Virtus.pro has announced its return to the StarCraft II scene, determined to qualify for this year’s Esports World Cup.

The Armenian esports organisation’s return to RTS begins with the signing of Kim ‘Classic’ DoWoo, who will play under Virtus.pro as its designated StarCraft II player this competitive season.

The announcement was made through a blog post on the official Virtus.pro website, posted April 21st, 2025.

Nikolai Petrossian, CEO of Virtus.pro, said: “A year ago, we attempted to revive our legacy in StarCraft II, but the circumstances weren’t in our favour. Now, we’re returning with a more accomplished player who boasts an impressive track record, including top-tier tournament victories.

“We expect Classic to qualify for the Esports World Cup and deliver a strong performance at the event itself, as well as at other major competitions within the esports ecosystem.”

Classic is a seasoned South Korean player competing professionally in the StarCraft II esports scene since 2010.

He first began his career playing for STX SouL, but after the team disbanded, he moved to SKT1 for three years until October 18th, 2016. He has since played for several other teams, including MKers, Alpha X and Twisted Minds.

His most notable achievements date back to 2014, when he placed first in the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) Season 2: Code S. He won 4-2 against Eo ‘soO’ Yun-su, earning ₩70,000,000 (roughly $69,000) in prize money.

His most recent achievement was placing third in the 2023 GSL Season 3: Code S while playing for Twisted Minds. In this Code S, he lost 1-3 to Cloud9’s Koh ‘GuMiho’ Byung-jae. but earned a spot for the ESL SC2 Masters 2023 Winter.

On X, Classic said: “I joined a team, Virtus.pro! I am very happy to have a good team. I will achieve better results this year.”

There’s been some exciting news around the expected VALORANT Mobile release date. The heavily rumored handheld variant of the popular Esports shooter recently received a new trailer and some information on the playtests. We know the game’s coming to China first and foremost, but what does that mean for the rest of the world? 

We’ve all been wondering when VALORANT Mobile will be coming out, and now it seems like we’re a step closer to playing Riot Games’ premier shooter on the go. 

In addition to the expected release window, we’ll also review some of the technical specifications needed for ideal play, any notable gameplay differences, the starting roster, latest news, and everything else you need to know when VALORANT goes mobile. However, note that the following combines confirmed details and industry speculation. 

Pre-registration is now open. Exact VALORANT Mobile launch date & window is yet to be announced.

VALORANT Mobile pre-registration is now available exclusively for the game’s Chinese audience. Those based in the region are urged to “book an appointment” via either their WeChat or QQ logins. 

An official post on the VALORANT X page goes into detail on what to expect at this early stage in proceedings: 

The exact VALORANT Mobile release date and release window are yet to be announced, with the reveal itself only being a handful of hours old. 

We only know that the rollouts for the game in its early stages are coming “later this year” as the playtests will be steadily innovated over the next handful of months. All Riot Games has said is that the next playtest is happening “soon” so we’re hopeful that Chinese gamers could get their hands on the anticipated title in the next few months. 

There’s been no indication of when VALORANT Mobile could be coming to the US, Japan, South Korea, and the UK (going by the biggest mobile gaming markets), so gamers outside of China are hard-pressed for details at this point in time. 

Occasionally, Chinese-developed mobile games, such as the upcoming Destiny: Rising, can have closed alpha tests in the US and Canada before a worldwide rollout, so we’re expecting that the US, Canada, the UK, and South Korea could be the next countries to receive access to the game. It’s likely going to be no earlier than 2026. 

The head of VALORANT Studios, Anna Donlon, explained why they’ve chosen China for their first foray into the mobile gaming scene: 

“China has one of the largest and most competitive mobile FPS communities in the world. Since Lightspeed is already a trusted developer in the region, we think it makes sense to start more locally, where their mobile expertise shines, before we finalize our plans to expand to other regions.”

