Valorant came out only a few months ago but the game already added a couple of agents. How many more will join the roster though? Riot Games shed some light.
Ever since the dawn of Riot’s tactical shooter fans have been asking themselves various questions. One of them was - How many agents will we have in a few years? Currently, there are 12 playable agents and we’re not even done with Episode 1 yet as there’s the possibility of another agent coming next month.
- READ MORE: BLAST's Valorant Event Is Coming This Friday
If you have any experience with League of Legends you’ll know that hero releases are quite the event. The same thing seems to be happening to Valorant. Riot’s Ryan “Morello” Scott already talked previously that new agents joining the game will be introducing something new and breaking the meta every time. In a recent Reddit thread, Riot employee “Pwyff” mentioned some numbers:
The perfect agent roster balance... I think Morello has said at least ~50? 60? Honestly I think we'll start to understand how flexible the agent roster is as we inject more in, so I don't think we can say "100 is crazy" or "100 is great." Personally I think ~50-60 feels about right (let's say 5 per role).DotA2 is a great example to me, because each unit is unique, but drafting at the highest levels is about building the right toolbox (or so I think from my armchair). If you have a good, winning strategy, you can draft the S-tier hero for that strategy, but if it's banned, you start picking up the A and B-tier heroes who, when put together, can still do that function. If VAL is more like that, I can see it supporting a much larger ecosystem of agents.
It’s a rather interesting take from Pwyff to quote the Dota 2 drafting system instead of LoL’s. Are Riot admitting that Valve’s MOBA is better when it comes to unique characters and drafting? But I digress, Valorant is planning to add a whole lot of agents in the future. As we’ve already mentioned there are only twelve agents available and if they’re aiming at 60 it’s still going to take years at the current rate.
Twelve agents in a competitive shooter focused around abilities is rather low. For comparison, Overwatch had 21 heroes at launch and now, over 4 years later, it’s sitting at 32. Valorant will definitely be releasing agents at a faster rate but don’t expect Riot’s shooter to catch up soon. On the plus side, more agents will mean more options in terms of drafting and that’ll be a big plus in the pro scene. Right now, there are agents like Cypher that are basically a must-pick. Riot Games claimed agent bans won’t be a thing in Valorant but if the roster truly goes up to 60 we might eventually get them.
Don’t miss out on the latest Ask Valorant blog post where Riot answers various questions including the one about the game’s audio.
Stay tuned for more Valorant news and check out EarlyGame or the EarlyGame Youtube channel for everything gaming and esports.
