. With the Facebook Live app, you can already run broadcasts on your profile, but you’ll soon be able to stream to pages and groups as well. That might make streaming a more viable option for some because the system’s smart camera can automatically follow you as you move around.
As for Instagram, it enabled live streams on the web earlier this month, so you can watch without comments covering a chunk of the screen. Until now, the only way you’ve been able to let people watch your streams after the fact is by saving them to your story, but they’re only visible for 24 hours. That’s about to change, as soon you’ll be able to save live videos to IGTV so people can find them later.
The first alternative that springs to mind is Google’s Pixel 3a. It costs the same as the SE, though you might find it on sale now, since rumors are that a Pixel 4a is coming soon. Though the Pixel 3a packs a midrange Snapdragon 670 processor, Google’s tuned its software to make the $400 phone run basically as fast as a flagship. Of course, if you’re a processor snob, you might still prefer the iPhone’s A13 Bionic, which is the same high-end chip found in the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. But most people won’t notice a difference in performance.
Chris Velazco / Engadget
The Pixel 3a’s screen is noticeably bigger than the iPhone SE’s though. Google’s affordable phone has a 5.6-inch OLED display, which is positively enormous compared to the SE’s 4.7-inch LCD screen. The Pixel also has a higher resolution at 1080p, whereas the iPhone runs at a mere 750p. Both phones start with 64GB of storage and offer single rear 12-megapixel cameras with the same f/1.8 aperture, though Google arguably has better image-processing software. The pair also have similarly sharp selfie cameras, and since the iPhone SE is newer, it supports the latest WiFi 6 standard while the Pixel 3a still uses 802.11ac. However, almost no one uses WiFi 6 yet, so this isn’t the most meaningful feature for now.
If you’re picking between Google and Apple, your decision ultimately boils down to your software preference. These two handsets are quite similar where it counts, though the iPhone SE is a little more future proof, thanks to its superior processor. The Pixel has a slightly better screen and more modern appearance though.
But these two aren’t the only companies making decent phones for less than $500. Samsung, Motorola and OnePlus all have offerings in that range that you could consider. The Galaxy A51, for example, costs $400 and is currently even cheaper at several stores while the Moto G Stylus goes for $300 at Best Buy. Both of these guys are larger devices, with the Galaxy’s screen measuring 6.5 inches and the Moto’s stretching 6.4 inches. Though they both run at full HD, Samsung as usual delivers a superior AMOLED screen while Motorola uses an LCD panel. The Galaxy A51 and the Moto G Stylus also look more modern than the iPhone SE, featuring the all-screen faces and hole-punch front cameras that we’ve come to expect on flagships.
Chris Velazco / Engadget
Samsung also offers the sharpest selfie camera of the four, with a 32-megapixel sensor. Meanwhile, Moto beats the Pixel and iPhone SE with its 16-megapixel front cam. On the rear, the G Stylus has a 48-megapixel triple-camera system while the Galaxy adds a depth-sensing option. Both of these phones include macro and ultra-wide lenses in their arrays, making for more-versatile shooting.
Samsung uses its own Exynos 9611 chipset in the Galaxy A51, which performs similarly to the Moto G Stylus’ Snapdragon 665. These still pale in comparison to the A13 Bionic though, which runs much faster.
Of the four phones I’ve mentioned, those who prioritize powerful cameras and displays might prefer the Galaxy A51. If you like clean Android software, the Pixel 3a is for you — that is, if you can’t wait till fall, by which point we expect the Pixel 4a will have arrived. The Moto G Stylus has the added benefit of having a built-in passive stylus, plus it is the only option to still have a microSD card slot.
