In Valorant, it has long been said that kills are achieved not through skills, but through good mastery of one’s weapons. However, since this is not the case, the developers had to clarify and relativize the original statement.
What does the “Skills don’t Kill” statement mean? On October 16, 2019, Valorant, which was then still called Project A, was introduced by Riot. The studio CEO Nicolo Laurent commented on this, stating in a tweet:
To be absolutely clear, Project A is about shooting. You do not kill with abilities. Abilities create tactical opportunities to land the optimal shot. Characters have abilities that complement their gunplay, rather than fighting directly with their abilities.
This was largely true for the first 9 agents, but once the major beta introduced Raze with her grenades, Boom Bots, and rocket launcher, this statement wobbled considerably, and since Killjoy started shooting people down with an automatic turret, the CEO’s statement seems even more far-fetched.
Nevertheless, Nicolo Laurent’s statement has always been interpreted by angry fans as evidence that agents like Raze or Killjoy are OP and ruin the game’s core principle. However, the developers have now responded to this.
Developers Relativize Statement and Apologize
This is what the developers say: Ryan “Morello” Scott, Lead Character Designer at Riot, said in a dev post on August 13 that the statement from back then was probably misunderstood.
This statement is not entirely accurate – especially in a game where Raze and Killjoy were already in the game before our announcement. In any case, this was our mistake – a big part of this mistake was that we missed the nuance of the statement, namely that tactical fundamentals are a key component. It’s not just “skills don’t kill”.
Weapons still provide the majority of kills, and even our damage skills are designed to create threat and pressure. When used well against an opponent, weapons should still be the primary method to take down enemies since they are distracted or trying to avoid damage.
Devs apologize for misinterpretation: Morello also apologizes to all players who played the game back then solely because of this statement:
If this promise (skills never kill) made you play Valorant, we are sorry if we misled you, even if it was unintentional. But our position is and has been that skills that deal damage are a core part of tactical games – whether it’s Valorant or other tactical shooters.
This will not change: Nevertheless, Valorant wants to remain true to the core idea of tactical shooters and keep weapons as the primary kill source in the game. Therefore, there will probably never be adjustments like massively more health or skills that completely replace weapons. Except for ultimates, like Jett’s knives or Raze’s rocket launcher. In this form, such superweapons will remain in the game.
