Speculation is running wild about the next VALORANT agent, which Riot Games has promised will be a duelist that the most mechanically gifted players will thrive with. Even some of the most tame predictions for what the next agent will have ability-wise hint at a pretty big shakeup in the duelist meta.
The most recent wave of speculations come from the latest teaser post, which shows a text chat between some of the other agents. A message from Reyna reads “He’s good, but my targets move,” which has got some players thinking the new agent will have an ability that stops opponents dead in their tracks.
But the bigger issue is the imagery of this agent shooting a target with pinpoint accuracy and an all-caps response from Neon that reads “UMMM HE DOESN’T MISS?” One idea that comes to mind is an ability that takes away spread or recoil when firing, which would certainly be extraordinarily powerful and broken, but that pales in comparison to the far more broken concept that hopefully Riot isn’t even considering: an agent with aim lock.
There are a few notable instances of aim lock abilities or weapons in multiplayer games. The most prolific and polarizing is easily Soldier 76 from Overwatch, whose ultimate ability locks on to the nearest target for six seconds while he fires. Even in Overwatch, where an ability like this can be mitigated by tanky heroes and prevalent shields, its presence is still a point of contention and debate.
It would be the understatement of the century to say that any sort of aim lock or aimbot ability in VALORANT would be an egregious decision. Riot has always maintained that “shooting matters” in VALORANT, and that shooting will never completely be overshadowed or overtaken by the game’s abilities. Adding an ability that all of the skill and mechanics of shooting, outside of literally only clicking the mouse, wouldn’t just break the game, it could damage it severely. Realistically, an agent like that could bring the pro player community to collectively agree not to use them at all.
For a while now, Riot’s most recent agent additions like Harbor and Deadlock have fallen flat, failing to make any waves in the meta. But if the response to that is an agent that literally cannot miss, then it’s a massive overcorrection. For the record, I do not think Riot Games will add an agent with aim lock to VALORANT. But even with the odds being so low, they are not zero.
