In Valorant you should primarily rack up kills through skill and weapon usage. But with the heroine Raze, it can go differently. A player wiped out an entire team without using his weapon effectively.
What happened? In a Valorant match, reddit user Morphiac delivered an impressive performance and achieved an “Ace.” This is what you call when a single player is responsible for all the kills in a round.
The round was the first in the match and no one had good weapons. Everything started off unfavorably for Morphiac’s team. They were on the defensive and the opponents rushed point A. They advanced aggressively and quickly blocked half the site with a masterfully placed ice wall from Sage.
This is how the Ace came about: Behind the wall, they wanted to regroup and take the point completely. But Morphiac had chosen the wild Raze as his agent and after he couldn’t achieve success with his sorry free pistol, he simply threw a grenade over the wall. Boom, and 2 opponents were dead!
Next, he threw the Boom Bot, a kind of moving bomb, over the wall. The bot immediately jumped on an opponent who, due to the short distance, couldn’t react. Boom, and he was dead!
By now, Morphiac had recharged the grenade through the many kills. So he threw it, along with a satchel charge, over the wall and again there was a loud bang and the last two opponents turned to dust.
Done, Morphiac had wiped out the entire enemy team on his own with Raze. His teammates were essentially just surrounding him, admiring his work.
Ace action with Raze raises old controversies
What is the problem? With a few ineffective shots at the beginning, Morphiac only used the skills of his agent Raze for his Ace. And while such actions would be completely fine in games like Overwatch, hero skills in Valorant are more designed to support playstyle and grant tactical advantages. Kills, according to the developers, should mainly be achieved with weapons, not with skills.
This design principle seems to be contradicted by Raze, as her entire skill kit revolves solely around dealing damage:
- Her grenades explode and release cluster bombs that explode again
- Her Boom Bot is a seeking killer that jumps at opponents and explodes
- Her satchel charges can deal damage and assist her in jumping
- Her ultimate – which wasn’t even used here – is a deadly rocket launcher that kills multiple opponents and is particularly hated by pro streamer Summit.
Therefore, a discussion quickly arose on reddit about whether Raze is too strong, not just to mow down noobs:
- She is damn OP and needs more nerfs. Grenades shouldn’t be one-shot kills.
- Riot: VALORANT is a skill-based shooter, abilities cannot kill. Raze: HERE COMES THE PARTY! BOOM!!
- Yes. People who say, “but she’s not competitive in ranked play” haven’t seen ranked games at the highest level. Tons of players choose her because the chip damage in this game is really good, and sometimes you just get free kills.
Others defended the agent:
- Well… the entire enemy team grouped up and pushed all 5 into the same area, which is clearly the worst thing to do in a tactical shooter.
- I completely agree! Raze’s grenades are relatively easy to dodge. Her Boom Bot can also be taken out very easily. It really all depends on how the Raze player uses her abilities.
It remains exciting how Raze will develop in the game, especially since the release version of Riot’s tactical team shooter will be coming soon. More updates and adjustments will certainly come at release, possibly even another Raze nerf.
