In VALORANT, what fans see in competitive games doesn’t reflect the reality of ranked play, especially when looking at the lower levels. As the lowest tier in ranked, Iron games have pretty much nothing in common with pro play except for the maps. But some agents are simply struggling at all levels, from the highest to the lowest.
That’s the case with Yoru. Since his release, the developers have repeatedly applied balance changes to try to make him more threatening in the game. But he still has low win rates in professional play—and it’s no different in the Iron tier.
Yoru has the lowest win rate in Iron Two and Three at 45 percent on average, according to data website Blitz.gg. KAY/O and Harbor closely follow this low win rate at 44 to 48 percent across all Iron ranks.
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Those three agents aren’t easy to learn, especially Yoru, which can explain the low win rates of these agents in VALORANT’s lowest tier. In addition, they struggle to carry games by themselves since they’re designed to provide information or cover to allies.
Communication isn’t the strong point of players in the low and medium ranked tiers in general, which doesn’t help these agents’ performance in those games.
Killjoy, on the other hand, is an agent who dominates the Iron ranks. She boasts the highest average win rate in all three ranks, according to Blitz.gg, while she’s only around seventh or eighth in higher tiers. Playing her in the low tier is a no-brainer: her traps and turret can confuse players easily, especially when they don’t really know the agent.
Her traps can cover all of the entries of a site, allowing her to peek and shoot enemies down while they’re trying to destroy her turret or activate her traps. Thus, if you’re in the low tier and don’t know which agent to pick, Killjoy can be a strong bet to get through Iron up until the Gold tier, where she’s still the agent with the highest win rate.
Regarding duelists, Raze and Reyna dominate the ladder in Iron, Bronze, and Silver. While Raze’s bombs can take enemies by surprise with some clever angles, Reyna is the go-to solo pick due to her snowball potential. Then, in the higher tiers, their win rates come closer to the 50-percent mark.
