ESPN Esports Hosts Valorant Invitational on April 20

ESPN Esports will host its own Valorant Invitational reaching out to players from multiple esports and gaming franchises. The event is scheduled for April 20.

Valorant Gets Another Tournament – This Time It’s ESPN Esports Hosting It

ESPN Esports is jumping on the hype train to introduce a Valorant Invitational on Monday, April 20. The host will launch a three-day series that will feature various players from newly-fledged Valorant teams and multiple FPS games.

With the player and teams announced gradually over social media, we already know some of the participants’ names

Team Mirage will field a five-man squad, with established scene pros as Ska, AZKcs_ brax1wnl, n0thing and Hiko.  Next is Team Rift which will bring a lot of talent, including Shiphtur, TLDoublelift, Xmithie, Imaqtpie and Dyrus.

When and Where to Watch ESPN Valorant Tournament?

• Date: April 20-23
• Time: 2 p.m. CT
• Watch: ESPN Esports Twitch

A Multi-Verse First Person Shooter Experience

The event is pulling talent from the entire first-person shooter spectrum. Participants will join from Overwatch, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six, PUBG, League of Legends, Fortnite and CS:GO.

As an interesting twist of fate would have it, some Valorant developers are also going to compete in the event. CS:GO and Overwatch players clearly have a slight advantage, as the mechanics feel very similar to Valorant, but then again do they?

However, each of the above games, bar League of Legends, boils down to the same pace of play when it comes to first-person gameplay.

Fear the Devs

Professional players and popular streamers are not sure winners here. Developers have proven quite the mavericks, even though they clearly spend a lot of time developing the game rather than playing.

A squad of devs previously destroyed a team of streamers featuring talents such as Summit1g, Skadoodle, Dizzy, and Fl0m. Interestingly, devs. are also favored to take on the streamers once again, although bringing over talented current and retired CS:GO pros to the table might throw a spanner in the works.

Valorant Tournaments Continue to be a Success

According to Esports Charts, an esports audience analyst website, Valorant tournaments have continued to pull steady numbers of players. Previously, 100 Thieves hosted their own invitational, managing to attract 443,637 concurrent players.

The T1 Valorant Invitational peaked at just 25,099 viewers, though and Code Green’s own tournament drew in another 86,648. This is not bad news, as developers don’t want to build up a hype that would deflate quickly after they stop investing as much effort.

In a recent ESPN interview, Valorant devs said that they would like to see their game grow at a good, organic pace rather than propelling it as an esports. Recently, Riot Games published guidelines for third-party organizers interested in hosting Valorant tournaments.