Valorant is a competitive 5v5 tactical ability FPS game which came out in June of this year, just as when the pandemic was truly becoming worldwide. As a result of this pandemic, my college was off. So me being bored as I always am, decided to jump into this game with a friend of mine. The game is very similar to Counter-Strike with a bit of Blizzard's Overwatch mixed into it. The game has you playing a cast of characters in a team of 5 and you fight against the enemy team of 5 in a game of Spike Defusal (spikes are the bombs of this game).

The key characteristic of this game that differentiates it from CS: GO is that each character comes with a set of 4 abilities which replace the tactical items that come with CS: GO, hence the overwatch bit.

Anyways enough about the game. Here is my experience playing the game. To summarise, I love this game to bits. Technically speaking, this game is optimised for the absolute worst of computers which is already a big plus for me. And recently, with the Indian servers coming out, the game is truly the peak of competitive experience for me.

But one thing about this game I have struggled with is the characters. Mainly, who to pick. There are 13 agents to pick from and they are all divided into 4 classes; Duelist, Initiator, Controller and Sentinel.

Duelists are the class of agents who do most of the killing in the game. Their abilities serve to benefit the solo player. The best example of a duelist being Phoenix, who uses his fire powers to flash, wall and Molotov his way into the site.

Initiators are a type of support class who serves to help the duelists and everyone else get into a bomb site to plant the spike. An example of Initiator is Breach who uses flashes and concussion beams to get his teammates into a bomb site.

Controllers are the class of agents who can allow passage to teammates and deny vision and access to enemies. For example, Brimstone uses smoke bombs and Molotov cocktails to gain a clear path into a bomb site and uses stim beacons to support his teammates.

And finally, Sentinels are the second type of support agents whose goal is to provide tactical support to their teammates. Sage is a good example of this as she can wall off pathways, slow down enemies and as a bonus, can also heal and resurrect teammates.

I have taken to playing agents in the controller class, mainly Brimstone and Omen. But the problem for is I am not excelling in either agent or any class. I feel inconsistent playing this game and as a result, my rank just sinks all the way down to the lowest. Although, I have recently enjoyed playing Phoenix as a duelist. So maybe, the best thing to do here is to keep playing.