From appearing in a live-action movie, The Family Plan, to its first-ever offline international esports tournament in India in just a month, Valorant is rapidly picking up momentum the world over.
Riot Games just concluded its first-ever tournament in India in partnership with The Esports Club. This Intel and Lenovo-sponsored offline tournament attracted over 10,000 audience in person and over 40,000 viewers globally.
So much so, that Valorant Convergence 2023 had been the #1 top trending on X/Twitter in India for 2 consecutive days. As such, it’s safe to say Valorant is now up to par with iconic esports games like CS2 and LOL.
If you haven’t tried this game yet, no worries. You can buy a Valorant account and play right now with all the heroes unlocked and access to highly coveted weapon skins that are no longer available in the official Valorant marketplace.
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Valorant Convergence 2023 spanned over a period of 4 days and was marked with intense battle showdowns, strategic maneuvers, and thrilling shootouts. It took place in the Manpho Convention Center in Bangalore and ran from 14th December to 17th December.
This International eSports event featured a lucrative $50K prize pool for the taking. As with every prized tournament, this cash pool was divided into levels.
The prize for the Convergence Champion was half the total tournament prize pool, i.e., $25K. The cash prize for the runner-up was determined at $15K while prizes for the 3rd and 4th place holders were $5K each.
Because Valorant Convergence 2023 was an international Esports event of one of the most popular esports games in the world, it was broadcast in 3 different languages: English, Hindi, and Korean.
The primary host for the English broadcast was Natasha Hidayah Hashim, better known as Tashbunny, from Malaysia. Other English commentators and analysts were Peter Kremer (Kremer3), Pavlos Georgiou (Cyprus ExWarrior), Aditya Kumar (India Universe), and Dion Pirotta (Australia Komodo).
Umesh Kripalani (Kripz) and Darshita were responsible for Hindi commentary while Simar Sethi (psy) was a Hindi analyst.
Lastly, Kim Su-Hyeon and Choi Kwang-won managed Korean commentary for the eSports event whereas Kim Jin-young (BINBON), Jung In-ho, Yoo Jung-sun (Locomotive), and William Cho (chobra) were Korean commentators.
Valorant Convergence 2023 was played out in 2 stages: the group stage and the grand finale.
In the group stage, there were 2 groups of 3 teams each. These groups were called Group A and Group B. Each team in a group played against the other two teams in the same group. Each match in this single round-robin format had three games, and the team that won two or more games won the match.
As such, the team that won the most matches in each group qualified for the grand finale. If there was a tie between two or more teams, then the team with the better game difference (the difference between the number of games won and lost) qualified. If there was still a tie, then the team with the better head-to-head record (the result of the match between the tied teams) qualified.
In the grand finale, the two qualified teams from the group stage played against each other. The grand final had five games, and the team that won three or more games won the tournament.
Speaking of teams, here is the list of all participating teams in the Valorant Convergence 2023 event:
On a side note, it is interesting to note that despite having confidence, no Indian team qualified for the finals. Given that Valorant Convergence 2023 took place on the home ground, it was a bit embarrassing for Indian fans. Nevertheless, the participating Indian teams learned a lot here and came out of the tournament with a lot of experience.
Team Vitality, Global Esports, and FURIA were placed in Group A while FUT Esports, Gen.G, and True Rippers were placed in Group B.
As far as Group A is concerned, Team Vitality emerged victorious with an impressive clean 2-0 sweep. Global Esports tied with a 1-1 record while FURIA lost all matches.
For Group B, FUT Esports came out at the top with a neat 2-0 record. While Gen.G managed to strike a balance with 1-1, True Rippers lost all the 2 rounds.
As such, Team Vitality and FUT Esports came head-to-head in an iconic clash at the grand finale of the Valorant Convergence 2023 event. After a strong showdown that had everyone biting their nails, FUT Esports was declared the winner with a 3-1 winning streak.
During the winning ceremony, FUT Esports bagged the $25K prize while FUT Esports secured the $15K prize. Both Global Esports and Gen.G received $5K respectively.
While the Valorant Convergence 2023 was a sight to behold, we also got some valuable insights from the event.
Omen was the overall most picked agent throughout the entirety of the tournament. While Omen had a whopping pick rate of 70%, he fell behind in Bind and Breeze with a 0% pick rate.
At the other end of the spectrum, Iso, Phoenix, and Yoru were not picked at all throughout the tournament.
Since Iso is the latest agent introduced in Valorant, one can understand why nobody wanted to take a risk with it. However, what surprised us more were the 0% pick rates of Phoenix and Yoru. Both of these agents are Valorant duelists and offer a unique value to any team combo. Nevertheless, it’s surprising they were not picked at all!
While Convergence 2023 is over now and it left us with great memories, that’s not the end of the picture yet. After the successful conclusion of the tournament, Riot Games Counter Manager of India and South Asia, Arun Rajappa, said “…we can’t wait to bring even more games and experiences to our players in the region in 2024.” On top of that, Riot Game’s Esports Lead of India and South Asia, Sukamal Pegu, added: “…Convergence will be back with a bigger and more exciting edition in 2024.”
With that said, what do you think of the Valorant Convergence 2023 event? Share your thoughts with us and let us know in the comments below!
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