With the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe leading into massive event films likeAvengers: Infinity WarandAvengers: Endgame, the idea of creating the “most ambitious crossover in history” has become a pretty widely-applicable meme online. Now the sports media company ESPN, ironically another subsidiary ofthe Walt Disney Company, is making the claim that its upcomingValorantInvitational tournament will be just that — the “most ambitious crossover in esports history.”
ESPN’s esports-focused Twitter account announced this on Saturday. Apparently its tournament, which will be streamed from the ESPN esports Twitch account starting tomorrow, will includeValorantdevelopers as well as “pro” players from seven other competitive games:Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,Fortnite,League of Legends,PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,Rainbow Six Siege,Apex Legends, andOverwatch.
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The Twitter account has followed up on this announcement by putting out posts over the next two days discussing which five players will be on each team, the most recent of which being “Team Battlegrounds” as of this writing. ESPN also put out a story on Thursday that discusses the meta in Riot Games’Valorant, which is intentionally designed for esportssuccess.
Among those design decisions made by Riot, the same developers who created the Multiplayer Online Battle ArenaLeague of Legends, is the ability totoggle blood graphics on or off. However, withValorantstill being out only in a beta state right now, this ESPN Invitational tournament running from April 20 to April 22 will be the game’s first true test in a competitive capacity.
Valoranthas run into some roadblocks since being put out to the masses, primarily in regards to Riot Games' built-in anti-cheat system. Naturally, it makes sense to implement extra measures to address potential cheating for any game aiming to reach a competitive audience, but many have taken issue with what has been described as an “invasive” system that has wider-reaching effects likewrongfully kicking playerswho just try to plug in their phones to charge.
Riot Games is so dedicated to this anti-cheat system that it is even offering playersbounties for uncovering exploits. Whether that extra effort has paid off and sets the game up to be the esports phenomenon Riot clearly wants it to be will have to be seen with time. ESPN’sValorantInvitational should be a good testing ground.
Valorantis in closed beta on PC, with a full release planned for this summer.
