It’s the final North American VCT event of the year—other than the Last Chance Qualifier—but teams are looking to avoid that qualifier altogether by reaching Masters and either securing a victory in Berlin or the number two spot in the NA standings. It’ll all be decided at the NA VCT Stage Three: Challengers Playoffs, where eight teams will fight for just three spots at Masters Three Berlin.
Like in any region, the top teams are determined by who gets the most usage out of their agents. With that being said, let’s look at a handful of VALORANT agents that should have a significant impact in the upcoming tournament.
Jett
If lists like this were created for all the VCT stages dating back to the very first Challengers event at the beginning of February, Jett would be on each and every one of them. And that’s for good reason; her mobility and aerial prowess creates angles and plays no other agent can accomplish. Her ability to draw crosshairs away from the point of attack just by dashing past it is a defining part of any pro VALORANT offense. In addition to all that, there’s no better agent equipped to handle the Op, and her ultimate’s set of knives is the perfect sidearm for a sniper, while it can also be used in a eco/save round situation.
Jett is an impact agent, and some of the biggest impact Jett players are all competing in this double-elimination bracket. Sentinel’s TenZ and ShahZaM, FaZe Clan’s babybay, XSET’s PureR, TSM’s Wardell, and the newly acquired yay for Team Envy are just a few of the high-profile stars who will be using Jett for most of, if not all of their matches. Expect Jett to take over rounds again and again at the Challengers Playoffs.
Astra and Viper
Looking at the most recent Challengers events, Astra and Viper have emerged as the two most popular controller agents in the field. At Challengers Two, both were overwhelmingly popular on Split and decently popular on Bind, then trade off in popularity depending on the map. Viper is overwhelmingly popular on the wide-open sites on Icebox and and Breeze, and Astra is the go-to on both Ascent and Haven. With her ability to place utility anywhere on the map, it makes her especially valuable at putting stars on all three sites on Haven.
Once considered an overwhelmingly popular pick among pro players, Omen has fallen off dramatically since the introduction of Astra and the renaissance of Viper. Astra can provide statistically more smoke cover as well as her other uses, and Viper’s abilities fit nicely into any site-take or post-plant scenario. If you’re sick of the amount of green on your screen when Viper’s abilities come out, that’s too bad—she’s here to keep things toxic likely for the remainder of VCT Stage Three.
Skye
Like Astra, Skye’s pick rate has steadily improved from Stage Two to Stage Three and took a another step forward between the Challengers events. Comparing the numbers from the main events, Skye jumped from 31 percent in NA Challengers One to 46 percent in Challengers Two, including significant pick increases on Bind and Split, and even appears in the Icebox comp for TSM.
Skye is an excellent agent for the team that likes to group up, with multiple abilities that can find and blind opponents including her ultimate and a group heal to boot. Speaking of TSM, the former duelist Subroza has quickly adjusted to Skye, who’s now become one of his favorites as he provides tons of support to the electric Wardell on Jett, while also making plays for himself. The young Zekken of XSET has also used Skye well, and some of his flashes were pivotal to the team knocking off both Sentinels and 100 Thieves at Challengers One.
KAY/O
KAY/O hasn’t burst onto the scene the way Astra had when she debuted, but his time is coming. He only had a six-percent pick rate in the main event of Challengers Two, but he sat at 27 percent for the entire event including open qualifiers and was a solid pick on maps with smaller sites like Ascent and Haven. These numbers aren’t eye-popping, but teams weren’t going to waste time preparing strats for him before Stage Three given he wasn’t even going to be active for Challengers Two.
Challengers Two gave viewers a taste of what KAY/O is capable of. Both Shawn and NaturE of Gen.G had some great showings on KAY/O during that event, with NaturE even setting a VCT kill record in their marathon map against TSM on Split. With more short-range fight opportunities, the ability to cancel out various abilities and ultimates like Raze’s, and some post-plant usage with his grenade, don’t be surprised to see more hot robot action at this Challengers Playoffs.
