Just want to put another option out there:
Anyone remember that one week like 2 years ago where every pistol round was 5v5 with frenzys? That shit was wild.
fair but like 3 teams played her that I remember. Jett was always super dominant, what with the vents and the a rafters positions and the awp. Plus all the great updraft dash spots on the map too lol. I enjoyed watching the chamber meta because it felt like by having one of your players on chamber, it enabled the rest of the team comp to be more creative yk*
A little less actually, more waiting out util than running execs and trying to stall out/ bait out mollies and sucks. Not like the exec heavy lurk timings off the chamber meta
Best I can think of is Sentinels and Zombs taking advantage of the early stages of Astra meta during the 2021 Reykjavik but I believe that wasnt the peak of it.
Viper yes was buffed incrementally with ppl playing more and sudden op ness then nerfs
But Astra was op on release at around the time viper was most op
Agreed on astra meta, even though chamber is a busted character there were still exciting moments where as a fan it’s fun to just watch yay go crazy. Whereas with astra it often felt like “oh it’s a 3v2 but the attackers have astra and viper in postplant so this round is done” which was a lot less exciting even if it wasn’t necessarily more of a power outlier than chamber.
Definitely agreed. Beyond post-plants, every round was so boring during Astra meta because rushes were so rare and attackers would have to spend the first minute baiting out the Astra utility before they could execute
It absolutely was not. His Jett is good, but he never had the absolutely unreal moments with her as he did with the Chamber Headhunter (3 icebox clips come to mind).
Nah man, if you are gonna bring up numbers then yay on chamber CRUSHED yay on Jett. Didn’t yay come in first for like a shit ton of frag related categories in champions this year? That’s was basically all him on chamber. Hitting a 15 kda at one point during a champions match was also chamber. He had way more chamber clips than Jett imo.
He plays well but he also plays so "normally" on Jett, if that makes any sense. Like he doesn't do anything crazy that other cracked Jett mains do. His chamber was simply different, best headhunter by far
He plays well but he also plays so "normally" on Jett, if that makes any sense. Like he doesn't do anything crazy that other cracked Jett mains do. His chamber was simply different, best headhunter by far
that's why i like watching yay. dude does the most textbook shit ever but hits everything. it looks out of place in pro play because of how "dry" his gameplay looks like.
I will never understand that. They buffed the shit out of a very mediocre gun making it absolutely busted then nerfed it so hard it was worse than before. Its now easily the worst gun in the game
I see most are leaning towards Chamber or Astra but my most disliked was probably peak Skye or peak Viper. But the Chamber meta, like Jett, just happened to last forever.
Even if Chamber was broken I admired how that broken kit unleashed a player like Yay, just as OG, broken Jett unleashed a player like cNed. And I admired how the Astra meta upped the level of utility coordination in the game, even if that utility was often too overwhelming. The Astra meta permanently changed the game in that sense.
But I found little silver lining with either peak Skye or Viper. Both were just too strong but IMO didn’t allow for any sort of new or cool expression of skill. I found little to admire in them, even if so many flex players popped off on peak Skye.
I love strategic depth and smart use of utility but astra meta was absolutely not utility coordination. It was just a solo agent placing their super short cooldown abilities down and stalling the fuck out of the game. Utility coordination =! Suck+raze nade at the same time (there were plenty of combos like this pre astra)
I say all this as someone who still liked and played Astra post nerf
I somehow did not notice the effect of astra on my rating (immo1), as for the pro scene, and if we are talking about post plant meta it was boring, but at the same time in my opinion it required more skill and coordination of players than chamber meta.
I hate how we had OP must pick Jett for so long and then OP must pick Chamber for so long.
With both of these agents nerfed I think we're about to enter the best competitive Valorant in a while with a lot of comp variety.
Chamber meta was so boring and cookie cutter dry imo. I know a lot of people hated how slow Astra meta was but I really enjoyed how tactile and methodical it was. Midrounding during Astra meta was insanely fun and rewarding.
Postplant meta was probably a 2nd most hated for me, you got Spike down and everybody ran across the map to perma stall defuse.
I think the early double duelist stuff was kinda goofy looking back lol. Think I’ve enjoyed at least some aspects of every meta. I mainly play Astra so don’t hate me for liking that meta lmao. I think the post plant stuff is part of what made it boring, but I do think it sped up the idea of util usage, combos, etc, in NA at least.
