F7SH

This video by @ThinkingManValo got me thinking (lol). Over the last few years there have been a lot of complaints about the "level of Valorant" and how the game is not stable enough to allow for truly great professional Valorant to be played. To me this argument is complete bullshit. I don't believe Valorant was ever meant to be or ever will be a "stable" game. Last season I watched the best players and teams in the world at times forget that they should be farming Phoenix ultimate (the literal main reason you pick this Agent). The year before that we had half the pro-scene completely unable to play Yoru, despite the character being broken and in the game, available to master for years. Many teams completely forget how to cycle their ultimates in one meta, despite being good at doing so in previous years on a different set of Agents. The point I am trying to make is that Valorant is a game that is meant to be in motion. The mechanics are relatively easy to master, leading to high individual skill expression rewarding risky plays and proactive tempo. The Agents themselves allow you to mix and match styles and tools on a map to map basis or even to directly counter opposing compositions. None of that is stable, reliable, "stick to the plan" gameplay. I promise you that this game would die if Riot decided that there should only be 10 Agents that never got patched and a map pool that never rotated in the name of pro teams being able to be "stable" enough to play "high level Valorant". You really think that a team drilling perfect Recon dart + Breach flash timings for 5 years on Haven C executes would be compelling enough to sustain the esport? Game planning and set strategies do play a role in this game but really high level Valorant is about the ability to make plays, adapt on the fly and problem solve in real time. Also, let me remind everyone that Paper Rex is the most popular AND the most consistently successful team in the world for a reason. It's not because they play the game in a stable way.