The official pro play debut of the newest VALORANT controller agent Clove has been postponed due to a recently discovered bug, Riot Games announced today.
The official VALORANT esports channel posted today that Clove’s “eligibility for International League (VCT) competition will be put on hold. Previously the agent was scheduled to enter competition for week two of Stage One.”
The VALORANT team is currently working hard to get Clove ready to debut in pro play as soon as possible. The current timetable for Clove’s debut is unknown.
The exact specifications of the bug responsible for Clove’s pro debut delay are undetermined, but there are a few probable culprits. Several players have reported that Clove’s weapon disappears after casting their ultimate, while others have said they’ve seen Clove’s character model persist and remain on screen standing upright despite dying. While undiscovered bugs are common and a delay is annoying, it’s better that Clove’s debut isn’t marred by bugs that could affect competitive integrity by costing a team a round.
Clove has already found a niche with higher-skilled VALORANT players. According to blitz.gg data, Clove is in the top half of all agents in competitive pick rate among Immortal and higher players and has a win rate over 50 percent across all those ranks. Their pick rate does dip considerably in the lower ranks, though.
When Clove was first officially revealed, agent gameplay designer Dan Hardison noted that they felt that Clove would “probably more likely…have a larger impact on ranked than professional play,” but remained hopeful that Clove could “make a splash” on the pro play meta. Clove could find themselves taking on the Omen roles in most standard comps, giving those comps some extra offensive firepower and aggressive flexibility.
Who will bring Clove into the pro meta first? Perhaps it will be a creative team like Evil Geniuses, who managed to give Deadlock a pro appearance during the Americas Kickoff. Or maybe Sentinels can put duelist-turned-controller player TenZ on the controller that plays like a duelist. Unfortunately for VALORANT fans, though, we’ll have to wait just a bit longer to see who comes back to life first.
