Come 2024, we get to witness gaming break through new heights and attract people otherwise oblivious to the scene. It’s a great thing; Having a wider audience that shares our interests and joins in on the fun is always amazing to see. But the problem lies in the fact that this mass adoption, along with the state of modern entertainment and media in general, made everything… fast!
People aren’t willing to sit for hours of cutscenes or slow gameplay. Gamers want their dopamine, and they want it NOW!!
This subject hits close to home as well; We got to see first hand the transition of League of Legends over the years from 40~50 minute games on average to the 20 minutes of chaos that have become the staple as of now. Valorant also shows up in every discussion and comparison about League, so we’ll see how it matches up in terms of pace and pure action.
It might seem like comparing apples to oranges at first glance. And even though that might be somewhat right, this is more for those who’re looking to maximize their dopamine per minute from whatever game they can source it; And for that, we’ve got you covered. Even if you’re not as concerned with pace as other aspects of these games, stick around, I’m sure you’ll find new insight about your favorite game!
With that out of the way, let’s first see what Valorant has to offer. If you are looking for our Valorant offers get our premium unranked Valorant smurfs here.
Have you ever wondered why First Person Shooters are so popular nowadays? One reason might be the indomitable urge for war! Zoomers yearn for the frontlines.
On a serious note though, FPS games are the most straightforward and dopamine-inducing genre out there. You find yourself right in the midst of a battle merely one after queuing up. This is exactly what makes them more appealing and easily adopted by the general audience.
We’re treating Valorant here as an example, so let’s look at your average experience in a match:
You queue in for a game, 90 seconds to select an agent, 30 seconds to get to a site, and BOOM! You’re flashed, smokes are dropping everywhere, arrows and grenades flying left and right and gunshots scraping your head. You take a couple of shots, drop a guy or two, secure the site and the round is over. Rinse and repeat for 20 minutes.
Valorant takes no prisoners. You’re put face to face with your enemies from the get-go; No laning phase, no looting and running around the map… All you get is 15 seconds of shopping each round and chaos ensues.
The game is designed to keep you on your feet for the entire match, keep your brain on high alert and your crosshair ready for any opponent that jumps in. It gives you the sensation of speed; pumping you with adrenaline, especially in those high-stakes clutch situations. This dopamine rush induced by the fast-paced gameplay is tailored to keep you engaged for the 20-ish rounds you’re sitting through in each match. It keeps the game fun and makes you come back for more each time.
Well, of course, your average game isn’t always non-stop action. Sometimes that one Reyna keeps dominating you, one tapping you on every corner and just eliminates you from the game altogether. Or maybe both teams think they’re playing hide and seek; no one makes a single footstep and everyone is camping corners. That happens but it’s a part of the experience. But in comparison to other genres, and especially MOBAs, you’re making on average more decisions per second, taking on more enemy encounters, and partaking in action way more often.
If the pace had been slower, to the level of Squad or Rainbow Six: Siege, Valorant would honestly lose its identity and what made many games fall in love with it in the first place. And if it was faster, like Overwatch for example, its strategic factor would get overshadowed by all the chaos and mayhem, also drifting it further from the premise of a fast-paced tactical shooter.
Valorant honestly found a sweet spot in its genre. It offers a more consistent action-filled experience than, for example, League of Legends, which fundamentally keeps you on your toes and ready for action in every round.
However, there is a reason why we’ve been playing League for all these years:
It seems like a staple in the gaming community that MOBAs are straight-up boring, and there is some basis for that claim.
For most of the game, you’re essentially doing nothing; Farming minions and jungle camps, roaming around the map, warding, recalling… That is pretty much 80% of your average match.
There are just too many steps to get into the action. You spend the first 10 to 15 minutes of the game just staring down your opponent face to face, occasionally throwing down some poke, mostly focusing on the last hits and timing recalls.
You’re essentially running on autopilot collecting gold and XP, waiting for that Fiora to jump in or for that one dragon fight, but how many times does that happen in a match?
Game length is also a big factor in the game’s pace. And even though your average League match has gotten a lot shorter over the years, 30 minutes is still quite a stretch for all players to maintain their full focus and force exciting plays for the entirety of the game.
For someone coming from an FPS game, this is unnecessarily tedious and waaaay too slow for their liking. Their dopamine receptors are craving the rumble, but it’s nowhere to be seen.
This makes League slow, but that’s by design too! So even though Valorant is a tactical shooter, mechanics (like aim) arguably overshadow that aspect by a long shot; You can be the ultimate master of macro play, but if the enemy can tap your head before you tap his, more often than not you’ll end up biting the dust. In contrast, even if you’re hitting every skill shot on Ezreal, if you’re not positioning correctly or fail to call off a bad fight it’ll be quite hard to progress.
The point here isn't to compare the tactical aspects of both games, but to highlight how much mental effort is required throughout a League match. So even though, on a surface level, it doesn't seem like you’re doing much besides hitting minions, you’re subconsciously making dozens of calculations per second; You’re watching for your opponent’s cooldowns and position, you’re scanning the map for the enemy jungler, you’re setting up a freeze or a slow push to prepare for a recall... From an outside perspective, all of this looks like the most boring, Farming Simulator 24 ahh gameplay, but you’d notice your heartbeat go up while doing so, and it’s still the laning phase!
It’s slow gameplay, sure, but it’s not any less exciting. Maybe your screen isn’t all flashes and smokes like it’s the 4th of July, but all the decision-making and calculations fill you with as much, if not more excitement than what you’d get from rushing a site in Valorant.
This doesn’t negate the fact that League of Legends also has its exciting moments that even a non-gamer can appreciate, and ohh boy do these moments get your heart racing; A 1v3 outplay, or a decisive team fight for the last drake, or even a well-executed tower dive just to name a couple… These moments are what made us fall in love with the game in the first place, and why we’ve stuck around with it for all these years. This is what give LoL its special flavor that no other game or genre could match.
If we try to make a one-to-one comparison between these two games in terms of pace and plot it on a graph, it would look something like this:
Valorant would offer a more consistent, fast-paced experience all across the board regardless of circumstances. While League would be slower on average, when those moments hit, they hit hard!
At the end of the day, both League of Legends and Valorant occupy completely different paying fields and cater to entirely distinct player bases: Valorant thrusts you into immediate action, immersing you in the fray from the start, whereas LoL gradually builds up, culminating in chaotic team fights and thrilling battles as the game progresses.
Different strokes for different folks, and that’s exactly why we have both games to enjoy!
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