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VCT Pros Explain Which Gamers Have Transitioned Best to Valorant

By Ralston Dacanay

Which community of gaming background has transitioned best to professional Valorant?
Which community of gaming background has transitioned best to professional Valorant? / Riot Games

The closed beta of Valorant was launched on April 7, 2020.

At the time, those invited to try out Riot Games' new "Overwatch-meets-Counter-Strike" experience were presented with a modest pool of 10 Agents to use on any of Bind, Haven and Split.

Flashforward to Episode 5 Act II and it appears it's as good of a time as any to reflect on how the game's esports community has developed, particularly in terms of which game you needed to come from in order to have picked it up well.

DBLTAP spoke with several of the game's best players from OpTic Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix and 100 Thieves during the Valorant Champions 2022 group stage to get their thoughts on a simple question: Which community of gaming background has transitioned best to professional Valorant? Here's what we found.

OpTic Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen hearkened back to his days playing on a full roster of former Overwatch League pros to sing them their praises, but pinpointed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players as the top dogs.

"I really like the Overwatch players and the Counter-Strike players," Marved told DBLTAP. "They both bring their own style kind of. The Overwatch players are really good with their abilities, which I've learned playing with Overwatch players on FaZe, but I think Counter-Strike players definitely transition the best because I think most professional players in Valorant played CS:GO before so yeah, I think CS:GO definitely takes the cake.”

Being a teammate of Derrek, aka "Mr. Overwatch" to some, 100T William "Will" Cheng also held former players of the Blizzard hero shooter in high regard but agreed that those from CS:GO have taken the cake in Valorant as well.

"I think CS players just transitioned the best because they understand the fundamentals of the game a lot better," Will said. "But obviously like from an aim standpoint, I feel like honestly, these players have crazy aim that came from Overwatch because there's a lot more difficult aiming in that type of game where there's verticality and stuff. So they might have us beat on that side, but I feel like CS definitely has the fundamentals in terms of map knowledge and everything."

Lastly, the answer was simple for FPX Dmitry "SUYGETSU" Ilyushin — CIS players from CS.

"Of course, it’s CS:GO players from CIS," SUYGETSU said. "Definitely, because we're playing more. As I said in one interview, CIS players is probably the best players right now because they doing hard work. They like playing 24/7, so they're ready for this because they have no choice other in Russia right now."

For more 2022 VCT coverage, feel free to check out:

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