We come from a range of esports, sports, and competitive gaming career backgrounds, but all of us are huge fans of playing and watching FPS games. For us, working on VALORANT and helping to develop its competitive ecosystem—especially as it grows into the professional space—is daunting, humbling, and inspiring all at once. There’s no doubt that, as a hyper-competitive experience, VALORANT has the ingredients to be a successful esport and we have big dreams for what this can be, but we want to be thoughtful in how we put it all together.

Hey esports fans! I’m Whalen, also known as “Magus,” writing to you on behalf of the VALORANT esports team to share some initial thoughts on esports, VALORANT, and how we hope to combine the two.

Our aspiration is to build an esport worthy of your lifelong attention and interest. We plan to do so guided by three core principles: competitive integrity, accessibility, and authenticity.

We’re overwhelmed by the interest and excitement behind VALORANT, and we’re excited to embark on this long esports journey with you all. We’re already hearing questions on what esports will look like, and while it’s early, we’ll try to share whatever details we can. As part of our Authenticity principle, we want to let VALORANT grow naturally; we’re not looking to force anything too quickly without knowing what’s best for esports fans. As such, a primary focus early on will be forming partnerships with players, content creators, tournament organizers, and developers—unlocking them to help us to build this ecosystem.

It starts with our VALORANT Community Competition Guidelines—aimed at helping organizers understand our approach to third-party tournaments so they can confidently plan events, as well as leaving space for an amateur scene where new stars can rise. Additionally, we’ve opened submissions for digital products at Riot Developer Portal. This portal is where developers can begin the conversation about the tools they want to build and acts as a channel for us to share when new features, like the in-game API, come online.

In the future, you can expect us to partner with others who share our vision and to work closely with the game development team in maintaining a cohesive experience between VALORANT and the esport. To everyone hoping to compete in the VALORANT ecosystem—ten, twenty, thirty years from now—we couldn’t be more excited to take our first steps with you on this journey!