Those with a bit more money to spare should consider the OnePlus 7T. The last-gen phone features a beautiful build and a 6.5-inch full HD screen that runs at a smooth 90Hz. It even supports HDR for richer image quality. Like the Moto G Stylus, the OnePlus 7T offers a 48-megapixel triple-camera system on its rear and a 16-megapixel sensor up front. It costs a bit more than the others at $500, but it uses a powerful Snapdragon 855 processor.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
There are, of course, several more options for less than $500 from the likes of TCL, LG, Nokia and ASUS, but honestly they don’t quite hold up to our favorites here. Those looking for an alternative to the new iPhone SE will appreciate that there are plenty of respectable options in this price range. But bear in mind that they’re all Android devices. If you’re stuck on iOS, then you’re stuck with the iPhone SE. It’s great and all, offering flagship performance at a nice price. But you’ll have to live with the outdated design and single-camera setup. The next cheapest iPhone is the XR, which starts at $600 and doesn’t get you more cameras or a better processor. It seems Apple fans who want to save money don’t have that many options after all.
You can still get Garmin’s Forerunner 35 GPS watch for only $90 at Best Buy and Amazon. Normally priced at $120, it’s a solid entry-level GPS watch that will be useful for new and seasoned runners alike. In addition to onboard GPS, it also has a heart rate monitor and can track daily activity if you wear it all day long. At this sale price, it’s one of the most affordable ways to get a GPS running watch. Anyone running more while under quarantine or starting a new regimen will get a lot of use out of it.
Sony’s stellar WH-1000XM3 wireless headphones are still down to $238 at Newegg. They hit this low late last month and this is the lowest price we’ve seen them. They earned an impressive score of 94 from us thanks to their comfortable design, high-quality audio and best-in-class noise cancellation. Normally priced at $350, they have remained our favorite wireless headphones for quite some time — and the current sale prices makes them even more of a no-brainer purchase.
Amazon has a rare deal on the Apple Watch Series 5 GPS + Cellular, dropping the 40mm model price to $400 and the 44mm model price to $430. That’s $100 off both of their normal prices and it brings both wearables close to their lowest prices ever. Added LTE lets you take and make phone calls, and send and receive texts, from the Apple Watch even when you don’t have your iPhone with you. While you will have to pay an extra fee each month for the Watch’s cellular service, it comes in handy if and when you forget your iPhone at home.
You can still snag a Google Nest WiFi bundle for $200 at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Home Depot. Normally priced at $270, this bundle includes one Nest WiFi router and one access point. We gave the Nest WiFi system a score of 84 thanks to its easy installation process, improved speed and reliability and its sleek design. While it doesn’t support WiFi 6, and the access point doesn’t have a built in Ethernet port, it’s still a great mesh WiFi system that would make a good upgrade for your home’s network.
The 2020 iPhone SE is now available from Apple starting at $400, but it’s also available at other retailers — and a few are sweetening the deal with some perks. Best Buy is the main one, selling the iPhone SE starting at $400 and including a $50 store gift card when you order and activate with a qualifying carrier.
We gave the new iPhone SE a score of 90 — it keeps many of the things people loved about the previous SE, including a 4.7-inch Retina display and Touch ID with a physical home button. On top of that, it adds improved performance with Apple’s A13 Bionic chipset and a solid camera. It’s undoubtably one of the best “cheap” smartphones you can get right now and it will be a great upgrade for those coming from the previous iPhone SE.
Best Buy continues to offer the Google Pixel 4 for $450 and the Pixel 4XL for $550. This deal knocks $350 off the starting price of each model, making it a good opportunity to get a flagship smartphone at a midrange price. These are both solid handsets (scoring 83 and 85, respectively) that have some of the best cameras you’ll find on a smartphone today. They also have good performance and a display that’s enhanced by a feature that allows it to be kicked up to 90Hz.
It’s still possible to get the Google Home for only $50 at Walmart. The smart speaker typically costs $70 to $100, making this deal a more affordable way to get one of the original Google Assistant devices. This is Google’s equivalent to the Amazon Echo, housing the company’s virtual assistant inside a speaker that can fill a room with sound. In addition to playing music, the Google Home can perform other tasks via the Assistant including checking calendar appointments, controlling smart home devices and more.
