Ranking VALORANT's agents isn't easy to do. Riot Games clearly focused plenty of energy on maintaining competitive balance, and therefore, each character is a viable choice. Nevertheless, some agents have risen to the top in popularity – and for good rea

It's not an overstatement to say that T1 and Nerd Sreet Gamers' tournament was incredibly fun to watch. From Hiko's insane 1v4 clutch to EliGE popping off at every possible moment, VALORANT proved that it can live up to the hype as an esp

Even with the game's similarities to CS:GO , Riot designed VALORANT to be a unique experience. Although it's possible an established pro from another game will come and prove themselves the best, it's more likely that some fresh young talent will emerge and find his calling in VALOR

Cypher is the number one defensive character. His Trapwire and Spycam abilities are perfect ways for your team to allocate more resources towards other defensive points. Trapwires work completely passively. When an enemy is caught, they are revealed, dazed, and tethered. Even if destroyed, it will disappear on the mini-map, still alerting the entire t

These can be used in an offensive or defensive capacity, with the latter usually used in order to force attackers around corners or through hallways blindly, giving you a severe advantage in any gunfight as they'll have to get their bearings as soon as they exit the sm

Viper is fantastic for a brutal 9th rating, but hear me out. Her abilities, while useful, can be functionally replicated by those of other agents. Her Toxic Screen and Snake Bite abilities are very similar to Phoenix's; Her smokes can be replaced by Jett's, Omen's, or Brimstone's. Her Viper Pit is useful for spike plants, but can work against your team easily too. It is also impossible for enemies to die to the gas, leaving them at 1HP; If they see you first, you still may go d

With Omen's ability to get to a lot of places on the map with relative ease, he has the unique opportunity to create pinches with his teammates, hitting the enemy team from two very different angles. Map knowledge is going to help make this possible, as will good communication with your t

Phoenix's Blazewall is decent for blocking vision, but mainly a great way to heal up quickly. His fireball is capable of self-healing too, not to mention blocking and damaging foes. Lastly, Run It Back gives Phoenix a free chance to push into any room, instantly reviving him if taken down during its duration; His ultimate ability is unique and endlessly use

One of Omen's abilities, Shrouded Step, allows him to teleport a short distance. In the first few seconds of a round, this can do a lot to confuse the enemy team; they'll be coming out and looking at where your team should have to exit from, but meanwhile, you've teleported somewhere they weren't looking and have an easy kill on your ha

With Omen, escaping is pretty simple; just teleport through the enemy's line of sight and go along your merry way. The enemy might not even be the wiser that this happened, opening up the possibility of a pretty cheeky fl

Brimstone's Ultimate Ability is his Orbital Strike. Activating this is almost identical to how you activate the Sky Smoke; the difference being instead of dropping smoke from the sky, you're dropping giant death lasers. This does heavy damage over time, so if an enemy doesn't hightail it out of there immediately, they're going to be watching the rest of the round from the spectator cam

Initially, Dealnesthq`s blog many fans and analysts gave the edge to Sentinels, who recently constructed a roster of former CS:GO pros Shahzeeb "ShahZaM" Khan, Hunter "SicK" Mims, former Overwatch MVP Jay "sinatraa" Won and former Apex Legends pro for Sentinels Jared "zombs" Gitlin. Popular streamer Coby "Dizzy" Meadows stood in for the team's fifth spot. Even with Sentinels' stacked roster, they were taken down by Team Brax in the second round of the winner's bracket and were defeated for good by Team Shroud in the loser's bracket. Despite their struggles this tournament, Sentinels flashed their potential multiple times, and the organization's willingness to go out and sign big name players is a positive sign for the team's fut

Brimstone's signature ability is his Sky Smoke. Activating this ability will pull up a map, allowing you to select one-to-three areas on the map where you would like to drop smoke, blocking lines of sight. The usefulness of this ability is going to up as you get more familiar with the maps, and it can go a long way in either helping or hurting your team, depending on how they're u

Keep in mind, this smoke drops out of the sky, meaning if there's a roof or vertical cover of any kind in between the sky and the area you're trying to smoke, it's not going to land where you want it to land. Brimstone is going to need to be very specific and accurate in order to get the most use out of his smokes and realize there are certain places it just isn't going to work