Riot is going to join the Hero shooter genre with their new project, Valorant.

While Valorant might look like a copy of Overwatch, monetization wise, they are actually branching off in a different route using a distinct business model. The free-to-play model would be funded with microtransactions but without loot boxes.

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Phoenix and his counterpart Jett, who can manipulate the wind

According to the developers, only weapon skins and sprays would be available at start – by purchasing through the game store or unlocking through battle passes. Character skins would come later after the players are familiar with the general appearance of the 10 heroes. Riot afraid that people would mistake one character for another if skins were available at the start.

Similar to League of Legends, grinders would have enough resources to unlock everything by playing, of course.

Riot Games has just released yet another new showcase trailer for Valorant, and this time Phoenix is the main attraction. This is probably the first part of a series of reveal videos in which Riot is going to showcase all the characters in their new game. All characters in Valorant would have four abilities in addition to their guns – which leads to an increase in the game’s skill ceiling, as you would have to use all the different weapons at the same time.

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Phoenix's signature abilities in Valorant

Phoenix is a sharpshooter that can manipulate fire to either deal damages or create additional effects. In the video, two of his abilities were shown: Curveballs is a flashbang that can go around corners to blind enemies; whereas Blaze is a wall of fire that block enemies’ line of sight and damage people who step through it. His signature fireballs skill Hot Hands and his ultimate ability “Run it Back” weren’t shown, however.

Interested in more of our articles related to this game? Please check out this post for everything that was revealed so far for Valorant.