NV players in good form but team is still cheeks. MIBR 2-0

Bro has ONLY bad takes it's gotta be bait atp

Shoulda coulda woulda tard

Letting the kids play gets u wins

I wouldn't be complaining, more exposure more chances to get seen. No one really cares about t2 so might as well and push for t1.

war crimes as if he didn't take that brutal roster to third hahaha

5 people on this roster named kim bro

no maps won, 0-2 trace game prior. it's wraps brotha

Ilya got fried...

MIBR has been looking good, not sure if they're will or even should make any changes. I think Verno will get more comfortable on IGL, and the team will play better as a whole. All of Champs they've played a great team game with very close matches.

This would be sick, MIBR has been looking solid with him calling recently. Especially this last game against TH.

Waylay is in a good position now, I wouldn't change anything about her. She feels pretty good to use in most scenarios and is seeing a healthy amount of play in the pro scene. I don't see why she'd need any changes.

That's what I thought, but I've literally never been hit by his stun post nerf... before that, it worked way more often. 0.2 seconds is more than you think, taking into account reaction time and simply character movement speed. Reverting this change wouldn't make his pick rate anything above 10-15, but he wouldn't be in the shitter. I truly don't think the nerf was necceassry at all, it wasn't like his stun was inescapable. RIOT claims it didn't allow for outplay potential or whatever, but that's just not true. Not only is this ability only good in combination with a movement agent, it also just weak overall. It rarely placed you in a checkmate position, and if it did it would only work once lol

I have to disagree. Flashes aren't bad. They seem worse than they are in pro play because of the skill level. This is to be expected, the players are the best of the best. Buffing all flashes would just make them too OP in every other scenario other than pro play. Also, it's not that they're bad per se, it's the fact that Yoru can completely replace any flash initiator by himself.

I like your takes. Nerfing the Omen smokes again would definetely be one way to do it. Although, I do believe the best part of his kit, especially in pro play, is his paranoia. It simply gets too much value every time. Nerfing his smokes would make him weaker and would give more incentive to pick longer smoke agents (like you said), but it wouldn't really address the Paranoia issue. I like the Harbor ideas, didn't think about bullet dampening. That would actually be an excellent change. Still think they need to remove Cove completely though.

1 way nerf was justified. Omen's subrole is initator/duelist controller. The one ways also gave him sentinel capabilities. He was an agent that could literally do it all. By removing the one ways, they tweaked this aspect making him a more balanced agent with a more dedicated role rather than being a jack of all trades. Although, I'd argue he still is a jack of all trades agent since he can be played as an initator or duelist controller hybrid. He's still very strong.

80% pick rate is nerf worthy... they might not simply because this map pool heavily favors him. When Pearl and Fracture are back in, it's not as noticeable. Still doesn't deny the fact that Paranoia is extremely powerful and valuable.

Just has been on my mind during VCT 🙂

Current meta isn't bad, but I could see RIOT making a few changes sometime in the near future:

1. Omen Nerf:
   Omen has never been weak but we've recently started seeing him get upwards of 80% pick rate. Although this is due to his heavily favored map pool, it still wouldn't be surprising to see him receive a small nerf (particularly his Paranoia). I believe they would change the size of it - make it thinner or shorter. Its blind mechanics seem balanced enough, but the fact that it can stop entire pushes and facilitate executes so effectively makes its size a bit of an issue.

2. Yoru Nerf:
   Yoru himself isn't seeing extraordinary pick rates, but the fact that he's being used as a replacement for every flash initiator in the game should be concerning. All four flash imitators rarely see above a 10% pick rate, while Yoru is consistently picked as the #1 or #2 duelist. Again, this map pool favors him quite a bit although he's not particularly terrible on any map in the game. I could see RIOT nerfing his flashes, likely decreasing the duration. That being said, flashes overall aren't very strong in pro play simply because players are too quick. The two recon initiators dominate in pick rate and overall strength. However, a small nerf to Yoru's flashes would likely balance out pick rates of flash agents.

3. Breach Buff:
   It's true that they just nerfed him, but let's be honest: the only reason he was being used at all this year was because of the Tejo meta. After Tejo was killed, he became nearly useless again. Instead, they decided to make his stun even worse. I think they might revert this change to make it at least somewhat viable. Additionally they may buff his flashes because they are some of the worst in the game. This will also help with the "Yoru takeover".

I think these three are the most the obvious, but there are obviously some more glaring issues.

4. Harbor Buff/Rework:
   The long awaited Harbor buff/rework... I'd like to believe that it will come in the near future but at this point I couldn't know. Harbor is in a weird spot because his role within the game isn't fully understood. He's a bit of an initiating controller with his ultimate, while also being a bit of a sentinel controller with his slowing walls. There are a couple ways RIOT could take this. The most obvious rework would be his Cove ability. This seems like the most glaring issue because this ability has very minimal impact in any scenario. The most value it ever finds is getting a spam-safe plant on attack. What else does it do? Pretty much nothing. Can't really use it as a dome smoke to cover chokes because of its short duration and awkward placements. On top of that, there's not even a need to use it in that way since Harbor already has 2 other smokes. There are 2 directions RIOT could go with the Cove: 1, remove it completely and add an ability that would better fulfill Harbor's role as an initiating controller. There are multiple ways to do this. Easiest and simplest one would be to give him a water grenade. You could make it do virtually anything, it's water. Make it slow enemies like the rest of his abilities. Make it to damage. Make it get in their eyes and blind them. You name it. Just give him a damn water balloon. 2, make the Cove more viable for a sentinel style role, perhaps changing the deployment of it to a more traditional dome smoke, or making changes to the shield aspect of it (e.g. enemies not able to walk in or out, decay similar to viper smokes). Personally I think the first option is better. Not only does Valorant lack an initiation-focused controller, it would also help balance out Harbors kit. The Cove in general is a very odd ability that's hard to balance and make useful.

With all that being said, these are some of the changes that I expect RIOT to implement into the game soon. Or at least what I hope to see, in terms of pro play. I main Omen so seeing him get nerfed again will be a sad day, but at this rate it's an inevitable future.