DATA: most of the Pick Rate data is taken from TheSpike.gg and in particular from the NSG open and closed qualifiers for a total of 680 team compositions. It is based on version 1.10, so it's all from before the Cypher/KJ nerf.

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Okay, I am going to do it.

The recent Cypher/KJ nerf made me think a lot about teams' composition, what each agent can do and why they are picked. All agents can shoot, kill, hold angles, make the enemy retreat and much more. But some have special abilities that give the whole team new strategic options. So, let's loose the role names (duelist, initiator, controller and sentinel) and let's see what are the actual abilities that they provide and how it affect team composition (at pro level in particular).

I am interested in what you think. Did I got everything (almost) right? Do you think I am completely wrong? Also, at the end there will be a small rant about KJ/Cypher nerf, but I promise is very short and simply based on the following analysis.

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Let's start with a list of the Unique capabilities that the agents can give to the team. What I mean with UNIQUE is really simple: either you have an agent that can use them or you don't. No work around for it. Also they are really incisive and the team gameplay style is strongly dependent on their availability in the team composition.

• Smokes (or both ways line of sight impairment)
• Flashes (or one-way line of sight impairment)
• Recon (or active/aggressive intel gathering)
• Map Intel (or passive intel)

Then there is another capability that I think deserves to be mentioned, but at the same time every agent can (sort of) do it. But some are so good at it and sometimes it is so useful that it deserves to be mentioned:

• Angle clearing (kill or make retreat someone that is behind an angle or holding a good defense position)

Finally let me add a couple more areas of power that every agent can contribute to in more or less effective ways.

• Entry/Duel Power
• Stopping Power

Some agents that don't have the unique abilities mentioned above (or have only minor effects), but improve a lot these last two/three areas.

^(Small note: if you think that "healing" is missing, continue reading, I will talk about it when talking about Sage.)

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All agents bring to the table something from the list above and everyone does that in different ways. They can be very good in an area and also have some minor capabilities in another one. Just to make an example: Sova is obviously good at Recon and he also has some minor ability to angle clearing with his shock darts, but if you think that your team needs more power in angle clearing you will not pick him. You will probably pick Raze.

Also is very important to understand that despite potentially bringing a unique ability to the table, sometimes an agent can interact badly with a map or team composition.

For the following analysis I am only interested in the Unique abilities since their availability in the team composition describe "what a team can do". So, let's start to look at the four Unique ones and see who can use them (reliably) and how often they are picked.

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SMOKE: more in general what I intend here is a double way loss of sight. I think that there is no need for any more explanation and the agents that can bring it to the table are Brimstone, Omen and Viper. Jett can smoke too but it's also hardly a smoke around which you can build a team strategy. Viper smokes have the issue of not being very flexible, hard to use for aggressive actions and in general less usable to actuate strategies. This leaves Brimstone and Omen, but Brimstone is undoubtedly inferior to what Omen can do. And since no pro team wants to play without smokes, we have a ~98% pick rate for Omen. The remaining ~2% of team compositions have Brimstone (mostly on Bind).

A total of 100% of the teams use SMOKE (Also Viper still had a PR of ~3%)

!Ok I rounded it a bit. In NSG Closed all teams run Omen (97.6%) or Brimston (2.4%) plus some additional smoke from Viper (2.4%). Here, I am sure that 100% Pick Rate of smokes is true. In NSG open it's harder to check: too many teams. Omen (97.3%) + Brimston (2%) cover at most 99.5% of the compositions (but there may have been some smaller team running Brim and Omen together...). Also Viper was used 3.8% of the times, so it's likely that some teams, maybe on Split, run Viper as their only smoker. But there is also the possibility that 0.X% of the teams didn't use any smoker, making my statement of 100% above false. I really can't check each of the 277 match of open qualifiers and I hope you won't be too angry for stating a 100% SMOKE Pick Rate without checking... A 99.X% Pick rate wouldn't change anything I am saying anyway.!<

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FLASH: short duration loss of sight that affects only the enemy (hopefully). Extremely good for push/entry. At the moment there are many agents that can use them: Breach, Phoenix, Reyna and Omen. Now Skye is added to the list. Analyzing the data from TheSpike here is a bit harder, I should check every match to see the exact team composition but, since Omen is in 98% on the team compo we can already say that 98% of the teams have at least one flash. Also, looking at Breach, Phoenix and Reyna pick rates it seems that in 40%-80% of the compos a second flasher is added to team. Yeah, so 100 % of teams have at least one FLASH.

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RECON: The ability to gather info into a non secure area without exposing their selves. Before Skye the only one was Sova with his dart and the drone. There is also Phoenix with his ultimate but that is not reliable enough (not easily available). So looking at the pick rate of the Recons is pretty easy in version 1.10, just look at Sova's pick rate (Skye was not available) and... only 77%? Still high but maybe this unique capability is less important unless... did I say that maps interaction with some agent may change its effectiveness? Well, Split is an horrible map for Sova with all those angles and he would be a pretty unreliable Recon there, making him ineffective/useless as a Recon. That's why his pick rate on Split is 0%-4%. Now, let's take this map out of the equation and we have... ~90% Pick Rate. Again, pro teams rarely want to completely loose the possibility to recon.EDIT: fuck I forgot about Raze Boombot. That is a good Recon tool too. Still her Pick Rate would be more driven by her Frag/Duel/Entry Power and her angle clearing abilities rather than her Recon. It is a nice addition though.

