Valorant: Joe Ziegler talks about the possibility of 'Agent picks/bans' in the shooter

The idea of Agent bans has been a hot topic of discussion in the Valorant community for some time.

Ever since the Chief Executive of Valorant, Anna Donlon, took to the developer’s blog to talk about Riot Games’ plan to release 6 Agents a year, there has been a buzz among fans about the possibility of an Agent pick and ban phase in the future.

Executive Producer @RiotSuperCakes checking in from home on the launch of VALORANT and our future plans. Watch to learn more about what’s up next for VALORANT. pic.twitter.com/xPZ13gOQMS

— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) June 29, 2020

Riot Games’ other IP, League of Legends, has a pick and ban phase that is crucial when it comes to team strategy. And Valorant might just be getting the same once there are enough Agents in the game for it to play out.

However, even though there is no pick and ban phase in the game officially, there have been tournaments in particular regions that have successfully implemented it.

During the Valor A.W. Extreme Masters, we saw teams dedicating one knife round before every match, allowing the winning team to not just pick the first map but to even ban an Agent of choice.

This practice is not that uncommon in the Asian Valorant scene, and it has slowly become the norm in quite a few regions.

Joe Ziegler talks about the possibility of Agent bans in Valorant

In a recent interview with G2 Esports’ star Oscar “Mixwell” Cañellas Colocho, Valorant’s Game Director, Joe Ziegler, gave us a few insights on a possible pick and ban phase for the shooter.

Ziegler stated:

“I think right now, we’re not doing that, but I think in the future we may think about it. It really depends on how much it adds to the game versus subtracts to the game. Is it more interesting to keep it zero bans and really have everybody think about who the other side is picking and who we want to pick to counter that or who we wanna pick to think about how to restrict that? Or, is it better to think about how do we restrict the overall pool and make it so players have to adapt to the scenarios on their end, basically from their meta choices.”

“Those decisions, I think, are hard to tell when we only have 14 characters in the game. But as we’re sort of growing into the future, definitely as we get more characters it’s definitely gonna be one of those conversation points where it’s like, should we put in banning, should we put in the way for teams to influence one another.”

Ziegler then added:

“Having said that though, I think we’re learning a lot from how they handle it right now in some of those Asian tournaments, so we’re always thinking about new ways to, you know, learn from those things to think about new ways of handling the scene.”

For now, Valorant will not officially have a pick and ban phase for its competitive matchmaking but with the ever-growing roster of Agents, it might just be inevitable in a few years’ time.