VALORANT Meta Report #4: Twitch Rivals Edition

VALORANT has been officially launched. On the first weekend of its release, we had the Twitch Rivals: VALORANT Launch Showdown on June 5-7, 2020, with a prize pool of 200,000 USD. Before continuing with this analysis it is important to clarify that Twitch Rivals is not the highest competitive level. Among the streamers, there are players who are more professionally focused (like Teams Mixwell or Brax) and others who are more dedicated to entertainment and providing a good show as streamers or content creators. The interesting thing about Twitch Rivals is that the huge amount of games (a total of 137 games analyzed in this report: 30 from Europe #1, 35 from Europe #2, 31 from North America, 14 Latin America #1 and #2, 7 from Japan and 20 from Brazil) allows us to have an overall idea of what we can expect in the next few weeks. I'm going to focus on analysis of the compositions of the winning teams from the different regions.

Without further ado, here is the Tier List

TIER 1

(MORE THAN 85% PICK RATE)

The essential agents, present in virtually all compositions.

Sage (93%), despite the nerfs she had suffered in patch 1.0, is still the favorite option for teams. The most interesting thing is how Brimstone, Cypher and Breach fell out of Tier 1, but considering that this data is from Twitch Rivals and that many teams favored playing with what they feel comfortable with rather than what is best, it is to be expected.

TIER 2

(85% TO 50% PICK RATE)

Powerful agents, they provide useful tools and are difficult to replace, usually the flex slots.

As mentioned above, Brimstone (78%) and Cypher (77%) fall from Tier 1, but remain with a strong pick rate. The surprise in this tier is Reyna (54%) who had an important presence in Twitch Rivals, especially in the group stage, and was being used consistently by teams who obtained good results (like Team Mixwell in Europe #1).

TIER 3

(50% TO 15% PICK RATE)

Good agents, with potential in the competitive game, viable depending on the map or players who prefer them.

Raze (48%) and Sova (45%) are still competing for that fifth slot in compositions. Depending on the style of play (and the map), teams choose one or the other. Breach (34%) reaches his lowest point since the first Meta Report (where he had obtained a 55% pick rate). Breach's potential is related to teamwork and synchronization, I think that's why several teams decide to go for characters a little more selfish, but that don't require so much coordination. Jett (30%) had a pick rate over 30% in almost all regions (with a pick rate in Japan of 54%, but with a very small sample size, only 7 maps).

Phoenix (20%) was an option to complement the compositions of several teams, especially in the region of North America. Omen (17%) also had his highest pick rate in North America, thanks to Team Myth who used it in every map they played and achieved second place.

TIER 4

(LESS THAN 15% PICK RATE)

Agents that need some adjustment to enter the meta or are viable in very specific situations.

Viper (5%) cannot escape this Tier. Despite the fact that players like Mixwell use her regularly in Bind, and now also Ascent, with very good results, it is not setting a trend in other teams.

Let's see the pick rate of the agents by the map:

Total map played: 137

• Ascent: 24 (18%)
• Bind: 46 (33%)
• Haven: 45 (33%)
• Split: 22 (16%)

Raze keeps her positive trend on Split, as in the Meta report #3 25% more chosen on Split than in her total pick rate. Reyna's pick rate increased significantly on the new map, Ascent, 13% higher than its total pick. Sova, on the other hand, could not fit well on Ascent, with a pick rate 20% lower than its total pick rate. Ascent has some similar characteristics to Bind, such as the possibility of using the Recon Bolt from distant places taking advantage of the fact that there are no ceilings, but learning and being able to consistently use those arrows requires time and preparation.

We can also analyze how the pick rates were per region

There are some differences between regions, but remember that there is also an important variation in the number of games played between some regions. North America, Europe #1 and #2 are comparable in size, while Brazil, LATAM and Japan had fewer matches.

Among the differences we can see: Cypher is immensely popular in Brazil and Japan. Reyna was preferred by Europe #1 and Brazil. Sova gets a solid place in North America, displacing Raze, which is an interesting change from the last report. Finally, Omen and Viper was chosen by teams with good results: Team Myth, second place in North America, for Omen, and Team Mixwell, winners of Europe #1, with Viper.

Analyzing the most popular compositions in each region

Europe #1:

• Brimstone, Cypher, Reyna, Sage, Sova (15% pick rate, 9 total picks. Most used by Team Mixwell: 3 times).
• Cypher, Omen, Reyna, Sage, Sova (7% pick rate, 4 total picks. Most used by Team Lutti: 4 times).
• Cypher, Raze, Reyna, Sage, Sova (5% pick rate, 3 total picks. Most used by Team Bonkar).

With so many teams and so many compositions, the trend of the most used compositions is set for the teams that went the furthest and repeated the same compositions that worked for them. The most used composition, Brimstone, Cypher, Reyna, Sage, and Sova, was used by several teams and by both of the finalists.

Europe #2

• Brimstone, Cypher, Raze, Reyna, Sage (10% pick rate, 7 total picks. Most used by Team Sfory: 3 times).
• Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Sage, Sova (10% pick rate, 7 total picks. Most used by Team Duno: 7 times).
• Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Raze, Sage (10% pick rate, 7 total picks. Most used by Exileshow: 4 times).
• Brimstone, Cypher, Jett, Raze, Sage (10% pick rate, 7 total picks. Most used by Team WtcN: 4 times).

Europe #2 had a tie for the 4 most used compositions, covering 40% of the total pick rate. The trend of teams going far in the tournament and using the compositions that are favorable to them is maintained.

