Riot has just announced that a new agent is joining its roster. In most cases, agent launches happen during the start of an act. For the first time, this is going to happen mid-season, sometime towards the end of March. The next agent is going to be a controller. Apart from that, no other information has been confirmed regarding the new agent’s abilities. The developer did talk about what players can expect from this controller.
An attacking Controller?
Controllers have always been an interesting topic in Valorant. In the game’s initial launch, controllers were designed to execute smokes to help the rest of the team enter the bombsite. Playing a controller usually involves watching the mini-map for information and blocking the enemies’ common choke points. Generally, controllers are not gifted with abilities that allow them to wide swing their enemies.
Riot developers have hinted towards a controller that is capable of pushing with the team rather than staying back completely. This was literally the only hint given by the designer, but that alone gives away a lot of what we can expect from the new controller. The ability to push smokes isn’t something that a controller is gifted with. The new agent might have a flash, teleportation abilities, or even a drone to push through smokes. Yes, Omen is equipped with both a flash and teleportation abilities, but these abilities are too slow to wide swing opponents.
Omen is probably the most aggressive controller among the list. Hence, if the developers claim that the agent is going to be an attacking one, the upcoming agent will have faster and more powerful abilities than Omen. Another strong possibility of what could happen is adding a Jett-style smoking abilities to the agent. Initially, when the game was launched, Jett had three smokes, and they lasted for about 10 seconds. This feature was later nerfed to make Jett an all-out duelist with minimum smoking abilities. Now, Jett has only 2 smokes, both of which last for 4.5 seconds.
How have the previous Controller launches fared?
The two controllers that were introduced to Valorant after launch were Harbor and Astra. While Harbor did not create any significant changes to the meta, Astra completely broke the game. Though Astra wasn’t a staple pick in regular ranked matches, she was an absolute nightmare to play against during VCT tournaments. Even for huge maps like Heaven, Astra had the capability to smoke off any part of the map from where she was. This disrupted rotations and was termed a “boring” style of play. Teammates could almost ask for instant smokes while being pushed, and this slowed the pace of the game drastically.
Harbor, at the same time, needed a few changes after launch to keep up with the meta. His cascade ability was buffed to increase the speed and the overall time the wall was up. He didn’t make such a big impact on the game until Gekko showed up and changed everything. The cove ability, along with Gekko wingmans, can literally give you free bomb plants while taking control of the site. It will be interesting to see which agents are best paired with the upcoming controller. Players will have to wait, probably until the end of the Masters Madrid event, to finally play the new agent.
