Hey yall, this time I want to talk about the future of Valorant team compositions, something I hinted at in my last talk. Namely, what I’m going to be discussing is how the composition of Jett-Fade/Sova-Kay/O-Killjoy-Smokes might start to take over the maps of Valorant because of the latest patch 5.12.
First, we have to start with the Chamber nerfs. In my opinion, this completely killed the agent. By making his trap not have a global presence, and reducing his tp range, you severely nerf his capability to keep up with the other sentinels. Add to his op nerf, while still remaining at 8 ultimate points, I don’t think he’ll see much play. This is also due to Killjoy being absolutely broken because of the new patch. I went over this in my last post, but in case you missed it, KJ’s ult has more HP, and the nerf to utility damage on non-players means that only 2 non-ultimates can destroy it now, one of them being Kay/O’s molly. This will probably lead to KJ being played on almost every map (the new map is still unknown but it could also be a KJ map, in which case every map will be KJ-friendly).
With these changes, multiple things are thrown into the mix. First, the initiator meta is shifted greatly in favor of Kay/O, and away from Breach and Skye, since he can destroy the KJ ult, and he can suppress KJ util on sites. Secondly, the OP meta will have shifted back to Jett, since KJ will be much better than Chamber on all maps. This will lead to Jett-Kay/O-KJ being played on every map. Throw a Sova and/or Fade into the mix for info, and proper smokes, you end up with this:
Ascent: Jett-Sova/Fade-Kay/O-Omen-KJ, A comp that is already being run, and where this comp originated. Sova and Fade might be interchangeable, since Sova’s ult can destroy KJ’s ult still, so some teams might op to have Sova, but Fade has shown incredible value on the map. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some teams opt for a Sova-Fade comp or even triple initiator. I would also pick Omen over Astra simply due to the pistol rounds now favoring Omen way more than Astra now due to the ability to buy lights-flash-smokes
Fracture: Jett-Fade-Kay/O/Viper-Brimstone-KJ, This might be controversial, but I don’t think Breach will be as viable on this map anymore. Already we have seen comps without Breach on Fracture in the past, and they have worked incredibly. FPX, now Navi, and previously DRX ran comps that did not have any Breach and they were considered the two best Fracture teams at that time. Substituting a Kay/O for Viper might also be viable for extra control. Brimstone to counter KJ ult will probably be run too, even if we are seeing more Omen nowadays.
Pearl: Jett-Fade-Kay/O-Astra-KJ, This is a comp that is currently run by many teams, and I don’t expect it to change. With how necessary an OP is, especially on B site, I expect Jett to stay, and you can do a lot of cool things with Astra ult combined with KJ’s. We’ve seen Sova on this map, but I don’t think it can function without a Fade realistically, so I’m picking Fade here.
Haven: Jett-Fade-Kay/O-Omen-KJ, This is also a pretty common comp, just substituting Kay/O for Breach to adjust to the changes. Kay/O hasn’t been played a lot on this map, but that’s mainly because Breach has just been that much better, and the introduction of Fade took out the need for Skye to be played on this map. I also see Omen being the primary smoker on this map, since now you can buy flash-smokes-light shields for pistol, and there are really good positions to flash from.
Icebox: Jett-Sova-Kay/O-Viper/Harbor?-KJ, I’m sorry but Kay/O is just too good on this map to pick the new Sage over him. Not only does Kay/O solidly counter KJ, but Viper as well. And since the sites on Icebox are already pretty cramped and small as they are, a Kay/O ultimate literally forces defenders off the site completely, guaranteeing a safe plant. Sage, with her new wall, will probably have to compete with KJ if anything, and Kay/O will probably remain meta. Harbor might be a viable pick on Icebox, with pushing op’s off angles, and helping take sites aggressively, since Icebox is attacker-sided, but we’ll have to see. Rest of the picks should be self explanatory.
Now for the deviation:
Split: Raze-Omen-Cypher/KJ?-???-???, Split is a real toss-up for me and is the only map that has decent variation in my opinion. This is, for one, due to Raze being too good to not pass up on, and also because there are many ways to play this map. Here are the possible meta combinations you can make:
Raze-Fade-Breach-Omen-Cypher
Raze-Initiator (Not Sova)-Omen-Viper-Cypher/Sage
Raze-Jett-Omen-Sage-Cypher/Viper
Keep in mind changes to split are being made, which is why I don’t have Sage in my top comp (since mid might get reworked heavily) but you can already see the issue here. If 4/7 maps follow the same sort of team comp, the game will be repetitive and stale, and might even throw the game itself off. Think about it really quickly. The comp of Jett-Fade/Sova-Kay/O-Smokes-KJ is an attacker sided team comp inherently, which makes sense considering it was started on Ascent, a notoriously defender-sided map. If most of these maps were to bolster this composition, along with Icebox being an inherent T-Sided map, the game would start to swing to being attacker sided as a whole, which could throw off the feel of the game and make the overall viewing experience rather boring. You'll roughly know how they’ll retake, you'll roughly know how they’ll attack, it won’t be as fun to watch.
This obviously hurts the game overall but nothing can really be done about it unless significant changes are brought to KJ and Kay/O to allow for other options on other maps, because right now, they are too hard not to pass up. Another thing is the issue that the Chamber nerf brings to Jett. Jett and Chamber go hand-in-hand, if one drops, another rises to fill the void of an op-er. The only map where an op might not be needed is shocker Split, which is coincidentally the only map where neither Jett nor Chamber were meta on, and the only map that would show agent diversity according to my model.
Sure this is all heavy speculation, but you can’t deny that the implementation of this comp is already happening. Previously, in Champions 2022, the “meta” comp for Pearl varied between the comp of Neon-Fade-Kay/O-Astra-Chamber, or Fade-Kay/O-Astra-Viper-Chamber. Fast forward to now, in the Off-Season, many more Pearl compositions consist of the traditional Ascent team composition, Jett-Fade-Kay/O-Astra-KJ. If you don’t believe me, go to recent Tier 2-3 tournaments, I highly recommend checking out the NSG Lockdown Opens 2 & 3, VRL MENA Off Season, and the VCT Oceania Tour, and look at the most picked agents, then compare that to Champions 2022. Sure the meta shifts all the time, but this time I don’t know if it’ll be good.
If you made it this far, thanks, and hope you have a great holiday season, till next time I feel like overanalyzing Valorant out of boredom
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