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Drama rapidly unfolded between esports streamer Nadeshot and **Valorant ** developer Riot Games, but the studio has since responded and put the controversy to rest about as quickly as it started. Valorant is Riot's next big project since Teamfight Tactics and League of Legends , and the class-based FPS's upcoming beta has global esports rivals kicking up dust over who gets their hands on the game fi VALORANT , the upcoming 5v5 character-based tactical shooter from Riot Games, will reportedly hit the market with ten playable characters, half of which will be available to everyone, while the other half will be purchasable with either in-game currency or real money, according to an IGN interv Fortunately, critical clarification by Riot Games' Christopher Tom has contradicted the worst of Haag's assumptions. In a Twitter thread, Tom reiterated a statement made by Riot esports business strategist Kasra Jafroodi, who did confirm suspicions that Riot's goals was to " ensure all esport orgs around the world received access to the game at the same time " in order to avoid giving any team a " competitive advantage, " presumably in terms of mechanics as well as scouting. However, Tom's own statement best justifies Riot's delay order to streamers as it pertained to potential conflicts of interest, having s Although Riot Games' products and past legal controversies have the potent ability to bring out the most toxic in most parties involved, it's refreshing to see this hatchet buried between Nadeshot and the studio with such transparency and speed. Of course, Valorant 's projected summer release window and imminent closed beta are sure to bring with them all-new outrage and sleights, so fans should just enjoy this one while they Of course, all that attention means that Valorant also has a large player base to manage, some of whom are willing to cheat to get a win. Just days after its closed beta started, Valorant banned its first cheaters . This led to interest in how Valorant ’s anti-cheat system worked, and players discovered that it used a kernel driver that starts whenever a player with Valorant installed turns on their computer, not just when they start the game. Players were understandably nervous about the idea, and some took to Reddit to air their concerns about how much access that gave Riot to their systems. In response, Riot’s head of anti-cheat, Paul "Arkem" Chamberlain clarified that it doesn’t monitor anything except for the game and doesn’t send information back to Riot’s serv And lastly, Sova's ultimate ability, Hunter's Fury, can be activated after collecting seven ultimate orbs around the map. This ultimate can be shot through walls and across the map to deal damage to players. It only fired three times so players will need to locate opponents before firing. However, if a player is hit by one of the shots their location will be revealed to the team identical to Sova's other abilit This morning, Dot Esports reported on Twitter that Valorant hit a wildly impressive milestone of 1.6 million concurrent viewers on Twitch on the first day its closed beta, a major feat for a property that's only been in the public eye for such a short time. It's still going strong at 1.5 million even at the time of writing, which might be a good sign that the game has attracted a reliably strong following before it's even been released. That sizable viewer base could very well wane by the time Valorant 's projected summer release date finally rolls around, but it's anyone's guess at this po Sova has some incredibly unique abilities that are invaluable to any team. He also stands out amongst other agents who have recon abilities as his stand superior to others. What he lacks in mobility and defense, he makes up for in intel and dam Her first ability is called Boom Bot and can be purchased at the start of a match for 200 credits. Boom Bot, commonly referred to as a Roomba, is a mobile claymore that rolls into enemy territory looking for a player to blow up. Boom Bot is great for getting sneaky kills, but can also reveal the location of enemies. Rolling Boom Bot through a cloud of smoke is also a great way to surprise enemies and get a quick k Perhaps unsurprisingly, Arkem’s explanation didn’t convince everyone that this was the right solution to Valorant DLC|https://valorantcentralhub.com/ ’s cheating problem. Some Reddit users flat-out said that they didn’t believe that Riot isn’t spying on them, while others pointed out potential security flaws that the system driver could open up. Arkem did point out that the anti-cheat can be disabled or uninstalled at any time if players are uncomfortable with it, but doing so will keep them from playing Valora Riot’s latest game Valorant is a competitive hero-based shooter that plays something like a mix between Overwatch and CS: GO . Even though it’s only in closed beta at this point, Valorant is already one of the most popular games on Twitch , pulling in incredible viewer numbers in its first week. The fact that watching Twitch streams is the only way for most people to get access to the Valorant beta certainly has something to do with that, but plenty of fans are happy just to spect