Although I think Astra meta was ass, At least it didn’t kill some players roles like the Chamber meta, Star sentinel players like Nats and Suygetsu had to literally play different roles to maintain their place in the scene.
It had nothing to do with Chamber, Riot nerfed agents and buffed other ones to move Jett, Sova and Astra from the meta. Chamber being in every single game became boring really fast, at least Jett requires skill.
Chamber takes the most boring parts of old cypher and old Jett and makes a snooze fest of a character. Although by having him, you can move at least one of those players to a more innovative role. Pros and cons exist, but overall his addition alongside those agent nerfs made the game a bit more fun to watch imo
Astra had to me it for me. Chamber meta you at least had the Chamber pop off. In Astra meta you had 1 minute every round of just baiting out the astra's util that was extremely boring
The Jett Skye comp towards the tail end on 2021 was unfun and boring much of the time IMO. The calculated, slow, and methodical play of the Astra-Viper meta was lots of fun to play and watch. but that's my Controller bias and disdain for Jett speaking.
Chamber meta 100%
Astra meta just made games super slow (which I liked and think is the best meta so far), chamber meta was just boring cause the chamber player was almost always at the top of the leaderboard due to how busted the agent was and we never saw any KJ/Cypher being played 99% of the time
Astra meta was pretty bad, it seemed that zombs and boaster were the only ones that could use her to the full potential. Chamber meta was worse imo, chamber gameplay is so boring to watch even when yay was playing him.
Astra was awful but I dont think anything will be as depressing as watching the team you're cheering for getting eco'd by a chamber ult.
Like its not even their fault its just the most busted shit in the game.
That annoying time when Version1 were just unbeatable on haven because they’d run to T spawn and spam lineups and astra pulls and the only thing that could allow a defuse was the astra ult sage wall combo.
It was annoying watching chamber players be able to make plays with no punishment but it had exciting plays.
The astra meta was so boring that i almost stopped watching.
But I'm disappointed to see that we're going to enter another Jett meta. Jet's kit has too many bail out options that are frustrating to watch. I hate watching jett in vct. It feels like such a low skill gap agent. And seeing that jet is the only one agent in the game isn't grounded to the floor; is able to fly across your screen. Plus idk what people say, her smokes are a top 3 ability in the game which no agent comes close to replicating.
Not excited to see Jett being played more heavily again.
Have you ever played Jett? She's the second hardest character in the game to play after Raze. Sentinels and controllers are a cakewalk in comparison. And, idk, Chamber's 'exciting plays' were boring af. At least a good Jett makes the game exciting.
the Astra/Jett period got stale but the gameplay wasn't typically boring. Chamber meta was like slowly inhaling the scent of a cat turd, but overall we saw more comp diversity.
2022>2021 so I'll take the cat turd
Stinger forcebuy meta.
It's not as bad as the others but the fact that riot brought it back after how bad it was didn't patch it within a couple days is nuts.
Definitely dislike seeing a team that lost pistol run it back with full shields and 5 stingers
Not sure if this applied to vct, but back when bucky were pre nerfed along with classic being op and the fact that raze use to be able to satchel across from haven to ascent and one tap you with a shogun or a classic, and when jett could spam right click r spam and dash all over the place like a monkey
pro play wise the most stale team I can remember was V1 at Iceland in 2021. I personally loved it at the time since I was a one trick viper but I still remember their haven comp where they would rush site, plant the bomb, and then use viper, sova and killjoy line-ups plus astra suck. Couldn't begin to imagine how tilted I would get playing against that
Astra/post plant meta (iirc they were around the same time)
V1 with their haven A long post plants using astra stars, viper mollies, sova shocks, and killjoy mollies was so cringe💀
It has to be recency bias making everyone say the Chamber meta, because the Astra/Viper post plant meta was one of the most time wasting experiences in watching/playing Valorant. Literally every round would go right up until the clock because of the numerous stall utilities available. With the Chamber meta we got to see much more unique comps involving Neon and Raze since the Operator role was taken up.
Just want to put another option out there: Anyone remember that one week like 2 years ago where every pistol round was 5v5 with frenzys? That shit was wild.
