a question nobody asked.

    If I'm not wrong, nobody has ever asked me why I like gaming. Well, either they think it's trivial and unproductive, or maybe they assume I’m saying this just to sound cool. But either way, being a big-time yapper — and since I have a Blogspot and free will — I’ll tell you all. Why not, right?

    Being a sister to an elder brother means having an uncontrollable urge to do whatever he does, which I’m sure many siblings agree with. My early childhood was just about looking up to him and trying to do whatever he did.

He plays cricket? I need to.

He races with his friends? I, too, want to.

He likes drawing? Well, how can I not?

He likes maths? Hell no, not that.

That’s where you draw lines.

    Well, because of that, I learnt how to play cricket (he might disagree, but I remember a shot of mine and I still stand by it). I also managed to draw my records in school, which somehow matched the labels. But math? Nah.

    I thought it ended there. But no, life comes with unexpected surprises, right? During the COVID-19 lockdown, I would casually walk into his room and watch him play this one particular game called Valorant. Interesting name, though. I would look at the gameplay and wonder the same thing a lot of people think: how trivial. But one thing I learnt from him is that I don’t get to judge anything blatantly without giving it a genuine try. So I did. But not genuinely. My interest wasn’t strong enough to appreciate the art. At some point, maybe I did it just to sound cool.

    And then Masters happened. Mornings were occupied, and evenings reserved. I almost forgot that, although I was a noob, I was something. Most of my time was consumed by reading academic papers, and my interests shifted to exploring movies, baking, and doomscrolling. My old laptop stopped working, and my new one couldn’t boot the game for some reason. So I thought there was no going back.

One fine day, I randomly opened Valorant.

It opened!

How?

God only knows.

    You choose your agent every time a match is found. I really loved the ULT Neon has — such a cool thing. So I decided, Neon is my agent. But guess what! I wouldn’t even get my ULT bar filled to use it. You have to gain points for that. And my aim? Real bad. Now that I don’t have much on my plate, I thought, why not engage in a round of Escalation, Swiftplay, or Spikerush every day? And just like any other hobby, it was really difficult to accept that you’re really bad at it. Like, really.

    I slowly started to explore more agents and stumbled upon Sage. Such a cutie she is. The real reason I chose her was that she can heal herself. Great for me. So Sage it was! I consistently entered the rounds with my agent. I discovered how she’s not just a healer for herself but for her teammates, too. She’s a protector. She can slow down attackers and raise a wall to block them as well. And her ULT? She can resurrect her teammates. Such an amazing agent! If there’s a Sage among you, the chances of her losing and her team winning are so high!

    So now that we’ve come this far, how does this all benefit a player? To be very honest, anything indulged in too much is bad.

Anything.

    If you think it’s about a certain hobby or activity, then no. It’s not. It’s about filtering the takeaways. These are mine!

    Valorant is different from other games in its intent. There’s no big war going on. It’s a simple 5v5 game where there are attackers and defenders. Attackers go and defuse a thing called a Spike, and defenders plant the Spike and protect it from attackers trying to defuse it. That’s it. Whoever wins goes home with a few XP!

    It really does increase your focus. Might sound unserious, but it does. You become very vigilant of footsteps and little sounds, and you start to notice them in daily life too — and that’s good. Your intuition skills are also tested and sharpened.

    Yes, there’s violence — both from your fellow players and the opposite team — who think winning and losing is the end of the world. But it’s not. The moment you get this thought right, you won’t even realize there are violent players around. Kids shouldn’t sign up for this, and adults should not respond to violence.

    Every player has a story, abilities, and quirks. I guess that’s what makes this game stand out — very creative, in fact.

I guess that’s all. Play mindfully if you do.

    If you’re a fellow player, don’t eliminate me when I’m planting/defusing the spike plees. Also, I wish Val sponsors me with skins (pleess).

alrighty.

byeeeee.