Why is Clove disabled in professional Valorant?

Riot Games has announced that Valorant’s newest agent, Clove, will be disabled in professional play for the time being due to a bug.

Clove was added to the Valorant cast on March 26, 2024, and was expected to be playable in professional play sometime ahead of VCT Masters Shanghai. However, Riot has announced via the Valorant Champions Tour X account that the agent will be disabled because of a bug.

“Previously the agent was scheduled to enter competition for Week 2 of Stage 1. We are working hard to get them into play as soon as we can and will follow up with an update when they will be playable,” the statement said.

Why is Clove disabled in VCT?

Riot Games did not specify what bug was causing the agent’s delay in entering the VCT pool. Some have speculated that it has to do with her smoke ability, which is desynched slightly from its casting animation on the current patch.

Riot is aware of the bug, whether it is the one fans are speculating about or another undiscovered bug, so it should be patched in an upcoming update. Based on the developer’s update cadence, a new patch could launch around April 9.

While fans may have been looking forward to the agent’s debut in the hands of pro players, the professional opinion of Clove is that they are not incredibly useful at the highest level.

The Duelist-Controller hybrid has been tearing up solo queue since its release, but in a more coordinated environment, there are better options for teams to choose from.

Has Clove been enabled in VCT?

Announced on April 16, two weeks into the regional league’s Stage 1 tournament, Clove has been enabled for VCT after the bug was fixed.

Starting on week 3 of Stage 1, clove will be free for teams to pick for their matches, so we may see their debut on the professional stage then.