Gekko’s pro VALORANT debut produces mixed result even in the hands of one of the world’s best players

Gekko, VALORANT‘s newest agent and initiator, finally made his official pro debut today during a top-tier match in the VALORANT Champions Tour. But even in the hands of one of the top players in the world on one of the best teams, he failed to live up to expectations.

To kick off the VCT EMEA season, one of the league’s potential contenders in NAVI opted to break out Gekko on their opening pick of Ascent, a map that’s been a longtime favorite of theirs. They even put Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky, one of the standout players from VCT LOCK//IN, on the new initiator, but they ran into a number of problems.

NAVI’s new composition on Ascent, with Gekko instead of a typical pick like Sova or Killjoy, sacrificed a lot of utility that provides better scouting and information, such as Sova’s drone or Killjoy’s Alarmbot. Without these utilities, NAVI weren’t as proactive on defense and typically had to rely on Gekko in retake scenarios where he’s less effective. Additionally, as fun as Gekko’s ultimate is, it provides much less value than a Sova or Killjoy ultimate.

Related: Best maps for Gekko in VALORANT

But NAVI and Shao both looked significantly more comfortable with Gekko on Lotus, especially on attack in scenarios where Wingman could plant while the rest of NAVI got into post-plant spots. The layout of sites on Lotus also makes Gekko’s Mosh Pit so much more valuable compared to Ascent. NAVI did eventually fall in overtime on Lotus, though.

Numbers-wise, Gekko looks like he doesn’t stack up next to the other initiators if you just look at the scoreboard. During this series, other initiators like KAY/O, Breach, and Skye all produced more assists and higher ACS numbers overall, primarily due to them having flashes that are much harder to dodge or destroy. But Wingman’s plant/spike ability, and the potential for more than one ultimate cast during a single round, provides value that isn’t measured on a scoreboard.

Someone had to bite the bullet and bring Gekko into a pro composition for the first time, and it makes sense for NAVI to do it early in the year rather than debut the agent in a pivotal match later on. And now with fresh footage to look at, other teams can potentially experiment and find new ways to use Gekko themselves going forward.