It's been a while since another Agent has been on top of the pick rate chart, and it doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon. Here's why Reyna is still on the throne & more.
Instalocking has been an issue in Valorant for a while now and is one of the main reasons why people dodge games. The other reason is getting Sunset or Breeze in the new act, but that's a thought for another article. Reyna was the most picked agent for 2022, and it seems like 2023 is going to be a 2-peat for her pick rate percentage.
Reyna, The Smurfs Favorite Go-To Agent
Competitive games in low rank give us a lot of 50-50's, and Reyna's tend to be the most common ones. Reyna is instalocked in almost all of the games, except when people magically forget she exists. In the cases where they don't, she's either a smurf that goes 40k+, or a lurking one that struggles to break the 5k barrier. If you're asking yourself why she's so popular after so long and isn't getting any nerfs, you're in the right place.\
Simply put, Reyna is a very easy Agent to play, and probably the easiest one in all of Valorant. There is no thinking aspect in her gameplay, just pure mechanical skill spamming Q or E depending on the given situation. When commenting about Reyna, pros say that she is the best Agent to play, when you don't want to play and give the least effort in the game.
Why Is Reyna Not Nerfed Yet?
The last time Reyna received a "significant" nerf was patch 3.0 when her Leer cost increased from 200 to 250. Right now we are at patch 7.07, and 3.0 was released over two years ago. This is for a reason, and the main issue is that Riot hasn't decided yet on which path they want to proceed with the agent. While it is true that she's been haunting pubs for a while, she has one of the lowest pick rates in Competitive as she doesn't bring much value to the team comp overall.
Nerfing her abilities would decrease her pub popularity, and drop her competitive scene appearances from 5 to 0. Buffing her would make her a bit more viable for competitive games, and completely broken in pubs. The third approach would be to change her abilities and shift her into more of a "meta" duelist and actually make people use brain power to play her.
What Is The Counter To Reyna?
Countering Reyna takes a long way in pubs, and your easiest and best bet is to pick KAY//O. Starting patch update 5.09, Reyna can no longer heal herself when she does a kill during her ulty if she is under the effect of Suppressed. That can be done with KAY/O's ultimate or knife and can be a huge counter to her as she cannot play so explosively and heal/dismiss after an engagement.
Gameplay-wise, you want to not let the enemy Reyna get hot, but rather cool them down as Reyna players depend on the adrenaline rush the agent gives. If you stick as 5, take care of the lurk, and play safe, Reyna won't have much playing ground and will thus "cool down" and get bored to hell. Reyna is a very fun Agent when doing frags, and insanely boring when when having a bad game.
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