No other VALORANT agent has been as divisive as Reyna. Smurfs swear by her incredible carry potential, while team players have grown to despise her selfish kit. Her flaws are undeniable, but considering her strengths in some cases, many players think the negativity surrounding her isn’t fair.
In a Reddit post dated Nov. 5, a player named u/AmoebaDizzy8034 highlighted the value Reyna can bring to your games, no matter the rank you are in. Calling out the over-stretched notion of her being bad in high Elo, they pointed out she continues to be a popular pick in Immortal and Radiant lobbies.
The player also addressed the “Reyna isn’t popular in esports” argument, saying, “People confuse high Valorant ranked games to eSports Valorant games which is an entirely different game again where she is a bad agent in a fully coordinated, communicated 5v5 team game.”
Both AmoebaDizzy8034 and I were expecting a backlash to the post from the community but were left surprised. Many players reacted positively to the post, agreeing that Reyna is indeed a great agent for solo queues, despite her aim-dependent, anti-team kit.
“S tier from Iron 1 to Radiant #1,” one player wrote, before stating Reyna’s consistently high pick rates and positive win rates across most ranks. “Nobody cares if she’s good in pro play or not, that’s not the game 99.999% of people are playing.”
Another player corrected the above claim slightly, saying that Reyna isn’t exactly an S-tier agent, but an S-tier agent for solo queuers. There were some disputes regarding the claim about her pick rates and win rate being unmatched, but according to Blitzz.gg, Reyna’s stats are far from bad.
Players also pointed out the way Reyna divides the VALORANT community, with one section praising her healing power and the ability to go intangible and the other passionately hating her kit’s one-sided and smurf-favoring nature.
I haven’t played the Mexican soul harvester much in my VALORANT games, but I do believe she can be broken in the hands of a mechanically talented player. Her kit is dependent on raw aim and performance, allowing players to focus on gunfights.
Utility usage matters, but nothing surpasses the importance of having good mechanics in VALORANT ranked, and when you couple an agent like Reyna with good mechanics, the result is bound to be magical.
Reyna isn’t exactly a bad team player either. Watch Paper Rex’s Ilya “something” Petrov offering the best kind of team support with Reyna and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Content creator and analyst Teets made a great video about how PRX used Reyna to make potent strategies based on team play. For example, they combined Reyna’s Leer, which is considered a bad flash on its own, with Skye’s Guiding Light to create an excellent combo that the enemy team struggled to dodge.
I don’t think Reyna is bad, but she is quite situational—not every day is a good aim day, even for smurfs. That said, if you are calling her the worst VALORANT agent for high Elo, the stats paint a very different picture.
I believe she does fairly well in team play if you consider adopting PRX’s esports strats. But her strength lies in independence, and players should respect that.
Published: Nov 7, 2023 05:19 am