A recent trademark filed by Riot Games has revealed the title of their highly anticipated competitive first-person shooter previously titled Project A. The trademark calls this project Valorant, and suggests that Riot is eager to push it forward as highly competitive and eSports driven product.

Project A was originally teased during Riot’s 10th-anniversary celebration livestream, along with Riot’s upcoming TCG, Legends of Runeterra, and the League of Legends console and mobile game, Wild Rift. Along with the then-titled Project A, Riot teased various other untitled projects such as an ARPG as well as their long-awaited fighting game, which has been rumored to be in existence for over three years. Lastly, they revealed a self-produced television series titled Arcane.

Now, a report by Respawn First has revealed that Riot Games has filed a trademark which could finally name their upcoming FPS project. Valorant’s trademark was filed on February 20th, 2020 and is still pending. A Twitter page for the game, @PlayValorant, has already amassed over 5,000 followers at the time of this writing, including many including popular FPS streamers and eSports players. The followers consist mostly of established internet personalities and professional video game players, which have led many people to believe that this is in fact Riot Games’ Project A, which has been classified as a class-based first-person shooter with combat somewhat similar to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and has already been revealed to have been tested by multiple professional CS:GO players.

Riot is currently dealing with a lawsuit due to gender discrimination in the workplace. The company could pay up to 400 million dollars. The initial reveal of these events caused many employee walkouts and has culminated into this ongoing legal battle, which saw the initial proposed settlement (for ten million dollars) being withdrawn, and recent developments show that this lawsuit could be setting the stage for more elaborate developments in the future. On top of that, Riot has been expanding its brand in 2020. Announcing multiple video games as well as a developer-focused publishing branch by the name of Riot Forge which has been responsible for two upcoming titles, The Ruined King and CONV/RGENCE. The former is a turn-based RPG developed by Airship Syndicate, who are known for Darksiders Genesis and the latter features Ekko in the steampunk setting of Zaun and seems to be an action-platformer.

While Riot vows that League of Legends will remain their focus, these new titles suggest that they are eager to branch out. Many gamers have begun comparing this herculean task as Riot attempting to stand next to industry titans such as Blizzard. Blizzard similarly expanded its name past strategy games and ARPGs with shooters, MOBAs, and MMOs. With Valorant, Riot is attempting to create a competitor for both Overwatch and CS:GO, the two most popular shooters on the PC. The new decade will seemingly be a tumultuous one for Riot, however, their rapid expansion project has millions of gamers excited for the future.

Next: Project A: CS:GO Commentator Shares New Details Of Riot’s Team-Based FPS

Source: Respawn First