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MAP INTEL: The ability to gather info from around the map. Normally zones that you "secured" previously. For much time the only intel gatherer was Cypher, then we had KJ. Now, everyone knows that before KJ our favorite shadow agent pick rate was almost 100%. It should not seem that strange after seeing the pick rate of the three abilities above. Anyway, pick rates changed a lot with KJ. Probably her Map Intel is a bit lower than Cypher but she can add a lot of Stopping Power and again map interaction does count a lot. So, with KJ arrival into the roster Cypher pick rates is now 50%-70%, while KJ is 30%-50%. What is not changed is that in ~100% of the compos there is one info gatherer.

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Do these pick rates seem that strange? Well I'd say they were pretty obvious from the start. Riot knowingly (or UNknowingly) has developed the game with these 4 capabilities that strongly alter the team options. If there are 4 capabilities that can give the team some unique effects/options and you have 5 spots in the team it seems pretty normal that you would try to be able to have them all. You can't give a team 4 unique aspects to cover with 5 agents and expect them to NOT cover them all. So, having an agent with a really high pick rate in some cases just means that he is the only reliable option for one of these 4 capabilities.

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Now before I start a brief rant (I promise, brief) about Cypher/KJ nerf let's talk a moment about Sage.

But Sage? She does not cover any one of those and she had 100% pick rate. Why healing is not a unique capability? Only agents with that power (Sage and now Skye) can do it, no one else.

Ok let's start with order. Why "Healing" is not unique? Well, the possibility to heal does not allow a different gameplay or a different strategy. All agents/team already had HP. What the healing does is just increasing the health pool available to the team. Even ressing is not that different from this concept. Having more health does not allow you to do something new, it does increase the Stopping Power of the team though. But they cannot do anything that they could not do before. And then why she had a 100% pick rate if she was not that unique? Ehm... she was OP, sorry guys but this is the truth. She did not provide anything new to the team, but her heal was so strong (and in general all her kit) that she contributed to the team with an OP stopping power. Thus the nerf. We could argue if the nerf was too strong or if the teams just need to find the right use for her, but in her case the high pick rate was due to being actually OP.

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Now about the recent KJ and Cypher nerf: here some (invented) statements that I will address.

High Pick Rate means OP. Cypher had high pick rate. False and somewhat false. As stated above high pick in most cases means that there is only one character available to perform that ability. Give another option and people will be able to make choice. Cypher pick rate went from 100% to 50-70% after KJ was introduced.

No, KJ and Cypher where OP. If they were OP you would have probably seen many (at least some!) teams playing both of them. That didn't happen. One agent to cover the MAP INTEL is surely needed, two are just redundant. The role had already been filled. If they were simply "stronger" than other agents you would have seen many teams running double MAP INTEL.

Teams should be able to run compos without MAP INTEL. Maybe yes. It should be true for all the 4 capabilities I highlighted. But it does not happen (just a bit for Recon). The game is built with these 4 capabilities and teams WILL use them. Some map (split for Sova, probably icebox for Cypher) will limit some use, maybe let the team drop one of the 4. But those will be specific cases. Not the general rule.

But MAP INTEL slows the game. IMO, False. It gives info so that it is a bit less of a guessing game and there is more thought to what the teams are doing. Also, having a trip or a bot cover the flank while the team push lets the team push with more people instead of leaving someone behind. But specific cases apart, I think that MAP INTEL simply does not change the speed of the game. It improves the strategy from both sides, it does not alter the speed. What does that is Stopping Power.

Yeah, Cypher and KJ stopping power slows the game! Was the game "slow"? I don't think so. If it is even faster it would be just chaos. Anyway, during a push the bot or the wire can really make you stop and return to cover. But so can many other things: boombot, granade, mollies (of all kind), wall, etc... For sure the passive activation of the bot and the wire can be harsh, but I don't see them as being that slower than other options. Let's say they are in-line with what's expected from sentinels.

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My opinion on the nerf: it affected Cypher and KJ MAP INTEL and not their stopping power (actually KJ had a small buff in that). In particular with KJ shifting role she is not capable of MAP INTEL anymore. Cypher is again the only choice. His harsh econ has become even harsher and, with bad eco and the new death rule, he must be extremely passive to be effective (and so more boring to play). Non-pro will easily drop him (I did, I want to play), but in pro-play we may actually see a higher pickrate. Maybe not 100%, maybe 100%. The only reason I see the pro teams dropping the MAP INTEL capability is if his nerf proves to be so strong that he is actually implayable.

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If Riot wants to delete MAP INTEL from the four capabilities above, Cypher nerf is not the right way. KJ role shifting is and Cypher should be reworked from scratch, this way there won't be any agent capable of it.

IF on the contrary Riot wants to keep MAP INTEL as one of the "4 pillars" of valorant strategies then it should be expected to have teams with almost always one agent to fill that role. Both KJ and Cypher where in a good spot. I could have understood some minor changes, but this is just nerfing into the oblivion of boringness. Probably they wanted to make MAP INTEL less of a must have, but simple nerfing is not the right way.

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So... what do you think? Did I got something right?

Was all this just obvious to everyone so that my post is a useless wall of text? (I may cry...)

Or maybe I am completely wrong? (again, I may cry)