Riot Games made a major move this year when they released their tactical shooter Valorant. A major move because they are going up against the established title Counter Strike Global Offensive from the same genre. The sparks have already started flying as professional CS: GO player Hunter “SicK” Mims announced he is stepping away from the game. He cited Valorant as one of the reasons behind the decision.

Riot Games Looks to Dethrone Counter Strike Global Offensive

Riot Games are determined to upset the monopoly CS: GO has in the tactical shooter genre. They came out of the gates with a clear plan in mind; target high-profile names in the gaming industry and win them over.

First off, they went after established gamers and former CS: GO pros like Shroud and Pasha. They also got cozy with hugely popular streamers like Ninja, summit1g, and others by enabling beta drops on their streams.

Their plan worked as the hype around the game reached great heights and many gamers and streamers took to it immediately. Shroud even suggested Valorant might overtake CS: GO once it released.

Pro Quits CS: GO for Valorant

While that is easier said than done, the hype around Valorant certainly seems to have shaken Valve and their flagship title. Valve has been pumping out updates for CS: GO in recent times.

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And now, it looks like even current professional CS: GO players are mulling things over. SicK could very well be first of many to switch from a professional CS: GO to a Valorant career.

Valorant has started off on the right foot, successfully creating a world of hype around it. Invitational events have also already begun, indicating a possible bright future for the game on the competitive scene. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the interest and popularity in the game lasts once the honeymoon period is over.

All things said and done, though, CS: GO remains the king of the hill. In fact, it recently broke Dota 2’s record for active concurrent players with over 1.3 million players!

Keep watching this space to see if more professional CS: GO players follow in the footsteps of SicK and take to Valorant.