DeKay Scope: Valorant and CS:GO Can Operate Without One Being 'Hurt' By the Other

Valorant is the new hot title in esports that has millions of people scrambling to get access to the closed beta. The game has been heavily compared to CS:GO as an objective-based first-person shooter, stemming from the moment there were only a few minutes of developer-curated game play to analyze. With Riot Games already having made League of Legends one of the biggest esports in the world, it's natural to wonder if Valorant might affect CS:GO in some sense. But now that we have seen more than a week's worth of real gameplay, it is becoming more and more clear that Valorant will not harm competitive CS:GO.

At their core, the two games are similar. The further you get from those basic FPS principles, though, the more obvious the differences between them become. Unless severe changes are made by Riot Games, right now is the closest the two games will ever look, as the current meta is the most you will see players rely on their aim. If I had to choose a game that Valorant is more likely to overshadow, the obvious choice would be Overwatch. Valorant has the character ability dynamic of Overwatch but is much more aesthetically appealing.

It is quite clear from the start that Valorant has a great chance to end up as a successful game from a casual and professional standpoint. Riot Games will do everything in its power to appear family friendly in an attempt to lure support from everywhere, including the mainstream. In fact, they have already started, by requiring tournament organizers to remove the blood effect from the game for tournaments. This is understandable but not something I ever see Valve doing with Counter-Strike, meaning the target market isn't necessarily similar. Therefore, the players and team investors that will flock to their game as a result of its cleanliness are not a loss for Counter-Strike, rather just a win for Valorant. No two games are mutually exclusive, and if anything, Valorant will highlight the the brilliant simplicity of a pure FPS game like Counter-Strike.

For a game to legitimately dethrone Counter-Strike, it would first require a pure FPS title to come and blow it out of the water in every area it is lacking. Following that, it would also require CS:GO to unwind and self-destruct at the hands of Valve and the community. Both of which are not only unlikely, but next to impossible when you consider how long Counter-Strike has been doing business. Good games stand the test of time, as evidenced by the fact that CS:GO recently set record player numbers nearly eight years after its release. This isn't to say that Counter-Strike will end up as the better game title, instead it is a defensive take towards those who feel the two can't coexist and flourish in their own unique ways.