Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has shared his thoughts on whether Valorant can match CSGO’s viewership, and although he thinks it’s less appealing to casual viewers, he explained how it could potentially rival League of Legends.
Shroud is an open-book when sharing his thoughts and opinions on topics related to gaming and esports. He always takes time to answer questions from fans in his stream. It’s become a bit of a tradition now, and his perspective is insightful.
He covered several topics in his latest stream, including the difference between single-player and multiplayer games in terms of longevity. However, he eventually responded to an interesting question about Valorant’s esports potential.
Shroud played CSGO professionally for several years before he retired to stream full-time.“Do you think Valorant has the potential to reach CS level viewership?” asked one viewer. Shroud looked like he was unsure. He took a deep breath and collected his thoughts for a moment.
“I do, but I also don’t know,” said Shroud. “The beauty of [Counter-Strike] was that it was very easy to watch. Your grandma could watch it and be like, oh this person shoots that person, oh that’s a grenade, oh that’s a smoke grenade, that’s a flashbang.”
“In Valorant, it’s still the same thing,” he added. “But what’s confusing about it is everyone looks the same and everyone’s casting abilities, which are flashbangs and smoke grenades, but when you put it in that format, it’s very confusing.”
Shroud seemed to enjoy the time he’s spent playing Valorant.“But that doesn’t matter,” he said. “Valorant has so many players that all it needs is the players to watch. Just like League of Legends, right?” Then, he explained how Riot Games could maximize Valorant’s viewership by focusing on players rather than casual viewers.
“League of Legends has so many players. It doesn’t matter if your grandma can’t watch. The game is huge,” he said. “So that’s all Valorant has to do as well. Just make their game f**king awesome, and the views will come.”
In the end, Shroud thinks Valorant is less appealing to casual viewers than CSGO due to its complexity.
However, he believes it can match CSGO’s viewership and even rival League of Legends, as long as the focus is on the game and the player base.
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