VCT Masters Berlin gets underway this week.  The 10-day tournament includes 15 teams in a four-group double-elimination bracket. To compensate for Bren Esports forfeiting their spot after failing to acquire the necessary travel visas in time, Group D has been converted to a double round-robin. The top two teams from each group will advance to the eight-team, single-elimination playoffs. The winner will receive a spot at VALORANT’s end-of-year Champions event, and the runners-up will earn valuable circuit points. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize winnings will also be up for grabs ..read more

After a couple of successful series in North America, Riot Games is expanding its VCT Game Changers program of VALORANT tournaments exclusive to women and marginalized groups to EMEA. These tournaments will consist of players competing from Europe, Turkey, CIS, the Middle East, and North Africa. They’ll begin at the end of September. Three tournaments have been announced to take place over a two-month period beginning at the end of the month: EMEA Game Changers One: Sept. 27 to Oct. 3. EMEA Game Changers Two: Oct. 25 to 31. EMEA Game Changers Three: Nov. 15 to 21. Residency in one of the EM ..read more

Riot Games has revealed Spectrum, VALORANT’s first audio-driven skin line created in collaboration with world-renowned DJ Zedd.  VALORANT is home to dozens of unique skin designs that are perfect for almost any aesthetic, ranging from minimal designs to futuristic bundles of color. But the new Spectrum skin line takes a different approach, focusing on the sound design first and the skin models last.  “For Spectrum, we worked backwards—with audio first, VFX second, and model last,” said Chris Stone, senior weapons artist for VALORANT. “This required us to slightly rethink how we typi ..read more

The use of walking and crouching in tactical shooters often plays a vital role in your ability to hold a position or win a gunfight—and VALORANT is no different. Players regularly use crouching as a way to create a perceived advantage when in one-vs-one situations. While many high-level players use customized keybinds to make their specific crouch button unique to them, every account starts with the same bind for the ability. The default keybind for crouch in VALORANT is Left CTRL. The button is directly below the default keybind for walking, which is Left Shift. If that keybind isn’t somethi ..read more

VALORANT and Zedd have teamed up for an in-game item that will be revealed in a “special unveiling event” on Sept. 7.  Zedd is a world-renowned DJ, known for his love of video games and obsession with tactical shooters like VALORANT. He’s pulled off his fair share of impressive plays and fans were excited when they noticed what appeared to be a Zedd-themed melee weapon in the Year One Anthem video. Riot Games has officially announced the VALORANT Zedd collaboration and fans will finally get to see how the DJ will be featured in-game tomorrow. The announcement says Zedd and VALORANT have ..read more

With VCT Masters Berlin just around the corner, there are a few burning questions that desperately need answering. Sentinels are the team to beat after dominating the competition in Iceland. So who, if anyone, will challenge them? Which agent will step up and make the biggest impression at the tournament? And which of the four groups will make for the most exciting viewing? We asked our VALORANT writers to answer these questions as they gear up for Masters Three.  Can anyone challenge Sentinels? Photo via Riot Games Andreas: Nobody—at least, not yet. As it stands, Sentinels are the best ..read more

Developers try their hardest to keep their games free of bugs and errors, but even the best may not be able to avoid them. Though a content patch goes through quality and bug tests, there can still be unexpected inconsistencies. Sometimes, the servers may go down and cause errors like the error code five. The error code five usually appears when the servers are overloaded or when they’re under maintenance. If you happen to be in a match or in the main lobby when maintenance kicks off, you’ll likely receive the error code five. The error can also appear randomly due to inconsistency, however ..read more

Bren Esports won’t make it to the VCT Masters Berlin event, the circuit announced today. The No. 1 seeded SEA VALORANT team were unable to secure the mandatory visas to leave the Philippines and travel to Europe to compete in the international LAN tournament that’s set to run from Sept. 10 to 19. With Bren Esports out of the tournament, Riot Games will organize the event with just 15 teams. The format for the tournament will be modified and Group D, where Bren Esports were placed, will change to a double round-robin, with the two top teams advancing to the elimination stage. Bren Esports will ..read more

With the next prolific VALORANT esports event less than a week away, Riot Games has revealed a packed list of huge names in streaming that will be officially hosting watch parties for VCT Masters Three Berlin. The list features some of the biggest names on Twitch, including Kyedae, Ludwig, Myth, Nihachu, Onscreen, and shroud. They’ll be joined by a few massive names from the ranks of YouTube streaming in Dr Disrespect, Valkyrae, and the Plat Chat VALORANT podcast team. There’s also a massive collection of big international streamers hosting watch parties in other languages, including ones in ..read more

Riot’s gearing up for the next VALORANT act with a new update to address some balancing issues—and robots are the target. While it’s nowhere near as dramatic as the Episode Three, Act One economy overhaul, VALORANT Patch 3.05 offers some minor changes that should make a considerable difference. Popular sentinel Killjoy and the once-popular duelist Raze are both being tweaked. Killjoy’s Turret has proven to be a menace in pistol rounds. The ability can chunk shields and decimate enemies from a long distance whose only line of defense is a handgun. Pair that with a considerable slow from bulle ..read more