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Journalism of Courage
Riot Games yesterday announced a new competitive game mode called ‘Valorant Premier’ that will serve as a stage for Indian gamers to qualify for the company’s international esports league – VCT Challenger.
The first-person 5v5 character-based tactical shooter aims to connect the game and the sport by letting players create their own teams and compete against one another. Riot says interested players can sign up for Valorant Premier between August 29 and September 6.
Valorant Premier has been in beta for quite some time now and will debut with the game’s Episode 7 Act II. Available to players worldwide, the gaming studio says it will introduce new official divisions and expand the range of weekly matches to 7 designated maps. Teams who win enough matches will now be able to make it to a playoff tournament with Premier acting as the path to VCT Challenger leagues.
In a recent interview with indianexpress.com, the head of Valorant Esports APAC, Jake Sin said “India is actually one of the top countries within APAC in terms of the number of players for Valorant and we’re starting to see that also translate to esports viewership as well as fandom.” He also added the local league in India is going well and is getting high viewership and commercial interest.
Since its launch in 2020, Valorant has grown tremendously in the South Asian esports competitive scene, with Indian teams like Orangutan Gaming led by Sabyasachi ‘Antidote’ Bose taking on the world stage at Valorant Challengers Ascension that took place in Bangkok, Thailand. Another Indian gamer – Abhirup ‘Lightningfast’ Choudhury competed in the Valorant Champions Tour in Seoul, South Korea against teams from the Asia-Pacific region.
With the introduction of Valorant Premier in India, Riot Games plans to tap the country’s huge esports potential. The newly added mode will also allow talented Indian players to gain recognition and take to the world stage to show off their skills.
