When even the VALORANT professional players can’t make Gekko work, you know there are some serious problems with the agent.
A portion of a blog post shared by Riot Games dove into the highest K/D with each agent in the game throughout the VCT 2023 season. Gekko was the only agent to not have a single player net a positive K/D throughout 2023. Doğukan “qRaxs” Balaban from FUT was the best on the underperforming agent, posting a 0.96 with 122 kills to 127 deaths.
From a bird’s eye view, Gekko’s kit looks powerful. While his little Wingman is cute, its ability to fire a concussive blast and plant the spike himself feels strong. His Mosh Pit is a solid molotov-style ability, and Dizzy can be a powerful flash when used correctly.
Even his ultimate is strong: Thrash is a steerable detain on any enemies in your path. As far as agents geared for executes go, it’s solid.
It just seems strange that Gekko wasn’t exactly impactful in the meta early on, and didn’t get better over time. Many professional VALORANT players thought that the agent was going to be solid in pro play early on, so why wasn’t it that impactful?
It’s simple: because K/D ratio is only a part of the equation to winning in tactical shooters.
Yes, you win the round if you eliminate all of your opponents. But all of Gekko’s abilities are best used to set other players up for kills at a competitive level. Put simply, it’s probably an aberration, as his true impact will come from his kit and not necessarily the kills the player gets. Gekko’s kit is strong, yet balanced, so he isn’t going to be the agent you place your best player on.
He’s still useful, even with the lack of fragging power.
