Summit1g explains why Valorant agent Raze “needs to be deleted”

For the most part, Jaryd ‘Summit1g’ Lazar has been enjoying the Valorant closed beta along with the rest of those blessed with early access. There’s one thing he says could “ruin the whole game” though — rocket-wielding agent Raze.

Raze was a late debutant in Valorant’s closed beta. Originally, nine agents were revealed for the title’s initial roster, before the explosive hero was added to the live servers. Let’s just say, so far, Summit isn’t impressed. At all.

Summit’s first real experience with the ordnance agent came in a showmatch that pitted the streamer and other stars like Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek, Erik ‘fl0m’ Flom, and former Apex top dog Coby ‘dizzy’ Meadows against Riot’s dev team.

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Among the ranks of the Riot squad was former esports star turned map designer Salvatore ‘Volcano’ Garozzo. The retired pro got his hands on Raze, and quickly set about picking his star-studded opponents apart.

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Riot’s team demolished Summit’s team 13–3 on Bind, before delivering a similar 13–5 defeat on Haven. The Twitch star admitted he had no problem losing ⁠— the devs know their game in and out ⁠— but he declared Raze “must be deleted.”

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Lazar’s reasoning, he said, was having  rocket launchers or the Raze cluster grenades, “goes against everything [Riot] said the game would be.” Valorant has been billed as skill-based, but Summit felt rockets changed that completely.

“I’ll be honest with you… the launcher is a big turnoff. It just takes everything out of your hands, you know?” Summit said during his April 8 broadcast.

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“This rocket shit is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. I thought this sh*t was supposed to be utility. That looks a little bit more. A big ol’ f**king thing full of rainbows flying at me, the f**k? The whole character needs to be deleted.”

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Not only did Raze control choke points across the map, but her explosive mobility also swung most fights in the Riot team’s favor. The streamer ⁠— who was playing in front of 250k viewers at the time ⁠— dubbed her Valorant’s “stupidest character.

“I would have tested that character in my sleep without even getting on a computer and could have told you that was a stupid f**king character, what do you mean?” he continued, and dubbed the whole series “enjoyable.”

“We’re playing a game that’s supposed to be kinda Overwatch, kinda Counter-Strike. This guy is flying through the air like I’m playing f**king Quake bro. He’s got a Halo rocket, while flying through the air like a Quake player!”

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After an extended break off-stream to calm down from the one-sided Valorant showmatch, Summit returned to deliver his final verdict on Raze: “This one character really feels like it’s going to ruin the whole game for me.”

It looks like the devs are listening too. Valorant game director Joe Ziegler took to Twitter to reply to Summit soon after the end of the showmatch. He admitted he understood the star’s concerns, and revealed Riot were looking into it.

“Hey Summit, I totally understand… we’re looking across the board at all agents right now to figure out how to get them in the right place so we’ll take a look at Raze too, don’t worry,” the Riot head developer responded on April 8.

Not everything has been doom-and-gloom for Summit1g in the closed beta, however. The Twitch star even went so far as to dub Phoenix “the perfect agent” after he discovered the fiery character’s ability to heal himself with his molotovs.

The rest of the world also seems to be loving Riot’s new FPS too. Launch day saw over 1.7 million concurrent viewers tuned in on Twitch, while thousands more are looking for a way to play. Here’s how you can get into the closed beta too.