Riot Games announced earlier yesterday the global release times of its new team shooter game – Valorant, with gamers in Sri Lanka now being able to download the game from the official website.

Speaking about the release the Publishing Head (South Asia), Sukamal Pegu had the following to say:

“Riot Games is highly committed to providing India and rest of the South Asia region with an excellent gaming experience. While you’ll be joining the worldwide launch on June 2, the official servers which will support Middle East & South Asia will come later in the year.

Players in South Asia will be playing on the South East Asia servers (for now), and though you will experience a higher ping, you’ll still be able to engage in enjoyable competitive battles. Make sure you register with your actual home country and original Riot ID to make your future server transition easier!

Our ِِregional social handles will soon be launched. Keep an eye out to get the latest updates.”

The game had a successful closed beta run that ended almost a week ago during which Gamer.LK successfully conducted a Weekend Gaming session for the title with almost 25 teams signing up to take part.

Previously, Riot had announced that they will be making many improvements to the game leading upto the launch, including a new Agent that will be released sometime after the game’s global release. Revealing a trailer a few days ago, Riot revealed that the agent is called Reyna and teased her individual abilities as well.

Unfortunately, all experience and progress earned in the closed beta will be reset when the game releases later today and all players will have to start their grind from scratch.

To get Valorant yourself you need to first have a Riot account. Register for a new account here if you haven’t got one already. The game is now released so head to the official Valorant website to download the Riot launcher. After getting the launcher, install the game and let it download. The closed beta had a file size of around 5-8GB so its safe to expect a similar size on launch. The installation process will also install the Valorant official dedicated anticheat software called Riot Vanguard which will always continue to be running in the background of your PC. The software cannot be uninstalled separately but you can turn it off by exiting the process in the taskbar at any time. However, you will need a full PC restart if you were to launch Valorant without it running.

A detailed list of what has changed in the game and the patch notes are available at https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/game-updates/valorant-patch-notes-1-0/.

Over 100 companies from all across the island took part at the largest mercantile sporting event in the country – the Mercantile Esports Championship 2019 held on the 9th and 10th of November 2019 at Stein Studios. After two days of nail-biting Esports action, Orel IT and HSBC Data Processing Lanka (HDPL) qualified for the Grand Finals which will be held on the 1st of December at Stein Studios from 10 a.m. onwards.

Orel IT made a convincing mark at the event making their way to the finals with ease, while HSBC Data Processing Lanka Ltd. (HDPL), Calcey Technologies and Motion Miracles tied for the 2nd spot. After considering the overall participation across many titles, HDPL was sent through to the grand finals. 

The big match style Grand Finals will consist of a full day of activities, giveaways and Esports action as the two companies battle it out across 4 video game titles to earn their rights to the coveted Mercantile Esports Championship trophy. The selected video game titles for the Grand Finals are Call of Duty 4, League of Legends, PUBG Mobile and FIFA 19, with Tekken 7 being the tie-breaker. Tickets for the event will be available for purchase online at mercantile.gamer.lk or at the gate. 

RESULTS

Call of Duty 4

• 1st Place: Orel IT – Team Azul
• 2nd Place: GSS – Bad Boys
• 3rd Place: Motion Miracles – Team Miracles

Counter Strike: Global Offensive

• 1st Place: Motion Miracles – Team Miracles 
• 2nd Place: Butani Capital – Legion
• 3rd Place: Calcey Technologies – Final Resistance

Dota 2

• 1st Place: Pattern Digital – Digital Chaos
• 2nd Place: GSS – Global System Solution
• 3rd Place: Aztech Enterprises – The Unpredictables

League of Legends

• 1st Place: Orel IT – Skull Crushers
• 2nd Place: Pearson – PRSN Back To School
• 3rd Place: Surge Global – Surge

PUBG Mobile

• 1st Place: Butani Capital – Butani Capital
• 2nd Place: HDPL – IMMORTALS
• 3rd Place: Pan Asia Banking Corporation – Team PABG

FIFA 19

• 1st Place: HDPL – Akalanka “Akiiboyy” Perera
• 2nd Place: Seven Media – Shehan Hewawitharana
• 3rd Place: Food Studio LK – Ashan “Aquaman10” Somathilake

Need for Speed: MW

• 1st Place: Calcey Technologies – Mario “xtremer21” Mendis
• 2nd Place: Calcey Technologies – Ruveen “RAT” Thirimanne
• 3rd Place: Orel IT – Harshana “NOISY BOY” Samaranayake

Mortal Kombat XL

• 1st Place: Reliance Insurance Brokers – Praveen “zombi3″ J
• 2nd Place: HealthRecon Connect – Rashad “RaSSyCZaR” Ameer
• 3rd Place: Bluewhale – Dhanuka “amanuensis” Samarakoon

Clash Royale

• 1st Place: RCM Medigain – Rajith “Rn’B” Weerasekara
• 2nd Place: Orel IT – Kavinda “Dr.volcano” Dilshan
• 3rd Place: HDPL – Nadeepa “Lord N” Edirisooriya

Tekken 7

• 1st Place: The Bayleaf Colombo – Roshan “JURA” Jurampathy
• 2nd Place: Motion Miracles – DaddyLongLegs
• 3rd Place: Attune – Malindra “TechPenguin5” Perera

Fortnite

• 1st Place: Fresco Batiks – Fauzaan “SPONGIEZ” Firoz
• 2nd Place: HealthRecon Connect – Rashad “RaSSyCZaR” Ameer
• 3rd Place: HealthRecon Connect – Hirusha “xZ3KEx” Gimhan

Womens – Need for Speed: MW

• 1st Place: WSO2 Lanka – Kaumini “KaWWa” Gunasinghe
• 2nd Place: CocoLuk – Yasara “WarQueen” De Silva
• 3rd Place: Susila Holdings – Angaline “Gracious” Natasha

Womens – Mario Kart

• 1st Place: CocoLuk – Yasara “WarQueen” De Silva
• 2nd Place: Wiley Global – Nadeeshani “FOXY” Jayasinghe
• 3rd Place: Apollo International School – Dhinelka “BitSy” Anthony

Womens – Mortal Kombat XL

• 1st Place: WSO2 Lanka – Kaumini “KaWWa” Gunasinghe
• 2nd Place: Apollo International School – Dhinelka “BitSy” Anthony
• 3rd Place: LSEG Sri Lanka – Sujathani “sujindw” Warnakulasooriya

The Ministry of Sports in Sri Lanka has officially declared Esports as an official sport in the country. The declaration gazetted on the 26th of September by the Minister of Telecommunication, Foreign Employment and Sports Mr. Harin Fernando has been published on the 2nd of October.

Sri Lanka is the first country in the South Asian region to officially recognize Esports as a sport and now joins a growing list which include countries such as South Korea and France who have already recognized the competitive play of video games as a sport.

The declaration comes as the result of over a decade long effort of the Sri Lanka Esports Association (SLESA). Spearheaded by Gamer.LK who is the strategic partner for SLESA, Esports activities and events were conducted across the island continuously, establishing it as one of the fastest growing sports in the country. The recently concluded qualifying round for the Inter-School Esports Championship saw a record number of over 150 schools from across the country taking part.

The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) had already endorsed Esports in Sri Lanka with their show of support for Sri Lanka’s participation in the 18th Asian Games, where Esports was included as a demonstration sport.

Gazette (English): http://www.documents.gov.lk/files/egz/2019/10/2143-34_E.pdf
Gazette (Sinhala): http://www.documents.gov.lk/files/egz/2019/10/2143-34_S.pdf