Opinion: What we learned from Twitch Rivals

On June 5-7, 2020, we saw the first major VALORANT tournament outside of closed beta: Twitch Rivals: VALORANT Launch Showdown. Teams from around the world battled it out for a share of the 200,000$ prize pool. We got to see the debut of a new agent, a new map, and new pro squads. What did we learn from all this action?

Pro Teams Impress

While, for the most part, we didn’t get to see pro teams playing together as squads, it was still our first look at some of these teams. 3 players of Immortals’ new roster played on Team Jakenbakelive, finishing second in their group and impressing throughout. We saw good moments from Sentinels, too, although they were playing on two separate teams, Team Dizzy and Team Aceu. Over in Europe, the as-yet-unsigned Fish123 showed more brilliance, as every member of the team made the final and ardiis won it with Team M1xwell. Of course, though, it would be remiss not to mention TSM and T1. The two North American rosters gave us some great highlights and really showed up to play. In the end, T1 took the win, though TSM didn’t play with their full lineup.

Thoughts on Ascent

Twitch Rivals was the first time we got to see the new map Ascent in a competitive setting, and it really impressed. Point A in particular was really cool, and we got some sweet highlights of retakes and clutches on this part of the map. The mid court was very interesting to watch play out, and how some teams approached it, whether trying to get the first pick on attackers coming from A-side or playing the cubby/link to A point. Ascent might be my favourite map in the game at the moment, and I’m sure we’ll see more strategies evolve.

Reyna finds a place

Along with the new map, this was our first time seeing the new agent Reyna competitively, and while I won’t go too much into the details about agent selection (I’ll leave that for RkT in his upcoming meta report), it was certainly something to watch Reyna play out. The agent seemed very hit or miss; it seems like you either see her at the top of the scoreboard or the bottom, and never in between. For now, she’s a risky agent to pick, but still sees plenty of people taking that risk, which I think is a great niche for her to fill in the meta.

Standout players

You have to mention some of the players that made a real impact this week. Starting in Europe, ScreaM and M1xwell continue to prove that they’re two of the best players in the region, as they dominated the competition on Team Mixwell in EU #1. ScreaM had an especially good showing in the finals against 4/5 members of Fish123, including nabbing himself a sweet ace. Europe #2 had an unexpected champion in Team Duno, who normally play under the name Worst Players. We’ve just started to hear about these guys in the European scene, but they really broke out with this Twitch Rivals win. They will have far more eyes on them now in their upcoming tournaments.

In North America, 2019 Overwatch World Cup champion and current VALORANT free agent Corey had some fantastic games, including an amazing ace clutch with the Sheriff. New Immortals member Bjorlulu put up an incredible game on Jett against Team Aceu. And of course, members from T1 and TSM. Skadoodle was deadly on the Operator and had some fantastic clutches, Brax got several aces throughout the tournament, Wardell popped off during TSM’s semifinal, and AZK practically won T1 the finals with several 2v1 clutches, including one on 18hp.

VALORANT can be incredibly exciting

The biggest thing that Twitch Rivals proved, though, is how exciting VALORANT can be as an esport. North America especially showed this, having two pro teams in the finals certainly helped. They were back and forth and the final map was incredibly close, with exciting plays the whole way through. If this is how every VALORANT tournament will play out, I am very excited about the game’s future.

We’ve already seen a lot of healthy discussion around Twitch Rivals. What did you think of the event? What takeaways did you have? Let us know!

• THESPIKE.GG Twitch Rivals NA Coverage
• THESPIKE.GG Twitch Rivals EU #1 Coverage
• THESPIKE.GG Twitch Rivals EU #2 Coverage