Harbor is still in VALORANT pick-rate hell—and VCT 2024 pros aren’t helping much

Harbor is the least-picked agent across almost every single VALORANT competitive rank as of Episode Eight, and while he’s fared a little bit better in VCT pro play, it doesn’t look like it’s enough to raise his stock with the general player base.

According to VALORANT stats site Blitz.gg, Harbor is the least-picked agent of the current episode in every single rank from Bronze Three all the way up to Radiant. From Bronze Two down to Iron One, Astra claims the “top” spot when it comes to getting picked the least. But while she notches more than a one percent pick rate in numerous higher ranks, Harbor’s highest pick rate at any rank is just a flat one percent in Episode Eight.

Tracker.gg, which tracks global VALORANT data, also notes that Harbor has the lowest global pick rate at 0.7 precent, behind Astra at 1.1 percent and Deadlock at 1.4 percent. Harbor also has lower win rates and damage rates than both of those agents.

Among this crop of overall unpopular agents, the only win that Harbor gets over either Astra or Deadlock is that he gets some more screen time in VCT pro play, but not by much compared to Astra, and only in the China and Pacific regions. Deadlock and Iso currently are the only agents that have not been picked in any VCT matches so far in 2024.

But even with Deadlock and Iso sitting at absolute zero when it comes to pro play appearances at the highest tier of competition, they’re still getting picked in more than twice as many competitive matches than Harbor, according to Blitz.gg’s data. For Harbor, this is not a new phenomenon as the water-bending controller has routinely been a bottom-five competitive pick for two full episodes now.

The issue is what it’s always been: Harbor has no disruptive or offensive punch to his abilities that the popular controllers like Brimstone or Viper have. And while other controllers can freely place their smokes almost anywhere without giving away their position, Harbor’s abilities telegraph his position to the enemy team.

Not every agent can be at the very top of the meta, but it’s unfortunate for some VALORANT fans that one agent has been relegated to consistently being the worst.