The Amazon Echo is still available at Best Buy and Amazon for $60. This is Black-Friday-level pricing for the 3rd generation smart speaker, and it probably will not drop this low again before Amazon Prime Day. We gave the latest Echo a score of 90 for its solid audio quality, responsive mics and wide range of Alexa capabilities. You can also still add a smart plug to the purchase for only $10 extra.
Walmart has a deal on the standard Apple Watch Series 5, dropping it down to $300. That’s $100 less than the normal starting price of $400. While you won’t get the cellular connectivity, you will get onboard GPS in these Apple Watch models as well as all of the newest features Apple added to the wearable last fall. These include an always-on, energy efficient display, a built-in compass and international emergency calling.
The smallest of the Google Assistant speakers is on sale. Now you can get the Nest Mini for $30 at B&H Photo, Bed, Bath and Beyond and Google’s online store. That’s $20 off it’s normal price of $50, and close to the lowest price it’s ever been. The second-generation Nest Mini takes the original’s design and improves on the audio chops — you’ll get much better sound quality out of this version of the speaker than previous versions. It also has an improved processor that makes processing Google Assistant voice commands easier and faster. (There’s also a larger Google Nest sale happening at Bed, Bath and Beyond as well).
“Europe is a very important market for us and has been since the beginning of OnePlus,” the spokesperson told Engadget. “We’re doing some strategic restructuring in Europe, and in fact are even hiring in the region.”
One source added that the teams in Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and Belgium appear to be unaffected, as these are the markets where OnePlus apparently sees most potential. Several employees were also asked to relocate to Helsinki, which is understood to be replacing London as OnePlus’ new European headquarters.
One could easily blame the pandemic for OnePlus’ European restructuring, but signs were visible well beforehand. In the case of the UK, despite previous relationships, the OnePlus 8 series is carried by just one network: 3. For some reason, EE discontinued its partnership with the phone brand after carrying the much-hyped OnePlus 7 Pro 5G. Similarly, O2 no longer carries OnePlus phones after the 6T.
Ben Wood, Chief Analyst at CCS Insight, blamed OnePlus for struggling to expand beyond its finite number of fans, especially by shifting towards premium devices and thus even alienating some of its core fan base. The analyst went as far as calling the earlier OnePlus 7 line-up a “peak OnePlus” moment, as the heavily-invested OnePlus 7 Pro 5G that came afterwards struggled to sell. The phone quickly became a “firework product” when other more established brands like Samsung started delivering their 5G devices.
“Although OnePlus has had some notably strong relationships with carriers across Europe, there is growing evidence that it finds it hard to sustain relationships over a longer period,” Wood told Engadget. “This has seen OnePlus ‘jumping’ from one carrier to another with different generations of products. There also seems to be a growing sense that OnePlus has fallen into the trap of over-promising and under-delivering, which ironically is the complete opposite of how it behaved in the early days.”
OnePlus clearly has some tidying up to do, so maybe this is a much-needed restructuring after all. The company still has other tricks up its sleeve, namely the rumored low-cost OnePlus 8 Lite which may win old fans as well as new customers over. And let’s not forget the OnePlus TV line-up which are currently exclusive to India. We shall see how many of these will need to be shipped to make up for the checks for Robert Downey Jr.
The pause comes after some reported drama surrounding Dyson’s late March announcement. Telegraphsources said that Dyson’s announcement had sparked “fury” in the Prime Minister’s office as it preempted plans to outline a strategy to boost the National Health Service’s capacity. Effectively, Dyson may have been “point-scoring” for publicity’s sake, promising a giant order even though it needed regulatory approval to move forward.
As Dyson said, this doesn’t mean CoVent is gone. Countries hit harder by COVID-19, such as the US, might still need it. And a lack of demand is clearly a good thing at a time when many are still worried that hospitals could be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. However, the decision to put manufacturing on hold may hurt Dyson’s reputation. This comes just months after company scrapped its electric car project in the fall — it’s not having much success outside of core categories like vacuum cleaners and hair dryers.
