VALORANT is uniquely positioned to appeal to about as wide of an audience of players as a competitive game possibly could. Simply due to the massiveness of Riot Games and their past successes, a large playerbase has been and will most likely continue to be drawn to VALORANT regardless of past tactical shooter experience.
On the other hand, it's a game designed with competitive integrity in mind first and foremost, and can accommodate the highest level of gameplay, drawing players from other esports into its still-developing competitive scene. While those familiar with the genre will already understand peeker's advantage all too well, those new to the genre may have never heard the term prior. A recent post to the VALORANT website breaks the phenomenon down for those new players, as well as veterans who simply want to understand how it works in VALORANT.
What Is Peeker's Advantage?
The term "peeker's advantage" refers to a phenomenon that can occur when a player character turns a corner into the sightlines of an enemy character. For a fraction of a second, in a situation in which peeker's advantage is a factor, the player rounding the corner will be able to see the enemy character but the enemy character will not be able to see them. With quick enough reflexes this can result in a kill without a chance for the other player to react.
Does VALORANT Have Peeker's Advantage?
In short, yes. Of course, peeker's advantage is unwanted by developers and players alike, but as Anna Donlon and Joe Ziegler, the game's executive producer and director explain, it's an inevitability of internet connection-reliant gameplay.
The key contributing factors are framerate and lag from your connection, the enemy's, and the server's, in addition to network interpolation delay. According to Donlon and Ziegler, Riot is in full control of network interpolation delay and server framerate, but can't fully affect network lag or the player client's framerate. They are, however, working on putting players in situations in which both are minimized.
They also clarify how peeker's advantage functions for players with high ping. In theory, they would receive a competitive advantage due to an increase in lag and therefore time in which they'd receive peeker's advantage. However, high ping players increase lag for all players in the server, so while peeker's advantage does become a greater factor, it is such for all players in the game. They recommend playing aggressively in these games.
Of course, this is exclusively a factor in games played at home. Once VALORANT's competitive scene kicks off, even further measures will be implemented in order to minimize peeker's advantage.
Source: Riot Games