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Several well-known streamers leave Overwatch and switch to Valorant, the first-person first-person shooter by developer Riot Games. ESports professionals also turn their backs on Overwatch and join the challenger of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (benchmarks).
Strong debut on Twitch
Valorant was also able to look forward to a record number of viewers on Twitch during the closed beta, only the League of Legends, which was also produced by Riot Games, was even more successful. This attention has not escaped successful streamers and one or two professional athletes. Like a tweet from the streamer @EskayOW documented, some sizes change from both camps to the new first person shooter.
hold my hand im scared … (open image for even more) pic.twitter.com/39QwVSinkd
– Eskay (@EskayOW) April 6, 2020
Star players also join Valorant
The most prominent among the eSports stars is the Finnish ex-Overwatch professional Timo “Taimou” Kettunen, who participated in three Overwatch World Championships for Finland from 2016 to 2018 and most recently was active for the Envy team in the Overwatch League.
While Riot Games has achieved a big coup, Blizzard’s eSports efforts are likely to have been dampened. Time will have to show whether the success of Overwatch (benchmarks) and CS: GO will be permanently impaired by Valorant.
Valorant is due to be released this summer for computers with Windows. The closed beta started on April 7th.
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