Recently we saw that FNS who used to play Viper and KJ now actively plays Kayo and Flash initiator role. Even Dephh who used to play Astra and cypher and Viper but now he has completely switched to 2nd initiator roles
Even we can see Ayrin playing Kayo in his ranked games .
But still the best IGL in the world play controller (Boaster ) even Angel plays Omen on most maps
Mini seems to have the thinking that smokes is the best role for the IGL, as per boaster and mistic swapping roles pre champions 2022. Sentinals are not with the team often enough to have good first hand info, flash and info initiators can be too concerned with the micro of setting up duelist to have time to watch the minimap, and duelists need to focus on their crosshair. Smokes tend to have the most simple E utility, though obviously there is still lots of learning to do with one ways and lineups. But less in the way of taking up brain power in the moment.
The changes with boaster's role were made with the idea of what valorant will look like in 5 years time, according to mini.
I think this is pretty complicated. If I were an igl I would make sure everyone else is in their comfort role and then fill. I feel that if take away someones comfort role, then it takes away from their potential fragging and playmaking. For example, yesterday fns played kayo on ascent. victor used to play it b4 bc his util was insane on it and kayo played it a little like an entry. the whole team then looked so off yesterday bc of the role switch. Like on other maps crashies used to be the primary imitator but now is playing viper and kj. His fragging is so down compared to when he is on initiator.
Smokes is the easiest to IGL from since smokes are so necessary to conditioning the opponents and for executes, so as IGL if you are on smokes you can do that faster than if you had to call it. Other util is helpful to executes but smokes are pretty much necessary always, so its more okay if it is used for individual non-called plays. It doesn't really matter though, IGL should play what they are best at. For example we watched Kinggg on Levi play raze/kayo and IGL and be considered the best player in the world (in scrims) by pros because of his performance and IGLing.
Edit:
Also you can control your teammates and stop them from overpeeking/pushing if you smoke them off.
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