CS is more like Chess than Valorant is

Firstly I placed 4th in the Texas state middle school Chess tournament, so I feel like I can speak on this. I’m also 1900 peak rating on Lichess.

In Chess you are playing the same openings every game, but what separates the better players from the weaker players is their midgame and endgame. This is the same thing in CS.

In Valorant you have so many different agent comps and metas. The fact that you don’t know what agents the other team will select just introduces more variance into the game. On top of the individual skill gap being low, it just makes for a very random outcome.

I consider Valorant to be more similar to rock paper scissors than Chess. Rock paper scissors is a fun game, but we know the outcome is random. Just like the Val the pro scene, I feel like any team can beat any other team.

100% agree

Wrong. LeBron and Verno made this game not random and a predicted outcome.

it's also nothing like rps and not nearly as random as rps. Maybe closer to rps than cs but still nothing like it.

Rock paper scissors is bs, valorant is like chess 960 (Fischer random) more than anything if you want to use the chess analogy

Does that mean ascent is like chess?? I don't understand.

don't need midgame and endgame when you play 0.5 | 0 time control 🗿

Val is more random, but you have a ton of opportunities to control the randomness. The length of tournaments means that only the most consistent teams will actually win.

Val is more complicated than CS (and chess, sorta). There aren't ~4 basic pieces (smoke, flash, molly/bishop knight, rook) , there are ~10 (recon, traps, wall smoke, walls, decay, vulnerable, detained). With more frequent updates and balance patches, it's not enough to be good and implementing a strategy someone else discovered, you have to be able to invent things yourself during play.

Val also reduces the peak mechanical skill ceiling. Chess has no mechanical skill (other than blitz? Sorta?) so you have to rely more on mental calculation and preparation, not just shoot good. In that way, Val is more like chess.

Overall, I think they're just interesting in different ways. I don't play Val, CS, or chess seriously, but I watch them all seriously, in that order. Val is the more interesting because it combines the most fields and has the best balance of skills required. But watching Donk destroy a server of veterans is fun, and understanding a really good game of chess is fun (although I still need commentary or engines to understand high level chess).

I would guess that in the long run, Valorant will be the most approachable to casual viewers/players (including against LoL), because it doesn't put too much weight on any specific type of thing, and everyone can choose something they enjoy.

1900 peak rating on "Lichess" and chess960 is more fun

No, asymmetrical game aren't "random". Asymetrical game are just "symmetrical games", but adding creativity and imagination.

1900 on lichess is pretty mid

1900 lichess is considered mid elo right?