Riot Games has filed a trademark for the name Valorant and has also locked down related website domains and social media accounts. Taking into account the “playvalorant.com” domains and “twitch.tv/valorant” accounts, the trademarked Valorant pretty much screams to be a new game.
Do note that every other offering from Riot Games such as League of Legends and Legends of Runeterra has the same “play” prefix as well. Hence, making the task of deciphering Valorant as a new game easy.
The only question mark now is Valorant itself. Currently, the game strongly appears to be the character-based first-person shooter codenamed Project A that remains in early production and hence, without any release date.
It was only recently that Riot Games invited professionals from the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) community to play-test the current build of the game and share their insights. Henry “HenryG” Greer, former professional and current caster, was one of them. He revealed that Project A — Valorant — will be a round-based five-versus-five tactical first-person shooter similar to CS:GO but with “slightly diluted” character-based elements from games like Overwatch and Apex Legends. One major difference being that the abilities have to be purchased at the start of a round like weapons instead of earning them over time.
In addition to sharing several other details, he dropped a bombshell that Project A “is the best game” he has ever played since CS:GO — personal opinion. That’s high praise for what looks to be Valorant, a game that Riot Games wants to have an esports future and hopefully, compete with the likes of CS:GO.
Riot Games was previously speculated to reveal more details about Project A in the coming weeks or at least soon. The details shared by Greer, followed by the trademarking of Valorant, could be Riot Games prepping for an announcement.
Project A is just one of many other games in the works at Riot Games. There’s Project F, a supposed World of Warcraft but reimagined as a World of Runeterra with an isometric perspective and hack-and-slash elements. There’s Project L, a fighting game with characters from the League of Legends universe. You can go through everything that Riot Games is currently cooking here.
