With the Valorant Champions Tour in full swing, we now have a better understanding of the agent meta in pro play.
According to match analysis data powered by Mobalytics for the first two open qualifiers that run from January 27 to 31 and February 10 to 14, we now know the five agents with the highest pick rates and the best win rates from the Challengers competition. Statistically speaking, picking this exact lineup would give you the best chance of success, assuming equal skill on both sides.
N.B.: A note on win rates. The more picked an agent is, the closer to 50% their win rate will be. If an agent has a 100% pick rate (meaning they’re picked by both teams in every game), their win rate will always be 50% because one team wins, and one team loses.
Omen
Pick rate: 83.5%
Win rate: 52%
Despite Riot’s best efforts to balance controller agents, Omen is still the most picked agent, and he also has the highest win percentage in competitive play, regardless of which map the games are played. In comparison to his recently buffed counterpart, Brimstone only has a 15.5% pick rate and a 44% win rate.
In professional games, rounds usually run up until the end of regulation. This means Omen’s Dark Cover, which has a 30-second cooldown with two charges, has more value than Brimstone’s three Sky Smokes that are capped every round.
There are teams like TSM who’ve been running both Omen and Brimstone in their line-up. TSM usually has Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik lurk with Omen, while James “hazed” Cobb plays as the team’s primary smoke agent.
For those who are curious about how much love Viper got from competitive play, she had an abysmal pick rate of 3.5% with a 48.5% win rate. Riot is still looking into how to make Viper a viable agent in competitive play.
Jett
Pick rate: 80%
Win rate: 50%
We’ve all seen how Jett mains like Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas Colocho, and even the headshot machine Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom can dominate Valorant games.
Jett is an agent with one of the most versatile kits in the game because her mobility allows her to easily close or create distance. She can also smoke choke points or create quick one-way angles for herself.
Jett is also the perfect agent to pair with an Operator because she can play extremely risky angles, while still being relatively safe. She can also play from different elevated angles on all maps, which forces the enemy team to clear more spots.
Most professional teams use Jett as their primary fragger. They try to give her the most opportune scenarios to capitalize on as many kills as possible, while the rest of the team support her with their flashes, smokes, and detection abilities.
Sova
Pick rate: 79.5%
Win rate: 51%
Sova beats out all other initiator agents by a wide margin. Both Breach and Skye are at the bottom of the list with 13.5% and 8.5% pick rates respectively. Despite Sova being a weak choice in Split, he is still one of the most picked agents in competitive play.
Most teams rely on Sova to gather information against the enemy team throughout every round. Not only that, Sova is the perfect anchor agent in post-plant situations. He can play it safe and use his Shock Darts to get opponents off the spike. Sova can also shoot his Recon Bolt to give himself an advantage in those high-pressure situations.
Cypher
Pick rate: 55%
Win rate: 52%
It is quite clear that teams prefer Cypher over all other Sentinel agents in the game. By comparison, Killjoy has a 39.5% pick rate and 48% win rate, and Sage has fallen out of the meta with a 14.5% pick rate and a 47.5% win rate.
Cypher’s abilities allow players to control a larger portion of the map, which makes him the ideal agent to lurk and catch opponents by surprise. Killjoy is still a valuable agent that can help cover flanks and hold down spike sites. However, teams are starting to figure out multiple ways on how they can neutralize her ability set.
Sage, on the other hand, is mainly useful on Split. Her Barrier Orb wall and Slow Orb are still great ways to slow down an enemy’s push. Teams can also still run the B-site push from Garage by using her wall as cover.
Raze
Pick rate: 39.5%
Win rate: 52%
Raze narrowly beat out the remaining duelist agents as the fifth most picked agent in the competitive meta. Reyna had a pick rate of 35% but with a negative 47.5% win rate, while Phoenix was at 32.5% with a 51% win rate.
Raze is perfect for clearing corners and forcing opponents out of certain spaces. This is because, unlike smokes or mollies, opponents really need to respect her ability set as she deals a lot of damage. Raze’s Blast Pack is also great for closing the distance, or just catching an opponent off guard with a sudden burst of speed.