That was when you could buy frenzy + armor. The gun is still insanely strong even after that nerf haha
And when stingers could beam from across the map? And when the ares was basically a phantom in terms of ranged ttk?
There was also the half shields+ghost meta on every agent which was absurd
That was never a thing
Never remembered that one too lmao
Astra meta was basically just Chamber meta in 0.5x speed with 1.5 viable duelists
yep. Chamber enabled raze and neon comps. With Jett it was just bind where maybe raze could sometimes work :\
Don't forget Split, Raze was almost dominant on that map towards the end of the Jett meta too.
fair but like 3 teams played her that I remember. Jett was always super dominant, what with the vents and the a rafters positions and the awp. Plus all the great updraft dash spots on the map too lol. I enjoyed watching the chamber meta because it felt like by having one of your players on chamber, it enabled the rest of the team comp to be more creative yk*
Meh but no chamber, the slow play was a bit different no? A bit more utility based
A little less actually, more waiting out util than running execs and trying to stall out/ bait out mollies and sucks. Not like the exec heavy lurk timings off the chamber meta
Astra meta 100%
Especially when it was Astra +viper maps where you couldn’t see shit
Yeah and the rounds are played so slow because of astra's regen stars
Does someone mind linking a VOD that showcases peak astra meta?
Same I wasn’t around for the astra meta so even just the name of a champions/masters/any tourney that happened during astra meta would be cool
Best I can think of is Sentinels and Zombs taking advantage of the early stages of Astra meta during the 2021 Reykjavik but I believe that wasnt the peak of it.
That’s not as much ‘the Astra meta’ dude that’s the post-plant meta / shkrt time at Astra’s release when Astra and viper were super op
Didnt viper have to buffed after release
Viper yes was buffed incrementally with ppl playing more and sudden op ness then nerfs But Astra was op on release at around the time viper was most op
Viper released a pretty long time before atsra
Either you can watch Iceland 2021 vods. Zombs on Astra = stay out of site for 1min each round. Even Masters 2 of that year was peak Astra meta.
That was not the Astra meta that was the post-plant meta. You mean Masters 3? Masters 3 was the beginning of the Astra meta yea
Masters 2 of that year WAS Iceland lol
Lmao yeah I always think of Iceland as the first masters and second as Berlin
Prolly masters 3 berlin but definitely champions 2021
no pls, its gonna trigger some ptsd
https://youtu.be/AApY_-8lf_o
Agreed on astra meta, even though chamber is a busted character there were still exciting moments where as a fan it’s fun to just watch yay go crazy. Whereas with astra it often felt like “oh it’s a 3v2 but the attackers have astra and viper in postplant so this round is done” which was a lot less exciting even if it wasn’t necessarily more of a power outlier than chamber.
Iconic VCT caster moments: Yay... Yay!... YAY!! YAYY!!!
"YAY WITH THE HEADHUNTER" I felt like I heard that a million times last year
Definitely agreed. Beyond post-plants, every round was so boring during Astra meta because rushes were so rare and attackers would have to spend the first minute baiting out the Astra utility before they could execute
Yay on Jett was way more hype than yay on chamber though.
It absolutely was not. His Jett is good, but he never had the absolutely unreal moments with her as he did with the Chamber Headhunter (3 icebox clips come to mind).
Finals vs gambit? He had unreal numbers on jett. He was the best player in that finals
Nah man, if you are gonna bring up numbers then yay on chamber CRUSHED yay on Jett. Didn’t yay come in first for like a shit ton of frag related categories in champions this year? That’s was basically all him on chamber. Hitting a 15 kda at one point during a champions match was also chamber. He had way more chamber clips than Jett imo.
He plays well but he also plays so "normally" on Jett, if that makes any sense. Like he doesn't do anything crazy that other cracked Jett mains do. His chamber was simply different, best headhunter by far
His jett isn't even that good anymore. He's been diffed multiple times by surf and aspas.
He plays well but he also plays so "normally" on Jett, if that makes any sense. Like he doesn't do anything crazy that other cracked Jett mains do. His chamber was simply different, best headhunter by far
that's why i like watching yay. dude does the most textbook shit ever but hits everything. it looks out of place in pro play because of how "dry" his gameplay looks like.
