One of VALORANT’s neglected duelists, who has had a bad reputation for their complicated powers, has seemingly found their niche among the game’s cream of the crop.
Despite featuring a tricky kit, Neon is sitting at the upper echelon of agents with the highest win rates in Radiant, as of Episode Six, Act Three. Featuring a win rate of 51.7 percent, the Filipino girl boasts the second-highest win rate among all agents in the game’s Radiant lobby, according to Blitz.gg.
Overall, Neon only loses out to her sentinel ally, Sage, who tops the chart with a 52.2 percent win rate.
Among duelists, Neon dominates with the most wins, followed by Reyna, who features a win percentage of 51.4, and Phoenix, with a win rate of 51.2 percent.
Shockingly, despite being one of the most powerful duelists, Jett has only managed to earn a 50.6 percent win rate in the Radiant elo, grabbing the third duelist spot.
Raze, VALORANT’s high-octane Brazillian duelist armed with the explosives, secures the fourth position with a 50.3 percent win rate, while the difficult-to-master Japanese trickster Yoru sits at a 48.9 percent win rate.
While Neon dominates in Radiant, she fails to do the same in lower elo like Immortal, Ascendant, Diamond, Platinum, and so on. In fact, she is one of the worst agents in all ranks below Radiant.
Her one-sided success in the game’s ranked ladder is quite unique and difficult to interpret, especially due to the presence of popular agents like Jett, Reyna, and Phoenix, who are much easier to guide and are team-independent as well.
To top it off, perfecting her abilities is tough. It requires tons of practice and good communication skills to benefit from Neon’s kit in VALORANT. Low-elo players who pick her often fail to capitalize on her strengths and, instead, end up stunning their teammates or fail to clear critical positions on the plant sites. To make things worse, most players solo queue in lower ranks.
Due to her speedy kit, she is often way ahead of her teammates, and failing to communicate well in such cases can only yield disastrous results. Even in pro play, Neon is only favored on particular maps like Lotus and Fracture, where fast rotation and aggressive site entry are prime tactics.
Related: Best and worst VALORANT agents for each map
That being said, Neon is the epitome of a highly capable team-centric entry fragger who can bring incredible value: her kit is designed not to be self–centered. Plus, her passive ability—to run at super speed—is a powerful and unique mechanic to have in the tactical shooter.
Needless to say, her kit is highly versatile, allowing her to put up walls for easy site entry, stun close corners and clear critical areas, and even “zap” those who dare put up a close fight with her potent Ultimate ability: Overdrive. She can also be the perfect pseudo-duelist or secondary entry fragger for her team if need be.
Unfortunately, for the time being, Neon’s profitable but complicated kit is apparently built only for the top 0.03 percent VALORANT players, who are able to decipher and master her electrifying Radiant powers effectively. Whether lower-ranked players catch up with the Neon meta in the future is something we’ll have to wait and see.
For those who are still perfecting their pointy blades or sucking the life out of their enemies, it’s probably time you switch to harnessing the powers of electricity in VALORANT, for a change.
