Valorant's Viper gets more play in NA VCT Challengers 2 qualifiers following Patch 2.07 buffs

After buffs in the Valorant 2.07 patch, Viper being played a whole lot more.

For a long time, Viper was one of the least used agents. Earlier, Riot tried to enhance the poison lady's powers. Nothing has borne fruit.

But the situation has changed for Viper after the buff in Valorant's 2.07 patch. She is now one of the top agents in the game and players are using her as a controller in tournaments.

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Viper in new Valorant meta:

Many players prefer Viper over other controller agents in Valorant in recent competitions.

Viper is much more of a defensive controller. She has Toxin Screen and Poison Cloud to block the enemies' vision. Her Snakebite can cause damage to the opponents and makes them vulnerable for 2 seconds.

In the NA VCT Stage Two: Challengers Two Open Qualifier, Viper's pick rate has increased. However, the poison-wielding agent still appears to be a situational option.

Players used Viper 19% of the time at the NA VCT Stage Two: Challengers Two Open Qualifier which is better than Skye, Reyna, Breach, Brimstone, and Yoru. In the Challenger One, she only had a 5% pick rate.

Use of Viper in NA VCT Challengers 2 qualifier [Image Via via VLR.gg]

However, Viper is still a map-based agent. She had a whopping 49% pick rate on Icebox, 30% on Bind, and 29% on Split. But for the map of Ascent and Haven, she is still one of the least used agents.

Icebox is the perfect Valorant map for Viper as it is known for close combat with multiple choke points. In these situations, Viper is more useful as she can halt an opposing team in their tracks.

Enemies tend to wait for the wall to go out as they don't want to lose 50 health immediately while pushing through the Viper's wall. With Snake Bite lineups, Viper buys time for the team in post-plant situations as well. Teams like Soniqs, XSET have used Viper in Icebox. Soniq's Bob used Viper against TSM and helped his team win the game.

The same goes for maps like Bind and Split in Valorant. But for maps like Ascent and Bind, where the last-minute rotations are pretty common, Viper is still avoided.

VCT Challengers 2 main event is kicking off this Thursday, 22 April. It will be interesting to see if Viper is still preferred or not!