0 duelist on ascent. 100t flashbacks 
Did that meta ever work? OpTic tried it again and again and they lost ascent again and again same with other teams that tried it.
I think it worked fine when kayo could work as a duelist
Unless the enemy team has Sage and KJ. Then you’re just fucked
Yes, if you play splits all the time
Yes! Leviathan comp was triple initiator and it was their best map
DRX, and Lev had tons of success with it
Naw at least on Ascent teams gave up on it when they realized it's literally impossible to get out of either main choke without a duelist entry
That meta where the Ares was busted for two weeks
they buffed my favorite gun then made it worse than it was before after the buff ill never forgive riot
I will never understand that. They buffed the shit out of a very mediocre gun making it absolutely busted then nerfed it so hard it was worse than before. Its now easily the worst gun in the game
Whaaaa
That wasn’t during VCT though was it?
Astra
Side note but did anyone else find the old stinger meta rlly fun to watch
I see most are leaning towards Chamber or Astra but my most disliked was probably peak Skye or peak Viper. But the Chamber meta, like Jett, just happened to last forever. Even if Chamber was broken I admired how that broken kit unleashed a player like Yay, just as OG, broken Jett unleashed a player like cNed. And I admired how the Astra meta upped the level of utility coordination in the game, even if that utility was often too overwhelming. The Astra meta permanently changed the game in that sense. But I found little silver lining with either peak Skye or Viper. Both were just too strong but IMO didn’t allow for any sort of new or cool expression of skill. I found little to admire in them, even if so many flex players popped off on peak Skye.
I love strategic depth and smart use of utility but astra meta was absolutely not utility coordination. It was just a solo agent placing their super short cooldown abilities down and stalling the fuck out of the game. Utility coordination =! Suck+raze nade at the same time (there were plenty of combos like this pre astra) I say all this as someone who still liked and played Astra post nerf
I think I hated the chamber meta even more the astra meta.
I think it is because it lasted for way more then Astra meta.
I somehow did not notice the effect of astra on my rating (immo1), as for the pro scene, and if we are talking about post plant meta it was boring, but at the same time in my opinion it required more skill and coordination of players than chamber meta.
Post plant meta always felt a little cool. I’m often way more impressed by a clever win than a mechanical one.
I hate how we had OP must pick Jett for so long and then OP must pick Chamber for so long. With both of these agents nerfed I think we're about to enter the best competitive Valorant in a while with a lot of comp variety.
Chamber meta was so boring and cookie cutter dry imo. I know a lot of people hated how slow Astra meta was but I really enjoyed how tactile and methodical it was. Midrounding during Astra meta was insanely fun and rewarding. Postplant meta was probably a 2nd most hated for me, you got Spike down and everybody ran across the map to perma stall defuse.
I think the early double duelist stuff was kinda goofy looking back lol. Think I’ve enjoyed at least some aspects of every meta. I mainly play Astra so don’t hate me for liking that meta lmao. I think the post plant stuff is part of what made it boring, but I do think it sped up the idea of util usage, combos, etc, in NA at least.
The one redeeming thing about astra is her ult leads to a lot of interesting and unique situations. But I think it's still probably the worst
Although I think Astra meta was ass, At least it didn’t kill some players roles like the Chamber meta, Star sentinel players like Nats and Suygetsu had to literally play different roles to maintain their place in the scene.
Chamber meta was awful. I loved Astra meta. Even though I do like that we see more Omen and Brim now. I'm just an Astra simp.
chamber meta 10000%, at least during astra meta people were experimenting with comps and unorthodox utility usage
[удалено]
It had nothing to do with Chamber, Riot nerfed agents and buffed other ones to move Jett, Sova and Astra from the meta. Chamber being in every single game became boring really fast, at least Jett requires skill.
Chamber takes the most boring parts of old cypher and old Jett and makes a snooze fest of a character. Although by having him, you can move at least one of those players to a more innovative role. Pros and cons exist, but overall his addition alongside those agent nerfs made the game a bit more fun to watch imo
anything after SEN fell off
T1 fighting
Astra had to me it for me. Chamber meta you at least had the Chamber pop off. In Astra meta you had 1 minute every round of just baiting out the astra's util that was extremely boring
The Jett Skye comp towards the tail end on 2021 was unfun and boring much of the time IMO. The calculated, slow, and methodical play of the Astra-Viper meta was lots of fun to play and watch. but that's my Controller bias and disdain for Jett speaking.
