More eSports action is coming while the rest of the sports world remains on lockdown because of COVID-19
Riot Games has definitely hit a home run with its latest video game release, which is only fresh into its beta version. Since the very first moment VALORANT was released, people have been playing the game nonstop, which has caught the attention of more mainstream sports media. The game has been such as success that is already hosting its first major eSports event, and the ESPN’s Esports Twitter channel will be covering it, according to a tweet on the account last Saturday. The VALORANT invitational will be running from Monday through Thursday of this week.
All the rosters set up for this invitational are made of pros from other popular eSports leagues such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Fortnite, just to name a few. Each league will have a team to represent them; Team Rift from LOL, team Mirage from CS: GO, team Canyon from Apex Legends and Team Llama from Fortnite, among many others. There is one more team yet to be announced, and it will be formed by VALORANT developers.
Riot is also the developer of the popular League of Legends. This latest video game, a team-based tactical first-person shooter described as a mixture between Overwatch and CS: GO, was released on April 7th. Twitch has been a hot spot for this game’s streamers, with pro players streaming their playtime drawing a record 1.73 million viewers on Twitch during the first day. With the majority of sports currently still on lockdown because of the coronavirus, more eSports competitions are coming, and the activity has picked up considerable interest in the betting world. Both Nevada and New Jersey have now approved eSports gambling.
