Those who don’t currently play Valorant are desperately trying to get into the beta. The Esports organization 100 Thieves is also addicted to the game: On April 14, they organized the largest Valorant tournament to date: the 100 Thieves Invitational. The biggest streamers and pro-fraggers in the gaming world gathered to do what they do best: Gamble.

The tournament was scored by casters GoldenboyFTW and RivingtontonThe3rd and consisted of a group stage and playoffs. In groups A and B, the four teams battled each other once within the group. The winning teams from each group then qualified for the playoff stage.

Gruppe A

Mannschaft TimTheTatman

Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar
Lukas “Mend” Håkansson
Jake “POACH” Brumleve
Erik “fl0m” Flom
Brandon “Ace” Winn

Team Leichentuch

Michael “Leichentuch” Grzesiek
Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham
Keven “AZK” Larivière
Braxton “Brax” Stück
Spencer “Hiko” Martin

Mannschaft Ninja

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins
Brian “Kephrii” St. Pierre
Minish
Waifu
Patrik “Lefaa” Mike

Team Courage

Jack “CouRage” Dunlop
Jordanien “n0thing” Gilbert
Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan
Jäger “SicK” Mim
Austin “crashies” Roberts

Group B

Team Yassuo

Hammodi “Yassuo” Abdalrhman
m0xy
Felix “xQc” Lengyel
MacKenzie “Albralelie” Beckwith
Timothy “iiTzTimmy” An

Team Nadeshot

Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag
Justin “jks” Savage
Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad
Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai
Aaron “AZR” Ward

Team summit1g

Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar
Tyson “TenZ” Ngo
Jonathan “ELiGE” Jablonowski
Jacky “Stewie2k” Yip
Joshua “steel” Nissan

DrDisrespect was actually supposed to complete Group B with his team, but the Doctor, without any respect, cancelled the tournament at short notice. An unexpected turn of events that quickly led to the first trash talk of the evening, as fl0m suspected that DrDisrespect was simply scared when he realized he had no CS pros on his team:

“Everyone has been saying that CS players won’t get anything done in Valorant. ‘All these CS players are going to come in, think they are, and they’re going to suck.’ Now all of a sudden nobody wants to play tournaments unless they have Counter-Strike players on their team.”

Trash talk, rants and raves. We love it. Let the fun begin.

All fun & games until the first shots are fired

Group A kicked off with tournament favorite Team Shroud against Team TimTheTatman in a match of two opposing play styles: On one side, the former CS pros gathered around shroud . On the other side TimTheTatman with the most famous names from the world of Battle Royales and streaming. The tacticians against the stream team. Although shroud’s team was heavily favored, the stream team gave them more than hell and after 22 rounds the score was 11:11.

Two rounds later and it was Tim’s team that came out on top – much to everyone’s surprise, not least commentator GoldenboyFTW who said:

“I don’t know where you were today, April 14, but here we all were together witnessing Team TimTheTatman defeating Team Shroud!”

So while shroud’s team got blindsided in their first match, Ninja’s team got downright outclassed:

They faced Team CouRage and got a real packing. In only 14 rounds the matter was decided with a score of 1:13.

In Group B, summit1g and his team of CS pros started the tournament successfully with a 13-6 win over Team Nadeshot. Team Yassuo picked up an unsatisfying automatic win against the non-existent team of DrDisrespect.

Just before their second match, team captain TimTheTatman and team captain CouRage clashed slightly when it was suggested that Tim’s team start the game on the split map as attackers. Tim fought back and felt that as winners of their first game they should have the choice of starting as Attacker or Defender, but CouRage was quick to point out that his team won their first game as well. Didn’t interest TimTheTatman much, though:

Tim: “Great. But we beat shroud.”

CouRage: “So, we beat ninja. He’s one of the greatest gamers of our time. Or do you have your own shoe?”

Unfortunately for Team CouRage, their performance was not up to the level of their captain’s mouth. Team CouRage lost and overall all the matches of the group stage, except for the first match between Team TimTheTatman and Team Shroud, ended up being clear cut affairs:

Heat 2

Group A

Team timthetatman 13:7 Team CouRage
Team Ninja 7:13 Team shroud

Group B

Team Yassuo 3:13 Team summi t1g
Team Nadeshot 13:0 Team DrDisrespect (FF)

Heat 3

Group A

Team shroud 13:4 Team CouRage
Team timthetatman 4:13 Team Ninja

Group B

Team summit1g 13:0 Team DrDisrespect (FF)
Team Nadeshot 13:4 Team Yassuo

So the team around Tattoo-Tim secured the 1st place in group A and met in the first semifinal the 2nd place of group B: Team Nadeshot.