Lewis used to be the head of marketing for League of Legends, and she helped enact that game’s Partner Program, which rewards video-focused influencers with in-game perks, developer access, promotional support and the opportunity to participate in reveals. Other AAA studios have similar partnerships with streamers in place, notably Overwatch studio Blizzard.
With Valorant, Lewis’ marketing strategy has been to leverage Riot’s relationships with streamers and infuse the development process with their feedback from day one. Or, day negative-one.
“Our approach has been even more intimate with influencers,” Lewis said. “‘We need advice on our game, help us make this game good, help us make this live up to your standards as an FPS player.’ It was really crucial to get those influencers involved at an early stage.”
On top of offering early access, free games, networking opportunities and other perks to Valorant streamers, Riot has the cash to make deals with high-profile personalities if and when it wants to. League of Legends generated $1.5 billion in revenue in 2019, and tends to make between $1 and $2 billion a year. Not to mention, Riot is owned 100 percent by China’s largest internet company, Tencent Holdings.
Money aside, Riot is rich in relationships. The studio has been running League of Legends since 2009, it kicked off the game’s esports circuit in 2011, and it started the Partner Program in late 2018. The studio has been building connections with streamers, esports players and influencers for years, and these relationships are paying off with Valorant, the studio’s first new IP in more than a decade.
“The reason we’ve been popular with streamers is that we’re oriented toward getting to know them, having deeper relationships with them, understanding their feedback about the game, playing the game with them,” Lewis said. “We’ve got a lot of our developers out there playing with influencers and just sort of just bear-hugging them and welcoming them in. That was an explicit marketing strategy of ours.”
Valorant’s record-breaking Twitch debut coincides with a general uptick in streaming viewership tied to the global coronavirus pandemic. With country- and state-wide quarantine orders in place around the world, more people than ever are watching Twitch and YouTube videos, and with traditional sports on pause, esports are finding a hungry audience.
Riot Games
Valorant was built to be an esports powerhouse, and Riot has already laid out rudimentary rules for official tournaments. The studio’s esports plans include the addition of a mode that replaces in-game blood with sparks in an attempt to secure squeamish sponsors (and likely to appease strict Chinese censorship laws).
A handful of professional players and streamers have also announced their intent to play Valorant full-time, ditching other popular titles in the process. Fortnite World Cup runner-up Harrison “psalm” Chang is switching to Valorant, as is Overwatch pro John “Wanted” Lin. Jake “Poach” Brumleve announced in March that he’d be ditching Fortnite for Valorant, and in a Twitlonger statement he criticized Fortnite publisher Epic Games for mismanagement of the game’s esports league, writing,
“I hope I find what I’m looking for in Valorant. I have high hopes for the game and am very motivated to stream and try and compete. If it doesn’t work out, I will move forward as a streamer. I’m excited to be streaming again, I don’t feel boxed in by feeling forced to stream Fortnite anymore.”
This faith in Valorant speaks to the success, so far, of Riot’s streamer-first marketing approach. Lewis actually calls it “player-first.” She says Riot is interested in working with streamers and fans at any popularity level, not just top-tier Twitch personalities.
“Competition is the main point of Valorant, and so we expect that’ll play out really nicely in the esports scene,” Lewis said. “It’s been really exciting so far talking with team owners, talking to players of other types of games in the competitive scene and just gauging their interest.”
At the beginning of the year, Ludwig “Anomaly” Lagerstedt had a significant YouTube following as a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, with a small presence on Twitch. Today, he’s regularly the top name on Twitch, streaming Valorant. From April 13th to 19th, Anomaly’s channel clocked 13.85 million hours of eyeballs, and they were all on Riot’s new shooter, according to The Esports Observer.
On April 15th, Riot opened up the Valorant beta program and enabled key drops for anyone streaming the game on Twitch, not just certified partners. The drops are still running 24/7, and today, just over two weeks after the game launched in closed beta, Valorant is still at the top of the Twitch charts.