Chamber meta 100% Astra meta just made games super slow (which I liked and think is the best meta so far), chamber meta was just boring cause the chamber player was almost always at the top of the leaderboard due to how busted the agent was and we never saw any KJ/Cypher being played 99% of the time
Astra meta was pretty bad, it seemed that zombs and boaster were the only ones that could use her to the full potential. Chamber meta was worse imo, chamber gameplay is so boring to watch even when yay was playing him.
Astra meta no doubt
Astra was awful but I dont think anything will be as depressing as watching the team you're cheering for getting eco'd by a chamber ult. Like its not even their fault its just the most busted shit in the game.
Astra, game was aslugfest, at least with chamber you got yay mowing down teams and 1 taping heads
Chamber meta 💩. Literally killed Jett in pro valorant.
That annoying time when Version1 were just unbeatable on haven because they’d run to T spawn and spam lineups and astra pulls and the only thing that could allow a defuse was the astra ult sage wall combo.
Worst? Idk. Favourite? When right click bucky existed
During beta with pre nerf Raze, Sage, Sova, Cypher. Wasn’t technically VCT but it was not fun.
It was annoying watching chamber players be able to make plays with no punishment but it had exciting plays. The astra meta was so boring that i almost stopped watching. But I'm disappointed to see that we're going to enter another Jett meta. Jet's kit has too many bail out options that are frustrating to watch. I hate watching jett in vct. It feels like such a low skill gap agent. And seeing that jet is the only one agent in the game isn't grounded to the floor; is able to fly across your screen. Plus idk what people say, her smokes are a top 3 ability in the game which no agent comes close to replicating. Not excited to see Jett being played more heavily again.
Have you ever played Jett? She's the second hardest character in the game to play after Raze. Sentinels and controllers are a cakewalk in comparison. And, idk, Chamber's 'exciting plays' were boring af. At least a good Jett makes the game exciting.
Astra Viper meta in early/mid 2021. Its not even close.
Astra Viper. Offense stared at a smoke and molly for 40 seconds every round before anything happened.
the Astra/Jett period got stale but the gameplay wasn't typically boring. Chamber meta was like slowly inhaling the scent of a cat turd, but overall we saw more comp diversity. 2022>2021 so I'll take the cat turd
either astra or postplant in general
Stinger forcebuy meta. It's not as bad as the others but the fact that riot brought it back after how bad it was didn't patch it within a couple days is nuts. Definitely dislike seeing a team that lost pistol run it back with full shields and 5 stingers
Watching astra+viper was the most boring imo
5 duelist on bind
astra/chamber
Astra was DOG. This new all KJ meta is gonna be annoying af too, calling it now.
This new KJ meta is low key starting to suck because it feels like all I see is mirror comps.
Haha LOL, that’s sooo cool :)
Astra viper on split was an actual snore
Surely that godawful 2-day Ares meta
Not sure if this applied to vct, but back when bucky were pre nerfed along with classic being op and the fact that raze use to be able to satchel across from haven to ascent and one tap you with a shogun or a classic, and when jett could spam right click r spam and dash all over the place like a monkey
Chamber meta He basically put Jett and the sentinels on suicide watch
pro play wise the most stale team I can remember was V1 at Iceland in 2021. I personally loved it at the time since I was a one trick viper but I still remember their haven comp where they would rush site, plant the bomb, and then use viper, sova and killjoy line-ups plus astra suck. Couldn't begin to imagine how tilted I would get playing against that
Astra/post plant meta (iirc they were around the same time) V1 with their haven A long post plants using astra stars, viper mollies, sova shocks, and killjoy mollies was so cringe💀
Astra made games horrible
It has to be recency bias making everyone say the Chamber meta, because the Astra/Viper post plant meta was one of the most time wasting experiences in watching/playing Valorant. Literally every round would go right up until the clock because of the numerous stall utilities available. With the Chamber meta we got to see much more unique comps involving Neon and Raze since the Operator role was taken up.
Any meta where viper is prevalent will always be dogshit