On June 4-5, 2022, I attended my first Valorant LAN event. The tournament was the Nerd Street Gamers Valorant Champs and was held at a gaming arena called Scrims Center in Lisle, IL. I was there to take photos and videos as a Great Lakes Region Correspondent for an esports organization, Immortals.
Before I begin, I’ll be honest: I’ve never played Valorant. I also don’t really follow the competitive Valorant scene as close as I do with Overwatch. Recently, kaiju corp picked up a Valorant team and I’ve been watching them play in tournaments. By watching them play, I was able to learn the gist of the game.
This weekend was the first time I’ve also been to Scrims Center. I have known of the venue for awhile now but just never had a reason to go. I remember reading an article about Scrims Center and learned that the venue is owned by a mother and son. It definitely has a “mom and pop shop” feel but the space is large enough to hold events and lots of PCs. It’s a place worth giving business, especially if you love supporting local business.
So the first day of the tournament was group stages. They had 4 separate groups of groups mostly because there were so many teams participating that they needed to split them up. I got to the venue around 11AM, which was when the second group was expected to start setting up. Kaiju corp was in the second group and I wanted to show my support for them. The first group, however, was still playing and because of the small parking lot, it was hard to find a place to park. We ended up parking a block away at a nearby business center. Once the first group left, the parking lot was more vacant and we were able to move our car closer. After kaiju corp was unfortunately knocked out in group stages, I stayed for another couple of hours to take as many pictures as possible.
I love the vibe of group stages. There was so much excitement from everyone there. Most of the people there met each other online and being able to see each other for the first time was exciting. I know that feeling since I met most of my good friends online and meeting them in person at events is just so much fun.
Since the second day was playoffs, there was a much different energy. Everyone was more focused and the air was way more tense. When a team won, there was more passion in their cheers and when they lost, you could see the anguish in their faces. I got a lot of good shots of players celebrating their wins and the spectators nervously watching their favorite teams play. I ended up not staying the entire time since it was a Sunday and we live over an hour away from the gaming center so we left around the quarter finals.
Even though I don’t play or follow Valorant closely, I had a really good time. I mostly enjoy taking pictures of everyone and trying to capture the right moments. I love the energy of LANs, from players screaming callouts and banters to listening in on random conversations about the game. I want thank Immortals for giving me the opportunity to cover the event and the staff at Scrims Center for being so accommodating to my presence there.
But anyways, that is it for me! I hope you enjoyed the post and I will see you all next time!
Content By Sheena 