Hello reddit!

I'm ready for this to get downvoted to hell but I thought I'd get it out there, regardless. It's common knowledge that people who instantly lock their agent in without prior discussion are generally disliked in the valorant community. I'm one of these people.

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Now, you, reading this, probably have some opinion about why people instalock their agents. They're some egotistical smurf and they pick reyna to bloat their kda and feed their damaged self-esteem. You might even be right! But still, I'll tell you why I do it.

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I have three main agents: Yoru, Viper & Omen. For each of these, there's 2-3 maps I'll play them on. For each map + agent combo, I have strats that will help me win games. I'm not a professional player, so I don't need to broaden my agent pool to satisfy a stable team's need. And I don't need to learn agent specific tricks for multiple agents per map. I am focusing on one agent per map, so I can then focus on my foundations as a player. And because of this, there's no reason for me to play anything else than Yoru when I see Haven in my loading screen. Doing so would be a handicap for me, and by extension, the team.

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And you too should adopt this mindset.

No matter what your level is right now, if you narrowed your agent pool and applied yourself to learning how to play your agents on specific maps, you would instantly become a much better player. I don't trust anyone who tells me they "can play any agent" and that they'll fill.

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Because I play controllers and duelist, instalocking every game has led me to witness first hand the hypocrisy of the instalock haters. 5 out of 7 maps I'll instalock a controller, and across 200+ games, no one has ever complained in me doing so. People only ever complain when you pick a duelist. Chances are, if you decide to main any other role, you can instalock and no one will say a thing.

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And that's another thing: you don't lose a game because you have three, four or even five duelists in your team. You lose because you played worse than your opponents. The trolls aren't the first two or three people who instalocked duelist because they're their main agents. The trolls are those who, when they see duelists instalocks, pick duelists as well, that they have no idea how to play, to then int and blame instalockers. What goes on in your heads? Are you trying to lose?

I would rather have 5 duelists on their main agent than a "proper team" of fillers.

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I've lost games with proper teams. I've won games with 5 duelists. Unless you're really high elo, you're giving your opponent too much credit if you think that they'll exploit you not having a sage wall, smokes or flashes. Play what you're best at, always, this is the only way you can increase your chances of winning, and this begins in agent selection.