Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, a professional CS: GO esports player is reportedly transitioning from CS: GO to Valorant. The inactive member of Team Liquid received an invite from multiple North American pro teams to join their active Valorant roaster.
The 24-year-old American led Team Liquid to multiple victories in CS: GO and has a plethora of championship titles such as Blast Pro, ESL, Dreamhack and various other under his belt. Team Liquid led a historic season in 2019 under his leadership with six S Their champions to their name
Team Liquid announced nitr0’s departure on July 29 replacing him with Michael “Grim” Wince. Team Liquid later announced a coaching change as former commentator Jason “Moses” O’Toole was brought in to replace Eric “adreN” Hoag.
Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella is one of many CS: GO players who has transitioned from CS: GO to Valorant. Spencer “Hiko” Martin, Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham, James “hazed” Cobb and Matthew “Wardell” Yu. The latter two, alongside more former CS: GO pros in Stephen “reltuC” Culter, Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik and Taylor drone” Johnson are a few names to who come to mind. CS: GO is not the only game that players are quitting in favour of Valorant. Sintraa, the biggest Overwatch player, announced that he would be switching to Valorant during the closed beta.
Professional teams including T1, 100 Thieves, Cloud9 and FaZe Clan already have their own Valorant rosters, mainly comprised of ex CS: GO and Overwatch players.
Valorant’s unique gameplay style that combines the best elements of both CS: GO and Overwatch is the key factor in attracting top players to the game. On its base, it’s most similar to CS: GO where one team plants a bomb, called the Spike, while other team tries to diffuse it. On top of that, the game features agents with unique characteristics and abilities, an element clearly borrowed from Overwatch. However, unlike Overwatch, the base assortment of weapons is the same for all players despite the agent they choose.
On top of all that, the game is backed by Riot’s active support and aggressive marketing. Riot Games are a veteran at making competitive games who made the insanely popular League of Legends. With the help of the Ignition series, Riot aims to collaborate with local gaming bodes to spread the professional Valorant competitions across the globe. Their model has proven to be immensely successful. Ignition series is taking over the professional scene while the number of casual players is rising by the day. At the moment, Valorant is the most viewed competitive game and holds the potential to maintain that position well into the future.