It’s an unsurprising development considering that China is something of a priority market for mobile gaming, and the VALORANT Mobile release window coming to the region first would give the development team time to beta test and iron out the kinks before the rest of the world gets access. 

We’ve seen similar announcements happen with Rainbow Six Siege Mobile, though that game is yet to materialize. We’re hopeful that VALORANT Mobile will be more transparent in its release rollout since its reveal. 

VALORANT Mobile has been confirmed as free-to-play, as with the console & PC versions. 

As with its PC and console versions, it’s said that VALORANT Mobile will be free to play, meaning there’s no need to splash the cash to take the popular hero shooter on the go with you. With that said, business practices could change with how the mobile gaming market surges compared to other platforms. 

VALORANT Mobile downloads are expected to be free after all, so the bulk of the revenue is going to come from in-game cosmetics sales, such as skins for characters and weapons. 

Unlike transparently displaying the cost in your regional currency, all VALORANT transactions are done with VALORANT Points (VP), with different skins costing more than others. That’s doubly so if we’re talking about bundles and the varying tiers for character skins, weapon skins, and knife skins, which can vary massively. 

VALORANT Mobile prices for these items change as it’s unlikely to be an exact 1:1 version of the game and its systems, but rather an interpretation for a completely different market. The mobile gaming market accounts for $118 billion as of 2024, with projections to reach as high as $156 billion by 2029. 

Riot Games is likely to offer more skins and bundles for its mobile audience, as they are, traditionally, the market that spends the most on in-game items, even by free-to-play standards of 2025. 

Coming to iOS & Android, China will be the first territory for now.

VALORANT Mobile platforms are confirmed to be iOS and Android, with the 5v5 competitive shooter coming to China first with the aforementioned playtests and pre-registration information. 

With the playtests likely to be rolling out over the next few months, we’ll get to see how Chinese gamers are interacting with the game as it evolves from its alpha and beta states before general release.

Full VALORANT Mobile gameplay trailers have been released.

It’s been nearly four years since the original VALORANT Mobile announcement from Riot Games back in June 2021, which itself came around a year after the main game debuted on PC. After so many years of rumors and speculation, as well as console versions for both Xbox and PlayStation platforms, there’s finally more details for the handheld variant as well. 

That’s because several VALORANT mobile trailers have been released over the last few hours following brief teaser snippets that circulated around on social media beforehand. The official trailer clocks in at 72 seconds long and shows how the popular hero shooter will translate on touchscreen hardware. 

VALORANT Mobile gameplay looks faithful to the game you can play now on your PC or console. However, it features a full display of touch-sensitive buttons, including a virtual joystick for movement, similar to what we’ve seen with Call of Duty Mobile. 

Unlike with that game, where shooting was automatic when aiming at an enemy, Riot Games’ mobile adaptation has a dedicated button for firing your weapon, as well as the option to aim down sights and reload. Crouching and the abilities are also mapped to smaller on-screen buttons, too. 

As with traditional VALORANT gameplay, the mobile port features a cooldown for abilities, which are now represented by circles draining and then filling up, which looks to be effective visual shorthand as a pop of color emerges. 

Simply put, from all the pre-release material, it looks like a faithful representation of the game (largely) on par with the source material. Thankfully, the game’s cell-shaded art style lends fairly well to lower production graphics, so mobile gamers shouldn’t necessarily notice a massive visual downgrade if what’s seen is to be believed. 

VALORANT Mobile will have 16 agents & 2 maps.

What we do know is that there will be 16 VALORANT agents available in the mobile version of the game, including Breach, Jett, Raze, Brimstone, Phoenix, Sage, Sova, Viper, Cypher, Reyna, Killjoy, Skye, and more. You’ll notice, however, that’s not the full list of agents in Valorant, as some crucial ones are missing, including Gekko, Deadlock, Iso, Clove, Tejo, Vyse, Fade, Chamber, and Waylay, with no word received on why or when they could appear in the game. 

