Knights VALORAMPAGE, a $30,000 event running from January 13th to the 24th is the first Riot-sanctioned event that will see teams disallow certain agents from play. Is it too early to implement this? And what agents will see the least amount of time because of agent bans? Here are some of my thoughts and predictions on what we will see in this Tournament, and if this system has a place in more prestigious tournaments, and maybe even in the highest level of competition: the VCT circuit.
What Are Pick and Bans?
Before I get into the viability of agent bans in Valorant, what is this system in the first place? The picks and bans phase is a stage of a match before the teams even set foot into the server, where characters are chosen to be played and vetoed out of the potential pool that could be played, as suggested by the name. Fans of MOBA’s such as League of Legends and Dota 2 are familiar with the idea of characters getting banned from use in a pro matchup, as it is seen in almost every facet of competitive play in those games. This stage is another level of the game that teams must master, as it forces teams to have a level of depth and verstiability when it comes to what strategies and playstyles they can incoperate into their gameplan, and there is a skill in itself of deceiving the enemy into allowing stronger picks for your squad to float through this process.
Previous Picks and Bans in Valorant Events
While picks and bans haven’t been explored in Valorant competition in the west, Asian tournaments have dabbled with the concept in the past, such as with the Japanese A.W. EXTREME MASTERS Pro Invitational in September 2020, and more recently the Southeast Asian KJC eSports VALORANT Invitational, featuring Masters: Berlin attendees Paper Rex (Who also ended up winning the event using some pretty unorthodox agent compositions caused by the agent bans.) These tournaments sparked some discussion on if agent bans were ready to be implemented in higher tier competition or at all in European or North American Valorant, but it never materialized into the system being brought overseas, until now.
Although teams did not put much effort into using the agent ban system to its full extent in these smaller events, the tournament led to a relative amount of variance in agent picks. To exemplify this, here's a look at both invitationals’ agent pick rates compared to the ones seen in the highest level of competitive events at the time:
KJC eSports VALORANT Invitational vs Masters: Berlin
While the top 4 and bottom 4 agents used remained the same, Jett saw a staggering 20% pick decrease because of how much she was banned in the tournament.
KJC agent pick rates:
Berlin agent pick rates:
A.W. EXTREME MASTERS Pro Invitational vs First Strike: Japan
Jett and Breach saw a considerable amount of bans in this event, allowing more niche agents at the time in Cypher and Reyna’s pick rates to soar.
A.W Extreme agent pick rates:
First Strike agent pick rates:
Note: Here’s a phenomenal analysis and breakdown of the agent bans shown in the KJC event from the staff. I highly recommend checking it out if this topic interests you!
Picks and Bans in North America
The VALORAMPAGE event is North America’s first taste of agent bans, and it will be attended by some of the best teams in the region, such as Cloud9, Gen.G, and Luminosity, making it the perfect study of how the concept will look in a competitive environment.
Interestingly, North American personalities have been in support of the idea in the past as well, with former NRG Esports player Damian “daps” Steele being in favor of agent bans when the topic came up in a VCT live stream in April 2021, and XSET in-game-leader Rory “dephh” Jackson holding the same sentiment in October, albeit when a deeper pool of agents is avalible.
Are Picks and Bans Viable in Current Valorant?
A pick and ban phase makes sense to have in MOBA’s as they commonly have over 100 potential characters (For example, Dota 2 having 122 heroes, and LoL featuring a roster of 158 champions) that could be played. Characters themselves are not made equal, with certain picks dominating the metagame for periods of time. This along with the inevitability of repetition in regards to how some characters function on a base level makes whittling down the pool of who can be played in a match a must.
In Valorant, however, this problem of a giant roster of characters does not exist yet, at least at the time of this writing as there are only 19 playable agents in the game. Another level of variance in how Valorant’s agent system ties to the game compared to MOBAs is the multiple maps agents available to be played, with 7 filling the map pool compared both LoL and Dota 2 being played on the same field in every match. This leads to an already diverse level of gameplay with the same group of agents, as one composition may not complement one map well, but work perfectly on another.
Even though there are aforementioned downsides in Valorant implementing a system of lowering the potential agent picks, what about the potential positives? Agents like Sova, Astra, and Jett dominate pick rates across tournament to tournament, and agents like Brimstone, Omen, and Pheonix see minuscule playtime at the highest level of competition, with the latter not even getting picked once in VALORANT: Champions, the world final of the VCT 2021 circuit. Agent bans would most likely see teams remove the top picks from play and force them to try unorthodox compositions and think outside the box.
Not only does this allow for more exciting possibilities in terms of who gets played for viewers, it also allows for a situation commonly overlooked in discussions about the use of agent picks: giving underdogs another avenue to compete with the upper echelon of competition. While these lower-level squads may be weaker when it comes to individual firepower and playing the metagame, smart agent bans can level the playing field and let the underdog play by their own rules.
For example, the favorites are masters of Jett and dominate the competition using compositions involving the agent? The underdogs can simply ban her and force the favorite’s hand. Obviously, they would have to do more work than that to secure the victory but it can lead to closer matches regardless of team status overall. Not only does this foster a deeper level of competition besides which team has the better individual skill, but it also is more interesting for viewers and fans of weaker teams to know anyone could have a shot at taking high stake matches with good agent bans.
Overall, it may be too early to see agent bans incorporated into VCT events, but if the VALORAMPAGE is well received, then we could potentially see more community acceptance of the concept in its current state, which could lead to it being enabled in more events.
VALORAMPAGE Agent Ban Predictions
Here are my predictions on what agents will be most commonly banned in the VALORAMPAGE by map. Personally, I’m excited to see how agents like Jett and Sova that have dominated the regional and international meta will be replaced in compositions, and how teams adapt their playstyle on maps like Icebox or Breeze where Viper stands as the must-pick Controller agent.
Breeze: I think Viper and Jett will be almost exclusively banned, forcing teams to swap to Astra as their sole smoke agent. To replace Jett I can see teams swapping to Reyna in her place.
Haven: Jett and Sova would be the most likely omissions on Haven, and in their place, I can see KAY/O and Reyna get some playtime
Icebox: Viper and Sova are seen in almost every Icebox match across the globe, so I can see teams banning them and replacing them with Astra and Skye picks
Split: While Split is more creative in terms of agent compositions compared to most maps in the pool, Raze and Astra still are highly played agents, leading to me believing they will get banned. In their place, Jett and Omen can see usage
Ascent: Just like Haven, I can see Jett and Sova end up being banned and Reyna and KAY/O or even Breach being played in their place.
Bind: Astra and Raze are almost inevitable swaps on Bind, and Jett and Omen seem like shoo-in swaps. Maybe a team will feel ambitious and pick Brimstone too.
Fracture: The map may be the most recent addition to the map pool, but Raze and Breach seem to have come out as two of the best picks on Fracture. I can see Jett and Skye get playtime in their place.