It's been five years since Riot Games first launched Valorant, its tactical shooter designed to rival Counter-Strike. In the years that have passed since, several new characters, maps, and modes have launched, the game has come to consoles, and the esports scene has boomed to become one of the largest around the world too. Needless to say, Valorant has been a massive hit, and this summer it's looking to mark its fifth anniversary.
With the game first arriving on June 2, 2020, this year, between June 7-18 (mostly), Riot Games will be hosting a slate of in-person activities and events across the UK and Ireland, and Norway, Finland, and Sweden too.
For the UK, there will be six events happening, with the locations of choice being the following:
London - Razer Store - June 7
Warwick - Warwick Esports Centre - June 7
London - Platform Shoreditch and New Meta - June 10
London - GiantX - June 11
Manchester - Pixel Bar - June 11
Durham - Durham University - June 13 (students only)
As for Ireland and the Nordics, the locations and dates are the following:
Stockholm, Sweden - Comic Con Stockholm - May 31 - June 1
Cork, Ireland - National Esports Centre - June 13
Oslo, Norway - Eldorado - June 14
Jyväskylä, Finland - Exen Esports - June 18
As for what fans can expect from these events, we're told to look forward to meetups, exclusive swag, community vibes, and themed activities.
Beyond this, for those unable to attend the community events, Riot has plenty planned for the actual game, including the big Patch 11.00, which will balance abilities, add the newest map to competitive with an incentive to play it, further tackles poor player behaviour and smurfing, and tweak how competitive functions too.
A little later, we can expect the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, with this set for the end of July, then replays coming to the game in September, and then even bigger changes coming to the competitive esports side of the game at the start of 2027.