WarOwl reveals all the ways Riot’s Project A is targeting CSGO players

Counter-Strike YouTuber WarOwl reveals how the new tactical shooter in development at Riot Games, Project A, can challenge CS:GO and potentially spur improvement from the classic Valve shooter.

WarOwl has been making popular Counter-Strike videos on YouTube for years. He’s dived deep into the game’s future and past analyzed some of the biggest changes and even reviewed 50 Overwatch cases in a row to discover a massive amount of cheaters in play.

• Read more: WarOwl tests how many reported CS:GO players are hacking

In his newest video, he entertains the idea of a new challenger coming to take players away from CS:GO, in Riot Games’ Project A that was announced during their 10th-anniversary stream. This game joined a bevy of other announcements from the Tencent owned company, including a fighting game project, a card game, and more. 

When the game was first revealed, fans were split on whether Project A was more of a direct competitor to Overwatch or Counter-Strike. According to WarOwl, Project A is certainly more of a competitor to Counter-Strike, and their marketing reflects that.

The first gameplay and behind-the-scenes footage feature lots of appearance by Sal ‘Volcano’ Garozzo, a veteran map developer well known in CS:GO, who most recently completed the re-work of Cache alongside Shawn ‘FMPONE’ Snelling.

WarOwl contends that the frequent usage of Volcano, along with the wordage used by the project’s executive producer Anna ‘Supercakes’ Donlon, is purposely done to draw comparisons to Counter-Strike. In the video, Donlon says of Project A:

“It’s competitive. It has precise gunplay. With Project A, we’re staying true to the high consequence gameplay of tap shooters.”

Even the abilities, which many compared to Overwatch, are more comparable to utility grenades and mechanics from Counter-Strike, says WarOwl. The abilities shown in the preview can create walls to help players peak and cut off angles, and create a vortex that imitates the cover that a smoke grenade would make.

• Read more: Riot explain why Project A isn’t like Overwatch

WarOwl cites a tweet from Riot’s VP of IP/Entertainment Greg ‘Ghostcrawler’ Street, that says gunplay and map control are key to Project A, and that the abilities are more about utility.

WarOwl closed by saying he wants Project A to be a success, and while he doesn’t believe it will be a Counter-Strike killer, he does believe it will be a Counter-Strike contender.

The next bit of new information regarding Project A won’t be available until 2020.