North America

• Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Raze, Sage (11% pick rate, 7 total picks. Most used by Team Brax).
• Brimstone, Jett, Omen, Phoenix, Sage (11% pick rate, 7 total picks. Most used by Team Myth: 7 times).
• Brimstone, Cypher, Phoenix, Reyna, Sage (10% pick rate, 6 total picks. Most used by Team fl0m: 2 times).
• Omen, Raze, Reyna, Sage, Sova (10% pick rate, 6 total picks. Most used by Team sh0ts: 4 times).

The most popular composition, Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Raze, and Sage, is an old known composition that comes from the beta and has good results. Then we have two compositions with Omen, which get a high pick rate due to teams opting for them in all kinds of situations.

LATAM

• Breach, Brimstone, Jett, Sage, Sova (11% pick rate, 3 total picks. Most used by Team Frankkaster: 3 times).
• Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Sage, Sova (11% pick rate, 3 total picks. Most used by Team mym_alkapone: 3 times).
• Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Reyna, Sage (7% pick rate, 2 total picks. Most used by Team blue_mx: 2 times).

LATAM had two tournaments, the same as Europe, but with a much smaller number of matches, and fewer teams. The respective finalists consolidated the most used compositions (Teams Frankkaster and alkapone). Having less data, this information is less representative than that of North America and Europe.

Japan

• Brimstone, Cypher, Jett, Reyna, Sage (35 % pick rate, 5 total picks. Most used by Team sabagod2).
• Brimstone, Cypher, Jett, Raze, Sage (14% pick rate, 2 total picks. Most used by Team Clutch_Fly).
• Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Raze, Sage (14% pick rate, 2 total picks. Most used by Team kennymcc).
• Brimstone, Cypher, Omen, Raze, Sage (14% pick rate, 2 total picks. Most used by Team yamatonjp).

The most interesting thing is the preference for Jett in this region, although, as in LATAM, the amount of data available is not sufficient to draw a conclusion.

Brazil

• Brimstone, Cypher, Reyna, Sage, Sova (25% pick rate, 10 total picks. Most used by Team paulanobre: 4 times).
• Brimstone, Cypher, Jett, Raze, Sage (20% pick rate, 8 total picks. Most used by Team mch: 7 times).
• Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Reyna, Sage (17 % pick rate, 7 total picks. Most used by Team pannshi: 6 times).
• Brimstone, Cypher, Raze, Reyna, Sage (17% pick rate, 7 total picks. Most used by Team sacy: 3 times).

Brimstone, Cypher and Sage were present in every composition, a strong trend in the region that didn’t have as much variation in their compositions compared to other regions. The top 4 compositions take 80% of the total pick rate.

Agent pick rate over time

Reyna got an important percentage of pick rate in Twitch Rivals, and this space was taken mainly from Breach who had a very pronounced fall. Sage suffered several nerfs in this version of the game, and since in the 1.01 patch she is receiving still more nerfs, it is likely that her pick rate will continue to slowly drop. The others remained fairly stable: Phoenix recovered some of the space lost in Meta Report #3, while Jett continues to grow, finding her place in Meta as a viable agent to use the Operator.

In this report we have an interview with Óscar “Mixwell” Cañellas Colocho , a player for Team Prodigy and winner of Twitch Rivals Europe #1.

**What do you think of the current meta? Do you think Reyna will shake the beta meta? **

I think Reyna is a good pick in Haven and Ascent, she could have an option in the current meta but I still think that she doesn't contribute as much as other Agents.

**Do you think there's enough variety in the meta? **

I think that people are still trying to figure it out and everyone is copying instead of innovating, the players that think more outside of the box will be the best players in this game. For now the level is pretty low in all aspects, tactical and skill wise we are still developing.

**Do you think Sage, Brimstone and Cypher are a must today? **

They are good in every map and have great value for the team, they complement every Agent but no one is a must have, you can always play around not having one of them and change your playstyle.

**Breach didn't have a good pick rate at Twitch Rivals, do you think he can get out of Meta? **

I think Breach is still one of the best Agents in the game, it had a worse pick because they changed it for Reyna, I still think that Breach is a better Agent overall.

**There is a lot of talk about your Viper, you are one of the few teams that use her consistently and also get very good results. What do you feel it adds to the team? **

I think Viper is really good at giving control of the bomb site and letting the rest of the players move around, that creates more freedom to do aggressive plays or stack the other bomb site, we need that because we are not practicing at all. I think she is underrated, especially on Bind where you can solo hold A or play retake with the one way smokes on short/bathroom, the enemy team is forced to go through the smoke and even if they do, they have to play in front of the short smoke to defend the after plant, so it works both ways, you can try to hold it aggressive or play it passive and retake it, she is really good if you combine it with a good Sova player.

**Do you expect many changes in the next few weeks? **

I expect the game to change a lot in the future, when teams and players are set playing under organizations and everyone starts practicing hard with coaches and analysts, it's gonna be interesting and we will look back at the games we played and realize how bad we are at the moment.

A new dawn

A new phase begins in VALORANT. Reyna and Ascent came to shake up the Meta a little bit. I emphasize again, this information is from Twitch Rivals, it does not represent the maximum competitive level, although, in regions like Europe and North America, we did have great names in the teams, such as Teams Mixwell and Brax.

We'll have to wait for the next edition of Meta Report to see if Reyna will lock down a place, at least in some maps, like Haven, or if we’ll go back to the classic composition: Breach, Brimstone, Cypher, Sage, Sova / Raze. Breach is another character to follow closely; will he be able to recover the space lost in this report? Let us know what you think about it!