Former OpTic Gaming and Bleed Esports player, popular esports figure Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker, has suggested introducing an agent ban system in Valorant to diversify the meta on specific maps. Yay shared on his X (formerly Twitter) account:
VALORANT is ready for teams to be able to ban one agent per game. In my view, this would reduce meta uniformity and make matches more interesting.
Yay idea resonates especially amidst criticism of the agent Neon, who is seen as overpowered by some players and analysts who are calling for a nerf to her abilities.
Agent Popularity Imbalance
Currently, Valorant features 25 agents, which greatly expands the variety of team compositions compared to previous years. However, the issue of uneven agent picks remains—at the VALORANT Champions 2024, held in August, duelists Raze and Jett had pick rates of 41% and 29% respectively, whereas Iso and Phoenix were chosen in only 1% of games, and Reyna did not appear in any matches.
I think VALORANT is at the point where you can have 2 agent bans (1 for each side) each game
— yay (@yay) November 5, 2024
would help solve stale metas on some maps
While an official agent “ban and pick” system has not yet been implemented in Valorant, Riot Games has previously allowed tournaments to experiment with this system. For example, in the 2022 Knights Arena Valorampage tournament, teams could ban two agents, although it had little impact on the meta. In 2023, the Crossfire Cup also allowed an agent ban system, but due to offseason roster experimentation, it did not alter the game's balance significantly.
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