Riot Games Catch a Stray as Valorant eSports Come Under Fire for Using ‘lower-end PCs’

Valorant has become stable right now when it comes to eSports. This Riot Games shooter is already one of the most popular titles in the world at the moment. Now, the game is slowly etching its name with the likes of League of Legends, Dota, and Counter-Strike in the competitive territory.

However, to become a successful entity in the eSports scenario, you have to have the best of the best services to your contestants, be it rigs, platforms, or audiences. And there is one aspect, which Riot is missing out on miserably, according to one of the best Valorant players in the world.

TenZ Called Out Riot Games for Providing Low-End System in Valorant Tournaments

Recently, one of the most popular Valorant Pros, Tyson Van Ngo, aka TenZ, called out Riot Games on a Twitch livestream for the company’s lack of high-end setups at major tournaments like the VCT events, that too for a third year in a row.

“I never understood why from Riot’s perspective why they invest in such lower-end PCs”

TenZ calls out Riot for using old PCs for major VCT events pic.twitter.com/8d6S7gS0Lf

— Valorant News (@ValorINTEL) July 29, 2024

This is what the Sentinels pro had to say about this:

I never understood why, from Riot’s perspective, they invest in such lower-end PCs.

He even went on to compare two of the most popular Riot Games titles, as he thinks the company uses the same systems for both games, despite having different system requirements:

I’m almost certain that the same PCs that we use for Valorant are the same PCs that they use for League of Legends. And it’s probably just a thing like, ‘Oh League can run on a f****** potato.’ So I think they are just trying to min-max the cost.

All of the pros of this 5v5 shooter have complained that they have always been provided with low-end gear since VCT kicked off in 2021. Yes, the game is absolutely playable, but the monitors and the systems were never top of the mark, which you would expect in top-tier tournaments like VCT.

The players also complained that the systems they were given on the stage are usually a few generations back from their personal riggs.

The Sentinels Pro Explained Why Counter-Strike Tournaments Are the Best

Later on in the stream, Tyson stated that Counter-Strike tournaments are the best when it comes to providing best-in-class setups in the tournaments. However, both the circuits are a bit different. The Counter-Strike eSports structure is wide open, with multiple organizers running the event.

On the other hand, the Valorant scenario is a closed system that is only run by Riot Games. The console beta might be open but is acting like closed on consoles.

Now these structures have major impacts on players as well. In the case of CS, players can opt out of the tournaments in which they think high-end gear won’t be provided. But in the case of Riot’s PvP shooter, players don’t have any other choices other than taking part in the VCT, as this is the only streamlined official event for the game.

Later on, the former Cloud9 and now Sentinels Pro stated on a YouTube short clip through a comment that “top-of-the-line players should be using top-of-the-line gear, and that’s just a fact.” As per him, Riot has failed to deliver the bare minimum to back the eSports scene.

What’s your opinion on this scenario? Let us know in the comment section.