Entering the eSports scene or playing games on a professional level requires a lot of practice. However, players that have achieved mastery in specific games will try to get their hands on the best equipment possible to make sure they have every advantage they can get based on hardware.
A crucial piece of gaming gear is definitely the right monitor.
Valorant Pros and their Choice of Monitor
Players in the competitive CS:GO, and Valorant scene mostly use Zowie’s monitors. Almost 60 percent of the players currently have been using Zowie’s XL series.
The reason for the popular choice is that Zowie has marketed itself around Valorant. Going as far as to offer a Valorant color mode that allows enemy players to be seen more clearly with a much more distinct color from the background.
Besides Zowie; ASUS, Alienware, and AOC are also preferred choices for a lot of competitive players. However, the amount of players using Zowie’s monitor simply blows other choices out of the water, leaving little room for competition.
Best Monitor for Valorant
Let’s start by understanding the criteria that would make a monitor ideal for a competitive first-person shooter like Valorant.
Riot has put in a lot of effort for optimization, which is evident based on the fact that even outdated hardware has been running Valorant at 60 FPS without any hiccups. This means, with semi-decent gear, you’ll be able to hit upwards of 144 FPS consistently.
The top five monitors that pros use all around are:
- BENQ ZOWIE XL2546/XL2540
- BENQ ZOWIE XL2546K/XL2540K
- ALIENWARE AW2518H
- BENQ ZOWIE XL2411
- ALIENWARE AW2521H
Go for a High Refresh Rate
Why is a higher framerate important? If you haven’t shifted from 60 FPS yet, it might take some time to get used to 144 and 240 Hz. Rest assured, with time. You’ll be making your aim a lot smoother and be able to track enemy heads with ease.
Most of the monitors that high-ranked players use don’t specifically provide higher resolution. Our main focus is to gain maximum frames and avoid any unnecessary drops in performance.
What Size Monitor Should I Get for Valorant?
The mentioned monitor size is the accepted standard in most pro-gaming scenes now. If you’ve been used to a bigger size, then you’ll be at a disadvantage.
Monitors of this size provide a higher frame rate as well, making them a very common preference for professional CS:GO and Valorant players. Other than that, a smaller screen size allows for being able to see all the information the game has to offer without moving your head too much. A larger screen size only offers distractions and adds to your reaction time, putting you at a disadvantage.
Low Response Time
Monitors have a set delay, which is limited by their hardware, and it’s the time that it takes to shift between colors. The standardized test is done between the time it would take a monitor to go from black to white or vice versa.
Ideally, we would like to go for a monitor with the lowest Time-to-Respond. This is more common in TN panels. IPS panels are much more color accurate but have a higher response time.
But, if you had to choose between framerate and delay, the obvious choice would still be a higher framerate.
Finding the Right Price
The more money you spend, the better you’ll get in terms of quality. If you are on a budget, then know that you can always go for 144 Hz, as there’s not too marginal of a difference of performance between players using refresh rates of 144 Hz and 244 Hz, but there’s definitely a steep price difference.
Why Do Valorant Pros Sit So Close to Their Monitor?
This isn’t something you should do on a regular basis. If you feel like going all-out on an important match, then it’s fine to do this every now and then.
Valorant pros position themselves very close to the monitor, with their mouse and keyboard located either on the side of the monitor or behind it.
For a lot of players, this placement allows them to reach faster reaction times and the ability to spot players in the clutter of useless objects in the map.
DISCLAIMER: Sitting close to a screen is extremely unhealthy, and it will damage your eyes. You will experience back pain and distortion in your posture after long sessions. Conventionally, your monitor should be one arm’s length away.
Wrapping Up
Hardware improvements are likely to give you a slight advantage in your overall gameplay. At the end of the day, it all boils down to how well you can take advantage of those upgrades.
If you feel like you have peaked your skill within a certain setting and are ready to make a move to compete in the higher ranks, then a 144 Hz monitor is a budget-friendly way to make your entrance into the professional scene.
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