Valorant devs tease the idea of Agent bans in the future
Riot GamesAre there certain Agents in Valorant that you can’t stand playing against? According to Riot Ziegler, you might be able to ban those Agents at some point in the game’s future.
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Many popular games like League of Legends and Dota 2 have a “ban system” where players from each team get to ban characters so no one can play them. Bans add strategic depth to matches and prevent players from abusing overpowered characters.
Valorant is still in its early stages as a game and esport, and players are curious about its direction. While it only has 14 playable characters currently, there have already been some Agent bans in Asian tournaments.
In an interview with G2’s Oscar “Mixwell” Canellas Colocho, Valorant’s Game Director, Riot Ziegler, gave some insights on the topic.
Riot GamesValorant might have Agent bans in the future
Midway through the interview, Mixwell discusses how Asian tournaments have had Agent bans. He then asks whether or not Valorant will have a ban system for everyone in the future.
Riot Ziegler starts his answer to the question by saying, “I think right now, we’re not doing that, but I think in the future we may think about it. It really depends on how much it adds to the game versus subtracts to the game.”
He goes on to say, however, that “those decisions, I think, are hard to tell when we only have 14 characters in the game,” suggesting that there are too few Agents to consider it right now but that he isn’t ruling it out in the future.
Segment begins at 18:47.
It’s true that in games like League of Legends and Dota 2, there are over 150 characters to choose from, whereas Valorant only has 14. There already aren’t that many Agents to choose from and adding bans at this stage of the game would only shrink that number.
Of course, Valorant plans to add new Agents every two months with each new act which means the character pool will grow quickly. Once there are a bunch of different Agents with all sorts of unique abilities, it will become more difficult to balance and bans could really help the game.