Riot Games’ Character Producer, John Goscicki, shared some attention-grabbing insights through the dev team’s most recent update, in which he discussed his thoughts on Valorant agents and “how we are thinking of the future.”
In the blog post, Goscicki expressed the dev team’s “plans to address the total power of Controllers (Omen, Viper, Brimstone) and to better differentiate the roles of Duelists and Initiators.”
“At a high level, we want to encourage people to play with their teammates as much as possible and we believe that giving our Initiator and Controller roles a bit more team-focused power will help achieve that end,” the dev team explained.
This isn’t the first time Riot has announced its desire to differentiate between the roles of Duelists and Initiators. In their previous 1.11 patch, the dev team decided to give Breach even more buffs, in hopes that players would explore different entry-play options in their matches.
However, this is the first time the dev team is looking to make major changes to Controller agents — with the exception of Viper, who continuously gets updated due to her low pick rate. Goscicki announced that the first set of changes to Controllers, along with the launch of Episode 2, and additional modifications to Initiators and Duelists, will take place in Q1 of 2021.
- Score the first ever Jett and Phoenix Valorant collectible statues
- Valorant global power rankings: 100 Thieves is the team to beat in 2021
The most important bit of information from the dev team’s post is confirmation that the 14th Valorant agent will be “a Duelist for all you lurkers out there.” This new agent will also “keep you on your toes around which angles are truly safe,” which hints that the agent could perhaps have the ability to leave illusions around the map.
As Riot has expressed that they’re willing to take more risks regarding what each Agent introduces to the game, there’s no telling how this new Duelist will shake up the Valorant agent composition meta. With the Valorant Champions Tour right around the corner, fans will definitely have more to look forward to in the coming year.
READ MORE: Sentinels win the JBL Quantum Cup after a thrilling overtime on Haven
