Valorant developers have recently revealed they are bringing cascading agent systems to the game to counter the issue of instalocking. However, the community believes the concept would make low elo matchmaking more toxic.
During a livestream hangout on Twitch on the occasion of Episode 4 Act 1's launch, Jon Walker, designer of Riot's tactical shooter, talked about bringing a cascading agent pick feature to the future.
Cascading picks have been implemented into Riot's other IP, League of Legends. The system puts the players in a randomized order to pick their agent. Everyone gets 20 seconds each to select their agent, which the community believes can be a disadvantage for the player to pick in the end, especially for new Valorant players.
Valorant community believes cascading pick feature might cause even more dodgers
A Reddit user, u/SkyBoiz, made a post expressing his thoughts on cascading agents in the game. He believes that players will be selecting duelists every 20 seconds rather than locking duelists instantly.
Valorant currently has a range of agents with six duelists. Players often tend to play duelist to fetch more kills and play aggressively, which overlooks the existence of the other agent roles in the game. If the team has no communication between them, it might lead to everyone picking an agent of their choice randomly without discussion. This would put the last player at a disadvantage, as they have to select an agent they are uncomfortable with or dodge the match instead.
As u/SkyBoiz pointed out, this would work for players with more experience and proper communication among teammates. However, in low elos, this might cause more toxicity due to their inexperience with other agents.
When one half of the community criticizes the system, another Reddit use, u/RadioActiV_YT, came up with an alternative solution to make the system work. Without proper communication, this system might fail. Thus, u/RadioActiV_YT suggested a 15-second standby phase for the players to communicate and discuss their agent composition. It will allow the players to play with their comfortable pick, rather than putting them in a situation to pick a random agent that they can't play effectively.
This is just the community's take on it. Now that Riot has confirmed that the feature is under development, the community would be keen to know how to design the entire system to eliminate instalocking in Valorant.