It’s said that two exclusive VALORANT maps – Shipyard and Ancient Village – will be added to the mobile version, alongside the six maps that will be lifted from the current PC version of the game, including Ascent, Bind, Haven, Breeze, Split, and Fracture. 

All the concurrent weapons for the confirmed agents appear to be the same, as the trailers and news reveal a 1:1 gameplay comparison with the console and PC game. 

Rumored requirements are modest. Exact specs are yet to be announced. 

The full VALORANT Mobile system requirements are yet to be fully revealed by Riot Games. However, some sources have alleged what kind of hardware the game demands on both Android and iOS, even if it hasn’t been transparent about whether these are placeholder figures or what to expect with the full upcoming release. 

Source: Claimed via Lapak Gaming 

Whether these VALORANT Mobile system requirements are fully accurate remains to be seen. However, they appear roughly in the ballpark with what we would expect from a flagship mobile release. 

We can see similar spec requirements from Call of Duty Mobile, which needs at least 2GB RAM, works on iOS 9 and up / Android 7 and up, and has a GPU capable of bindless texturing, such as the Adreno 610 or the Apple A13 Bionic. 

These reported specifications are for the absolute minimum operations of a game like this, and look more like placeholders. We’ll update you with the confirmed requirements as soon as we know more from Riot Games; the game will likely have various graphics options similar to the PC version, so as many of the 3.3 billion worldwide Android users and 1.38 billion iOS users as possible could play. We wouldn’t be surprised if the game’s top-end graphics scaling was unique to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 handsets, alongside the OnePlus 13 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. 

Of course, we’ll need to see how VALORANT plays on mobile, as the most popular Chinese phones differ from those in the US and the UK. 

Vivo, Huawei, and Xiaomi are the biggest smartphone brands in China, so Riot Games will need to cater to the Vivo X200 Pro, Huawei Pura 70, and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra long before the iPhone or Samsung handsets. All three phones mentioned blow through the minimum specs, too. 

While we’re still waiting on the confirmed release date of VALORANT Mobile, we know that the game’s coming out in China first. Playtests will be available soon as pre-registration is now live for gamers in that part of the world.

It’s unknown which territories could follow, with South Korea, the US, and the UK likely to come next, expected no earlier than 2026. Everything we’ve seen from the gameplay to Riot Games’ transparency around the VALORANT schedule has us hopeful that this long-awaited mobile port could be what we’ve been waiting for more than three years, after all. 

As fans eagerly await the VALORANT Mobile official release, keep an eye on the evolving schedule, upcoming updates, and regional rollouts.

Riot Games has announced a new company president, Hoby Darling.

Darling will replace former President and present CEO Dylan Jadeja, who led Riot Games during the controversial sexism scandals and accusations. Now, gamers are unsure if Darling is the right fit to bring about changes in the company regarding marketing and microtransactions.

Hoby Darling has spent most of his career in the sports and tech industries, focused on creativity and performance. This includes senior leadership roles at Logitech, Skullcandy/Astro Gaming, Volcom and Nike, according to a press release from Riot Games. At these companies, Darling spent a lot of time merging genres and bringing in athletes and creators to grow brands globally.

“The first time I walked into Riot, I felt a scrappy, soulful, and courageous energy I knew I needed to be a part of. I’ve worked with a lot of companies, and there’s something special about a place that takes risks, challenges convention, and stays fiercely committed to its mission,” Darling stated.

“Riot has a long history of creating experiences that truly matter to players, and I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside passionate Rioters who push each other to do their best work every day.”

When the change in leadership was announced, CEO Jadeja had positive words for Darling, noting that he would bring out the company’s ‘creativity’ and ‘focus.’ However, the League of Legends community has been skeptical since Darling stepped up just a day ago.

On a Reddit forum discussing the change, gamers found it hard to believe that someone who worked at Nike and Skullcandy had the gaming and esports knowledge to lead Riot Games. Others were weary of his strong marketing background, with one Redditor stating: “Dude sounds like a textbook marketer. They’re probably going to keep pushing revenue growth as usual. He sounds like he’s involved in ad integrations. Aka they’re gonna milk the game dry. Probably a less intrusive way but still going to milk it.”

