Exclusive interview with Valorant’s head of esports, Leo Faria at the Spotlight grand finals in Paris
Yoann: Hey, hello everyone! Today I have the chance to be here in Paris for the grand finals of the Spotlight tournament with Leo Faria, global head of Valorant’s esports at Riot Games!
We’ll go through a list of quick questions, and we’ll end up with a question I took from a fan in the crowd!
Ready?
Leo Faria: Yeah!
Yoann: How often do you play valorant in your free time?
Leo Faria: I play Valorant almost every day!
Yoann: That’s nice! Phantom or Vandal?
Leo Faria: I prefer playing the Vandal!
Yoann: What's your favorite map and agent?
Leo Faria: I want to say Ascent and Raze!
Yoann: That’s great! What's your favorite skin collection?
Leo Faria: Champions 2021, the Vandal is amazing!
Yoann: For sure! What's your favorite memory working in esports?
Leo Faria: It probably was Champions in Los Angeles in 2023. It was a very special moment for all of us! It was our first big event in Riot’s backyard in L.A.!
Yoann: And with Evil Geniuses winning at home as well!
Leo Faria: Yeah, it was special!
Yoann: Which team are the most excited to watch live next season?
Leo Faria: I think there are many expectations around Vitality, just because they’re building a superteam. I’m also excited to see how EDG performs, we have a history with world champions falling off, and teams being picked apart, and I’m interested in seeing what happens with them as well!
Yoann: Yeah, this season is going to be epic! You recently announced the switch to Unreal Engine 5, what are you most excited about this change?
Leo Faria: It’s for the team to have the capability of what the engine can offer, Valorant has been around for 5 years, there’s so much we can and want to do! The team is excited about a bunch of stuff that’s been in development for some time now.
A lot of work goes into upgrading the engine, because the game is built on Unreal Engine 4, but it’s all about the new possibilities!
Yoann: Yeah, can’t wait to see what you have been cooking! In France, we are all super excited to see Champions coming to Paris next year, what are you the most looking forward to regarding this event, and Valorants 5th anniversary?
Leo Faria: Man, I will tell you, it’s going to be a very special year, we’ll make it extra special! Five years is an important milestone, not every game gets that opportunity. And we take it with a lot of pride and honor, and we want to honor players' and fans’ commitment to the game!
Paris is a very special place to us, we’ve been here many times over the last few years with Worlds, and Worlds 2019 was one of my favorite moments. We are going to make it a very special moment!
Just being here, the French crowd is insane, probably one of the best crowds in the world! There’s a lot to look forward to, it’s going to be great!
Yoann: That’s amazing! You told me Raze was your favorite agent, can you quote a voice line from Raze?
Leo Faria: Oh! “Here comes the party” haha!
Yoann: Amazing, let’s finish it off with a question I took from a fan in the crowd. What are the plans regarding Valorant’s Tier 2 for next season?
Leo Faria: We are making a bunch of changes going into next year, the main ones are consolidating some leagues, especially in South East Asia. Just to increase talent and viewership density to help with more interest and appetite with those leagues.
And we’re finally introducing academy teams, it’s something teams have been asking for a while. We originally decided not to have them because we wanted to prevent the case of a team doing well at Challengers and not being able to ascend because they are the sister team of a team playing in international leagues. But now, knowing what we know today, we are okay with the tradeoff, and we are excited to see these teams bringing their brands and their fanbase to Challengers to create more interest and more appetite. And then, we have all the other changes we already introduced like the 2-way players system, and the extended calendar so we don’t have a 6-month off-season.
We’re really doing everything we can to hope that the system will work better, function better, and we’re looking forward to seeing these changes in 2025!
Yoann: Thank you so much for your time!
Leo Faria: Thank you for the interview!
Leo’s Twitter (X): https://x.com/lhfaria
