"Composition that leads to the best team synergy is the most important": DFM HSK on picking Cypher over Killjoy on Lotus in VCT Pacific 2023

VCT Pacific 2023 went underway on March 25, 2023. Three days of the tournament have now passed and the participating teams have been putting on a show. Lotus, the latest addition to Valorant's map pool, has been played on a regular basis and different sides have used varied compositions on it. Among the most popular Agents on the map are Killjoy, Jett, Omen, and Skye.

That said, the German Sentinel has seen the most picks in the game with all but one team opting for her in VCT Pacific 2023 so far.

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The motivation behind Detonation FocusMe's Cypher pick on Lotus at VCT Pacific 2023

Killjoy is absolutely reigning over the current Valorant Sentinel meta. She doesn't feel oppressively overpowered to play with or against, but her pick rate is sky-high regardless of the region. This probably has less to do with her prowess than how weak other Agents are in comparison.

On Lotus, her entire kit, especially her Ultimate, can get a lot of value. She has been picked in 83% of the team comps in VCT Pacific so far. The only team that didn't do so was the Japanese outfit, Detonation FocusMe, who chose to go with Cypher instead.

Sportskeeda asked coach Kim "HSK" Hae-seon about the tactics behind choosing the Moroccan Sentinel over the German one, to which he responded (translated from Korean):

"Killjoy is certainly important for her Lockdown ultimate, and we also thought about Killjoy for the map (Lotus), but we always have to think about the entire team's composition. We think that the overall composition that leads to the best team synergy is the most important."

This is an interesting insight because one would assume the overwhelmingly best pick for the map to automatically work for the team. But that is not the case. Teams have to choose Agents based on both their tactics and those employed by their opponent.

Considering DFM was up against Paper Rex in its opening game at VCT Pacific 2023, the team probably anticipated a Jett or Neon pick from the opponent. With this anticipation, it would be a good idea to pick Cypher, whose Trap Wires can prevent those Duelists from easily invading the site with a dash or slide.

Unfortunately for DFM, PRX ended up picking Yoru and Raze, neither of which are Agents that Cypher counters particularly well. In fact, Raze's Blast Packs would easily break any Cypher utility placed to deny entry to a site.