Group B was won by summit1g and his team, who secured a match against Team Shroud in the other semifinals.

It’s playoff time, baby!

The playoffs started with Team Nadeshot against Team TimTheTatman. 100 Thieves CEO Nadeshot’s team took a surprising 4-0 lead in the beginning against the favored Stream team. The tattooed team captain especially struggled until Mendo, at 6-2, had just the pick-me-up for the proud newly-turned-father:

“I’ve never seen a dad who can aim as well as you.”

It turned out that Papa Tim didn’t need any more encouragement than that: his game and that of his team improved and they cut the deficit to 7:5 at halftime.

The offensive role seemed to suit Tim’s team better and so they drew level as attackers directly to 7:7. Directly after that they played out a 7:10 lead. However, Nadeshot had no intention of bowing out of their own tournament so quickly and the 100 Thieves team fought their way back to 10:10.

It was a close and exciting semifinal match until Mendo had enough of the fun and went all un-medical with his healer Sage becoming a sniper machine: Over the next four rounds, he secured a 13-11 victory for his team with deadly precision and a spot in the final.

The CS pros among themselves

The second semifinal pitted two teams made up entirely of former and current CS pros: Team Summit1g versus Team Shroud.

With both teams having deep-rooted backgrounds in Counter-Strike, it was surprising how adept Team Summit1g was at playing Valorant the way it was probably meant to be played: with a constant well-organized barrage of abilities. Smoke here, a wall of ice there, lightning and rolling thunder somewhere in between…. Team shroud, which seemed to rely mostly on its CS-tested targeting abilities, had a hard time getting into the game.

Eventually, Team Shroud recovered the deficit from the first three rounds and turned this semifinal into a close game with a lot of tactics as well. At 5-4, shroud also emphasized, “This is a good game. This is a damn good game.”

The game remained a constant back and forth, but eventually shroud’s team prevailed. They became accustomed to Team Summit1g’s skillful use of agent abilities and adjusted their game accordingly, making more use of agent abilities themselves. Typical shroud, who is known for analyzing, learning and adapting to every situation at lightning speed. In the end, Team Shroud won 13-10, but despite the victory, the captain wasn’t exactly happy with his performance: “The way I’m being abused is pretty harsh.”

So we meet again…

After the tournament favorites had previously lost to the Stream Team in the group stage, it was now time for a revenge – a rematch of the two teams with very different play styles:

Battle Royale meets tactical shooter. Fast-paced run-and-gun meets precise peeking. A best-of-3 final to determine the winner of the 100 Thieves Invitational.

In contrast to their first appearance, Team Shroud lived up to the name of their players: they started the game directly with a 6:0 lead and Shroud, Skadoodle, AZK, Brax and Hiko never really took their foot off the gas pedal.

Everyone loves a close, exciting final, but this game was anything but close: Ace, POACH, Mendo, Timthetatman and fl0m went down 13:5.

All was not yet lost thanks to the best-of-3 format in the final, but like many of the viewers in the chat, commentator GoldenboyFTW wondered how Team TimTheTatman could even beat Team Shroud in the first match, because the second final match looked similar to the first:

After 13 rounds Team TimTheTatman was trailing 12:1. Everything looked decided, but, against all odds, the Stream team started a small comeback and fought their way back to 12:5. With the momentum on their side and a weakened Eco on Team Shroud’s side due to the losing streak, it seemed as if there might be another exciting final here. But then Team Shroud closed the bag – or more precisely, it was AZK who took the helm:

In round 18, he was the only agent on his team still alive. With 12 seconds to play and four agents on the opposing team’s side, the round was seemingly decided, but AZK had other plans and took on the 1v4. It looked something like this:

With a clutch play that will be seen in many highlights and was definitely the play of the tournament, AZK showed why T1 immediately signed him as a Valorant pro. He secured the 13-5 victory for his team and with it the 100 Thieves Invitational trophy.

Valorant: the dream of all CS players?

