What's going on

Episode 8. That's when people started full saving after winning pistol round. I don't know why but that gets on my nerves to an unbelievable extent

aspas, nAts, and Monyet

Why would I buff Chamber? He's already the best initiator in the game

I love Fade, man. Definitely the most fun initiator. Makes Sova feel boring

Oh yeah, completely forgot about that bit. Always kind of annoys me, would be a great quality of life change. Thanks for pointing that out, dude 👍

Wait until I start coming up with skin bundle ideas

I couldn't think of any reasonable buffs for Sova besides buffing the damage output for shocks or increasing the drone HP. Either way, though, he's already at something like a 40% pickrate internationally, so it doesn't make sense to buff him. It's like if Raze got buffs instead of nerfs a few months back.

Also anything with HP is kinda of crazy on pistol. For example, Reyna flash and Sova drone both have 100 HP

If someone has light shields, it puts them down to 10 HP, which is one shot. If someone has light shields, it puts them down to 35 HP, which is also one shot for rifles. So yeah, it pretty much instakills, but only if you click them

It takes two bullets instead of one, but you have an extra 150 ms to shoot it. That's not too big a buff at all, especially when the Vandal has 100 ms between bullets and the Phantom has less than that.

Every initiator is already in a good spot. I wouldn't really have made any changes except to Skye and maybe Breach/Fade, but that defeats the entire point of this series, which is to make changes to all the agents.

All I see is w's

What if I told you 90% of people have the exact same pickem

Nope, not me

Warning: this is a very long thread.

I meant to do this every agent a few days back, but could only get to the duelists, so I decided I'm gonna do this role by role. This time I'm doing the initiators. If you haven't seen the duelists thread, feel free to check it out: https://www.vlr.gg/378092/im-bored-im-gonna-try-to-balance-every-duelist

This is work just like last time. I'm gonna propose potentially absurd changes to each agent, regardless of whether or not they need changes, but I'll try to justify the changes regardless of how ridiculous or far-fetched they may be.

Feel free to give any comments or feedback you may have.

Sova has always been a staple. In pro play, he's been a must on maps like Ascent, Haven, and Breeze for as long as anyone can remember. In casual play, he's the first initiator anyone ever has access to, with him being one of the five agents you get starting out. Needless to say we've all grown quite used to always seeing him being played. So are people leaning into him super heavily? Yes. Is that a bad thing? Not really, honestly. The initiator class is very balanced right now, so even if Sova's still the most popular, it's not by a very sizeable margin. But I have to make a change regardless, and it kind of has to be a nerf because he's the most used initiator in the game. I only have one idea for it, but it's kinda stupid and mostly pointless. So here it is, I guess.

• Hunter's Fury (X) damage reduced from 80 >> 75
• Hunter's Fury (X) time to fire increased from 1 >> 1.15 seconds

Fade is the lesser picked of the two recon initiators. This is in part due to the map pool, but also in part due to the fact that some of the agents Fade is great when paired with (e.g. Raze, Yoru) are seeing less play than earlier this year. None of that is to do with Fade herself, though. Fade is a great agent with great capabilities. I honestly don't really think I need to go crazy with the Fade changes—maybe just some quality of life stuff, maybe a slight buff to an an ability or two. These changes hope to fulfill just that.

• Prowler (C) duration increased from 2.5 >> 3 seconds
• Seize (Q) decay increased from 75 >> 90 HP
• Seize (Q) windup decreased from 0.7 >> 0.15 seconds

Breach is an agent that's also seen his fair share of play on almost every map in VALORANT. And although some of his maps are a lot better than others (e.g. Fracture vs. Lotus), there's no denying he can always find value. However, there is one part of his kit that's been a bit underwhelming at the highest levels of play for a while, which is his flash. It's the easiest traditional flash in the game to dodge, and that's mostly due to how much time you have to react to it. This change aims to bring Breach's flash more in line with other flashes in terms of effectiveness.

• Flashpoint (Q) windup decreased from 0.5 >> 0.35 seconds

KAY/O is a very interesting agent. Although his molly is potentially the worst in the game (yet somehow has the most team kills in VCT franchising) and his flash received nerfs a while back, he continues to be a very dominant force in the meta. This is due to his other two abilities, which suppress enemy utility—a great benefit to his team and a great detriment to the other. KAY/O is by no means overtuned, but the ability to suppress enemy utility for free is a little too powerful as-is. These changes are focused toward balancing his kit, removing some of the power of his knife and transferring it to the molly.

