VALORANT Champions Agent pick rate: The Winners and Losers of the Group Stage

VCT 2023 - Champions's group stage has finished, but we are in for a treat for the playoffs. With 8 teams remaining, the battle in the playoffs will surely be even more fierce as there can only be one VALORANT Champion. With LOUD vs. Fnatic kicking us off on August 16, the hype does not stop for the event in Los Angeles.

But before we delve into the playoffs, let's have a look back at the Agent stats meta of the group stage. Who were the most-picked agents? Which agents did not see any playtime? Let's hop right in.

Note: It also just so happens that the Agents listed below are also the 4 most-picked Agents of the group stage.

VALORANT Champions Agent pick rate - The Winners

Sentinel - Killjoy

Killjoy has been dominating the meta this year by a solid mile. At the time of writing this article, even if we have a look at her global pick rate over the last 90 days, she still dominates with being picked 67.25% of the time.

At Champions, the German Sentinel Agent saw a whopping 46.67% pick rate, with 1212 rounds played at VALORANT Champions group stage. Players that selected Killjoy also averaged a rating of 1.01. With the perfect mix of Nanoswarm damage that leads to spot or site denial, and information gathering abilites from her Alarmbot and Turret, Killjoy has become a staple Sentinel pick, as well as the most popular pick thus far. Not to mention her extremely powerful Lockdown ultimate.

Controller - Viper

While Omen is typically the most selected Controller Agent globally, Viper has been the go-to pick for the role at Champions group stage. With a 42.50% pick rate, 1196 rounds played, and an average rating of 1.00, Champions teams see the potential in her Toxic Screen, Poison Orb, paired with Snakebite abilities. Her ultimate, Viper's Pit, is also nothing to scoff at.

Initiator - Skye

While Agent Sova dominated the Initiator role for a long time, the meta has shifted in favor of Skye. So far, Skye has been picked 41.67% of the time and players played 1121 rounds while wielding her. Additionally, the average rating on Skye has been like that of Viper; 1.00. With regenerative flashes that also provide info on whether somebody got flashed, a team-healing ability, and her Trailblazer scouting ability, Skye is the absolutely perfect entry-support Agent. Nobody does it like Skye, and teams at Champions are aware of that.

Duelist - Raze

Surprise, surprise! It is not Jett this time around, as the dashing Agent was picked 37.50% of the time. While Jett did get close to match Raze's pick rate of 40.83% at the Champions group stage, Raze was the slightly more popular pick with 1132 rounds played. What's most striking however, is that Raze players scored on average a rating of 1.06.

The explosive Agent's abilities certainly help with scoring frags or at least doing chip damage, hence the reason for Raze players to on average get a higher rating than the other roles.

VALORANT Champions Agent pick rate - The Losers

While the above Agents saw very high playtime on the servers in Los Angeles, others were not so lucky. With Phoenix, Yoru, and Sage being dead bottom, at a 1.67%, 0.83%, and 0.83% pick rates respectively, there are two Agents that saw no playtime at the group stage of the event at all.

Reyna

While on ranked you'll see plenty of players instalocking Reyna, (which is usually followed by screams, cries, and profanities) teams at Champions so far did not pick up the self-sufficient fragger. With Raze and Jett being the main Duelists of choice, even Neon, Phoenix, and Yoru were given a shot (some multiple times).

While Duelists are self-sufficient by nature, usually they have some utility to push the team over the edge to favorable situations. Reyna's kit is self-centered and revolves around healing and escaping. The only tool she has to aid the team is her Leer, a blind of sorts. Lacking in mobility, that may not be enough thus far to convince Champions teams to pick her up instead of Jett and Raze, both of which have some of the best mobility in the game.

Deadlock

Before the event began the question of whether Deadlock will be played came up frequently. So far, however, the game's newest Sentinel Agent has not been picked even once. With a mixed bag of opinions and reviews on whether Deadlock is a viable pick, it'll be interesting to see whether teams in the playoffs will give her a shot and use Deadlock as an unexpected curveball Agent pick.

As always, make sure to check out our Champions event page to see the upcoming matches, stats, and best performing players of the event so far.

*Featured image photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games