Considering that Team Liquid’s CS squad easily defeated a team of very competent players with big Valorant ambitions just two days earlier, there seems to be an emerging trend of CS players having the early advantage in Riot’s new shooter. Not surprising, since many of the core mechanics are very similar.

Remains to be seen if this advantage will disappear over time and valorant players will make the game their own . Once gamers get used to Valorant’s unique mechanics and abilities, this shouldn’t be a problem.

We’ll definitely find out. until then, don’t get tired of Valorant yet. Then here we have a couple of cream puffs regarding the riot shooter:

• Valorant’s anti-cheat software causes displeasure
• I suck at Valorant, but love the game. These are the reasons
• Valorant Beta info, news and guides: Now available

Valorant: How to put together the optimal team

Which roles do you need to fill? How do you divide up the positions? And who is the in-game leader? We have the answers!

Many roles for five positions in the team

You can roughly divide the roles and responsibilities in a team. There is the solo defender, who can hold a point alone. The Support, who makes room with skills that need to be respected. The In-Game Lead makes the calls and works with the information of his teammates. The Entry Fragger and the Secondary are the players who go together on a point and are not afraid of enemy contact. The Sniper, who preferably holds certain angles with an Operator and can get a big advantage for the round with a First Blood, can also be beneficial to the team. Last but not least, there is the Lurker, who preferably keeps opponents busy at the other end of the map and comes from an unexpected side after enemy rotations.

The individual roles can also partially overlap or can be left out entirely or can change from round to round. An in-game leader can also be a solo defender and can also focus on minimap and communication due to defensive play. A balanced team with the assignment of such roles has the advantage that the team members know what their tasks are in the current round and can thus also build on the strengths of their agents.

The Spearhead: Entry Fragger & Secondary

The Entry Fragger is optimally the first player to make contact with the opponents around the Objective being targeted by the team. This can also be an important place on a map as a defender, e.g. to gain some control over the center in Ascent. By his push he makes room for the other mates, passes on the positions of the opponents and has the chance to get the point alone by nimble kills. The best agents for this role are Phoenix and Reyna.

As a secondary, you try to build on the moves, information and kills from the entry fragger. At a certain point, it pays to take a different position, hold different angles, or get behind enemy lines very quickly to take opponents who are rotating out of the action. Jett, Raze, Omen and Breach are particularly suitable for this role.

The Solo Defender

Since most maps have 3 main lanes, only two of them can be defended with a duo, the third “lane” then belongs to the solo defender. On Attack the role is obsolete, but an agent made for this role can here protect the team from flanks or focus on making sure the spike is well placed and defend them additionally with appropriate skills. Those who like this style of play might be satisfied with Cypher, Sage and Sova.

The Support

The main task of the support player is the optimal use of his abilities to make it easier for his own team to attack a point. This includes for example optimal placement of Smokes and the use of Flashes. As supports, many agents are suitable for this role: The solo defender agents can support well in the offense to get information or to cover some angles. Other agents are suitable as supports thanks to their sight-blocking abilities, like Brimstone and Viper, which can make it very easy to access a point. But Sova or Skye are also welcome in the role, as they can scout ahead with their Recon abilities.

The In-Game Leader

No team can function without an IGL. The game starts with the operator choice: Who plays which agent? How should the team split up on the map by default? Which agents do the opponents have? What do we have to pay attention to? How do we time the round? All this information and more have to be communicated to the team. If you want to take the role of the IGL, you should look for an agent who supports this role additionally like all agents who can get additional information by ability like Cypher, Sova and Raze.

The Sniper

Do you have an operator god in your team? Then let him take the role of the Sniper. Defensively, the Sniper can hold many angles where he can stand faster than the enemy team and get free kills especially against slow peeks. If it goes a bit offensive, he tries to move out after the spearhead, gradually covering positions where opponents can come. Good agents to support the sniper’s playstyle are for example Jett to play more offensive angles without risk or Cypher who rotates to other points after building up camera and tripwires to stay unpredictable.

The Lurker

Last but not least, there are the Lone Wolfs, who don’t like to hang out with the team, also called Lurker. This role is also useful in a team to avoid giving half the map to the opponents or to get impatient opponents when they don’t expect it because they rotate through their own spawn. Omen, Reyna and Jett are especially useful for playing off the enemy team, as their abilities make them less likely to fall victim to refrags or to escape from a bad position after a successful kill.

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