Valorant pro meL has called out Riot Games for pushing “nuanced” agents by agreeing that Iso is worse than the base agents.
Iso is the latest agent to be added to Valorant and releases alongside Episode 7 Act 3 on October 31. As a duelist, Iso takes a new approach to entering sites and taking isolated gunfights, pun intended.
Iso is notable for his ultimate, a gigantic bubble that forces the players to fight one-on-one to decide who walks out alive. This is accompanied by his ability to block off routes with his wall and take on enemies with ‘one bullet’ as demonstrated in the trailer.
While Iso may seem like the hottest new duelist since Neon was released, professional players in the scene are not impressed. Among them was meL, who thinks Iso may not be picked at all in VCT.
Valorant pros debate the validity of Iso
The current Game Changers star responded to the head coach of Sentinels who poked holes in Iso’s ability to dive out of chokes like other agents currently in the meta.
“I’m open to discussion but with the nuanced agents Riot has been releasing, I feel like Iso is going to be left out similar to Deadlock,” said meL.”It’s just hard to justify having him in a comp over anyone else. Jett/Raze alone are better duelists with raw entry power with their dive, I wouldn’t run him over any initiator, obvs he’s not a Viper replacement in double controller comps, and KJ is king in the senti meta outside of Cypher/Chamber on select maps. So what room exists for Iso to be played?”
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i’m open to discussion but with the nuanced agents Riot has been releasing, i feel like Iso is going to be left out similar to Deadlockit’s just hard to justify having him in a comp over anyone else. Jett/Raze alone are better duelists with raw entry power with their dive, i… https://t.co/uOEerPLuyl
— SR meL (@melanji) October 19, 2023
Though meL did admit that Iso could be viable on certain maps, she was not the only one who took shots at the new agent after he was released.
Another former pro King also gave his opinion, stating that Iso is worse than the base agents already in Valorant.
“Somehow Riot is perfecting the craft of “this looks like power creep but is somehow worse than the base agents,” said King.
meL agreed with this sentiment, stating that agents that are currently meta can already “do the big things without much effort.” This is not the case for Iso who requires a lot of thought to properly execute his abilities. Like King, meL believes that Iso could be “left with 0% pickrate deadlock style.”
Iso has not officially hit the live servers and still has room to be adjusted by Riot before the upcoming VCT season. Whether or not Iso will beat out current meta duelists like Jett and Raze is yet to be determined.