• ZERO/point (E) suppression timer reduced from 8 >> 6 seconds
• FRAG/ment (C) rework: now has half-ticks between each tick, dealing 15-40 damage (min-max)
• FRAG/ment (C) inner radius increased from 1 >> 1.5 meters, outer radius increased from 4 >> 5 meters

Skye is currently the least picked initiator in VCT, having seen a sharp decline in play since the removal of the recharge on her flashes. After all, what good is an initiator without rechargeable utility? Even though she still sees play on Bind and Split (the latter of which is now out of rotation), the changes took too heavy a toll on Skye. These new changes aim to rework those nerfs, change the way that they were implemented in a way that's more fair to the nature of the initiator class

• Guiding Light (E) cooldown added (40 seconds)
• Guiding Light (E) charges reduced from 2 >> 1
• Guiding Light (E) windup time increased from 0.3 >> 0.35 seconds

Gekko is the newest initiator in the game, and he's had quite a lot of success thus far. He's also received quite substantial buffs since his inception, to account for his rather underwhelming power on release. He's currently in a pretty good state, but I feel there's one ability that's a bit too easy to shoot. This change aims to correct that, while balancing it to make sure it isn't too overwhelming.

• Dizzy (E) HP increased from 20 >> 60
• Dizzy (E) windup increased from 0.35 >> 0.5 seconds
• Dizzy (E) blind duration increased from 1 >> 1.2 seconds
• Dizzy (E) blind fade time decreased from 1 >> 0.6 seconds

Alright, that's all the initiators. These changes are a lot more tame than my duelist ones—that'll change once we get to the other classes. Thank you for reading, and I'll answer replies once I wake up.

KRU ban Bind
BLG ban Abyss
KRU pick Lotus
BLG pick Ascent
KRU ban Sunset
BLG ban Haven
Icebox remains

Each team is better on their map pick. Icebox is KRU's second pick usually, but they've lost their last 3 games on it so it's pretty up in the air

Bingo. I'm a fan of innovation

If I share it people will search it up and that's the last thing I want

However my second alias was aXXent, which I still use on Steam and Epic Games

True, but no

Hint: I'm also a fan of KC and FPX, among others

Close

That's factual

What if I told you I started watching VCT in mid-2023

I'm curious

Ok here's my guess as to what the map pool will be:

BLG ban Abyss
FNC ban Icebox
BLG pick Ascent
FNC pick Haven
BLG ban Lotus
FNC ban Bind
Sunset remains

I think FNC have the advantage here. BLG is better on Ascent, but FNC is better on the other two

Unfortunately Split isn't in the map pool.
Also are we all forgetting FNC 2-0'd BLG, with a 13-2 on BLG's map pick?
https://www.vlr.gg/247095/fnatic-vs-bilibili-gaming-valorant-champions-2023-group-stage-winners-c

Me too!

Full faith in FENNEL (though RIDDLE ORDER winning it would be sick as well)

Chyna was an American professional wrestler, fitness model, bodybuilder, author, actress, adult actress and television personality. She first rose to prominence in the World Wrestling Federation in 1997, where she was billed as "The Ninth Wonder of the World".

You're definitely playing it a lot safer than I am

That's a great coin you've got there

I don't think they are. Just have a hunch

Oh ok

For all we know they could be the kind of team to only choke in regionals—kind of an anti-PRX. The truth is we have no idea what will happen in group C aside from LEV or VIT winning the group. It's really up in the air

0-4? Because if that's the case then BLG make it with one of DRX/KRU

You say that as if it isn't possible, but by all means, it could happen. Group C looks to be the most unpredictable group of the four.

Who do you have making it in group A? DRX + KRU?

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/5f7bd572
Tried not to always go for the favourite. It's not a Champions without upsets, you know

I could see neT on Evil Geniuses next year, but who knows? M80 have a decent shot at Ascension

That makes sense

I like the idea of Demon1 moving to sentinel. We've seen a lot of really cracked aimers move to sentinel and find a ton of success lately, and I feel that's the move for Demon1. Would be easier to learn Killjoy and Cypher than it would be to learn Raze and Neon.

Would you say Thailand is the other top 2 in Pacific? Or would it be Korea

JonahP doesn't even play Omen/Yoru. He plays mainly Viper and flash initiators.

I disagree, but I get why you'd think that

I read the first sentence and got confused for a second

???

Group B has FPX in it so technically it's the group of Life

Date tentative; match time TBD
I.e. probably not confirmed yet

Nah, that's pretty good, I'd say

Yeah, Japan

1. NA
2. Japan
3. Türkiye: Birlik
4. Thailand
5. Spain: Rising

(in my opinion)