When Clove's kit was leaked, I was disappointed that Riot decided to give Clove the same smoke deployment method as Brimstone and when they were released, I thought they would entirely outclass Brimstone and take over his must pick maps due to them being able to place multiple smokes at the same time.
Riot might be running out of ideas/ways for agents to deploy smokes.
"Riot have yet to give an agent a smoke grenade though."
Viper's Poison Orb exists, and as we all know how Valorant is as a game, for a controller agent to be even decent at best, they have to be able to place smokes from a distance without revealing their position (this is why Harbor failed as the "main controller" role and as a result he is now between a rock and a hard place) and with Brimstone, Omen, Astra and Clove, I don't think Riot has a choice but to re-use Omen/Astra's smoke deployment methods.
And for an agent to need lineups to even be usable, I don't think players, especially controller players would like that.
With the next agent potentially being a Controller (or an initiator based off of "leaks" but I think it's too early to start believing), I'm really excited to see what Riot has waiting for us.
About the controller role in general, I think it should be redefined to literally "controlling" space rather than "splicing" space up.
With this, I would say smokes aren't the only thing that makes a controller a "controller" (well, it's called controller and not "smokes" for a reason)
Astra's Gravity Well, Clove's Meddle HECK EVEN Breach's Rolling Thunder are all controller abilities (cause like, crowd control, yk?)
But I still think all controller agents should have smokes in their kit as a signature ability.
As a controller main, Clove's release really disappointed me knowing that I had to wait another year for a controller to be released.
Praying the next one is good and unique, Amen.
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