Riot is high hopes for a Valorant esports league, but it would still rely on third-party organizers for events.
Riot’s League of Legends is easily one of the biggest esports games out there. With Valorant expected to be a hit in the tactical shooting category once it is released, it’s curious to know just how much the company would push its latest project in terms of the esports industry.
Riot has big dreams for Valorant, esports-wise, but for now, they would like to stick with third-party organizers and see how it goes from there.
Partnership-focused
Riot Games recently released a Community Competition Guidelines explaining how the company would work with third-party matches. With this, the company reveals that for now, they would like to rely on partnerships with players, tournament organizers, and developers to grow Valorant’s esports dreams.
“We’re overwhelmed by the interest and excitement behind VALORANT, and we’re excited to embark on this long esports journey with you all… As part of our Authenticity principle, we want to let VALORANT grow naturally; we’re not looking to force anything too quickly without knowing what’s best for esports fans. As such, a primary focus early in will be forming partnerships with players, content creators, tournament organizers, and developers – unlocking them to help us build this ecosystem,” Riot Games’ statement reads.
Promised support
As per their guidelines, Riot will be supporting esports tourneys for Valorant, but that support would vary depending on the scale of the competitions.
For small tournaments, specifically, those that are community-based or held in PC cafes and have a maximum prize of $10,000, Riot would allow them to charge for entry, but charging for online viewing is forbidden. Furthermore, those matches won’t be allowed to be broadcasted on TV.
Riot doesn’t want small tournaments to use terms such as “championship,” “season,” or “league.” This is because those words would imply an official endorsement from their company. As per support, small tournaments can’t expect anything from Riot.
However, when it comes to medium-sized competitions, with a minimum prize of $50,000 per match or $200,000 per annum, Riot could include them in the Valorant esports schedule with “could” being the keyword. Luckily, these games are likely to get support from Riot in the form of prize pool contributions, sponsorships, and even the use of official imagery.
Major competitions are at the top of Riot Games’ priorities for now and thus would get full support from the company.
Valorant release date
Right now, Riot Games has not released an exact launch date for Valorant. However, what the company did confirm that it could happen in the summer of 2020, and that could be sometime between July and September.
Valorant is currently in its beta phase, and while the Riot Games had been strict during the early stages of the closed beta, now the company has made early access open to all beta testers.
Images courtesy of Stem List/Unsplash and Valorant/Twitter