Is VALORANT’s most popular ranked agent a total design failure? Players debate

Although Reyna might be one of the most popular agents in VALORANT, there is a growing consensus in the community that she might be the biggest design failure in the game.

Players on the VALORANT subreddit are discussing whether Reyna is healthy for the game, with one member laying down five reasons why she promotes horrible in-game habits and doesn’t encourage a deeper understanding of the game—a bad sign for what is the most-played agent in ranked queues.

For example, Reyna’s kit is built to be extremely self-sufficient, to the point that she can play off herself without any teammates—but only if they have good aim. As a result, Reyna players are built to perfect their aim and rarely practice anything else since they are conditioned to get a kill above all. Then, they can use her Dismiss ability or Devour heal—which also means that they may take bad duels with bad positioning for the sake of an elimination.

They also rarely learn how to play together as a team because they don’t need to worry about affecting their teammates with any of their abilities. No need to learn any proper placements for smokes, mollies, or timing for flashes.

As a result, the only lesson that they ever take away from a lost situation is that they should have aimed better, whether they failed to push into a site, cover a flank, or clear a corner of an enemy. Ultimately, players believe that Reyna doesn’t help instill the complex systems and strategies that other roles and agents help players learn as they continue to play VALORANT.

Some people were quick to argue that Reyna was made to be the ultimate duelist whose role is to find kills, which is why she can flourish in multiple scenarios. One player, however, shot back by stating that there shouldn’t even be an agent that relies so heavily on solo aim over game knowledge.

“There shouldn’t be an agent which caters solely to aim demons and doesn’t really incentivize you to ‘understand the game,” the user said in response. “Reyna doesn’t HAVE a design flaw, she IS the design flaw.”