Other gamers looked Darling up and found that he talked about CrossFit a lot, leading to a lot of ‘gym bro’ accusations.

Not a lot of gamers had a positive outlook on Darling being appointed as president of Riot Games, but only time will tell if the decision has any impact on the games and their communities, good or bad.

Tekken 8 Game Director Katsuhiro Harada has blocked top pro player Arslan Ash on X (formerly Twitter), infuriating the FGC.

Earlier on April 21st, Arslan Ash shared a screenshot of Harada’s X bio, which showed that he’d been blocked from seeing Harada’s tweets. Arslan then put a bunch of question marks to express his confusion.

Arslan Ash is no stranger to criticizing Tekken 8, especially after developers made questionable changes in Season 2. Now, the esports community believes that Arslan was blocked by Harada for continuing to voice frustrations with the game.

Harada has lashed out at critics in the past, including fans who voiced disdain for Anna’s new look. Harada accused one fan of ‘spreading toxicity’ in the community and ‘disrespecting’ other Anna fans.

This time, however, the FGC felt that Harada had blocked the wrong person — an Evo champion who is considered one of the best in the scene. The community noted that the game must be ‘cooked’ if developers are blocking the ‘GOAT of the game.’ It wasn’t exactly instilling faith in the game.

Said one fan: “Harada and Murray are straight-up sabotaging their own game at this point. Blocking the best Tekken player, zero communication, and ignoring real issues. Instead of listening, they’re shutting people down. It’s embarrassing hey Namco y’all f—ed up big time.”

Added another: “The face of Tekken being blocked by the head of Tekken. Insane, especially when you realise that Arslan could legit stop playing Tekken and go pro in [City of the Wolves] extremely quickly, especially with [Esports World Cup] round the corner.”

In response to the continued backlash on X, Harada responded to the drama in a tweet. He claimed he never meant to block Arslan Ash, adding that it was an ‘operational error.’ Harada then stated that he spoke to the pro in a DM.

While this could be the case, Arslan Ash and other Tekken 8 players are clearly unhappy with the state of the game and won’t stop speaking out about it.

JD Gaming’s Head Coach Kim ‘cvMax’ Dae-ho is stepping down from his role due to health concerns.

JD Gaming shared the shocking news on X (formerly Twitter), stating that it was a mutual decision between cvMax and the organisation as he heads back home to recover. cvMax’s exact health issue was not mentioned.

“Since joining JDG in December 2024, Coach cvMax has demonstrated unwavering professionalism and commitment to the team,” JD Gaming wrote. “His rigorous approach to training, meticulous management and strategic leadership have significantly strengthened our tactical systems and player development, driving continuous improvement within the squad.”

cvMax’s decision was largely respected by the esports community, who wished him well and felt it was noble to take a step back if it impacted the team’s performance. JDG is sixth place in the LPL Split 2 standings, with four wins and two losses. The team will have to step it up to make it to the finals.

cvMax has been with JD Gaming since 2024 and has grown a large following over his career. His dedication to the game has made him a respected figure in the competitive League of Legends community and many fans are hoping he will return.

JD Gaming hasn’t announced a replacement or stand-in coach just yet. However, it doesn’t seem like there are plans to bring cvMax back.

At the end of the announcement, JDG wrote: “We extend our sincere gratitude to Coach cvMax for his dedication and guidance during his tenure. We also thank our fans for their steadfast support of JDG’s League of Legends division. The entire JDG organization wishes Coach cvMax good health and continued success in his future endeavors.”

cvMax hasn’t made a public statement regarding his ‘future endeavors,’ but that wording has left JDG fans with little hope of a cvMax return. It’s possible this could change when cvMax makes a recovery and returns, or he may be snatched up by another team.