A discarded duelist agent could be making a comeback in pro VALORANT thanks to newest map

At the highest levels of competitive VALORANT, several of the duelist agents fail to get some consistent playing time outside of Jett and Raze. But the new map in Sunset might give rise to the return of one of the game’s most iconic duelists.

The start of VCT 2024 is still months away and this year will feature the first season of an official VCT China league. Prior to the start of that league, several teams from the region on the rise are competing in the Evolution Series in the final months of the year and are using Sunset in the map pool.

While the sample size is small, and this could just be teams experimenting prior to the start of VCT, Phoenix was picked by both Bilibili Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix when the two teams that competed at Champions 2023 faced each other on Sunset yesterday. While FPX prevailed in the end after a near-flawless defensive half, both teams showed that Phoenix can be quite viable on the newest map.

With relatively narrow chokepoints, Phoenix’s Blaze Wall and Hot Hands Molotov ability are super useful for delaying pushes or retakes. These abilities force the opposing team to either run in blind and/or take damage if they want to get aggressive, giving the rest of the team a chance to rotate over to provide support.

There are noticeably a lot more corners and ratty hiding spots on Sunset than on other maps, which again allows Phoenix to shine. His Curveball flash can clear some of these spots, and his Run It Back ultimate negates some of the risk that goes into pushing a site without diligently checking each corner. Better yet, the team with the active Phoenix ultimate has a better chance at trading with Phoenix leading the charge as his clone.

Bilibili even experimented with some Viper/Phoenix Molotov combos that would be deadly if they landed right on top of an unsuspecting enemy. Even when the combo didn’t find an enemy, it allowed the team to move up and take space.

Many VCT teams ought to be experimenting on Sunset now, and by the time the 2024 season rolls around, perhaps Phoenix will become a staple of the newest map.