VALORANT players give their thoughts on new agent Chamber

Right around the time the North American VALORANT Champions Tour Last Chance Qualifier was playing out, Riot released the game’s newest agent, Chamber.

Chamber is French and is modeled after the archetype of a “gentleman assassin.” He is a Sentinel who makes use of a variety of weapons and tech, including a pistol and a golden sniper rifle, as seen in the launch video for the character.

Chamber’s abilities have the player base excited about his release Nov. 16. A short description of his abilities are as follows:

Trademark -- Chamber places a trap that scans for enemies. When a visible enemy comes into its range, the trap counts down and destabilizes the area around them which slows players inside.

Headhunter -- Chamber equips a heavy pistol. It can be equipped to aim down sights with its alt fire.

Rendezvous -- Chamber places two teleport anchors which he can teleport between when in range of it. Anchors can be picked up and redeployed.

Tour de Force -- Summons a powerful sniper rifle that can one-shot any player with a direct hit. If Chamber kills a player with it, it creates a lingering field around the dead agent that slows players caught inside of it.

Soon, players will be able to get their hands on Chamber, and many are wondering if he will be available for Champions. It doesn’t seem likely, given that with travel and preparations for the tournament, teams won’t have enough time to get practice with the agent. Even if he were made available, it’s unlikely teams would integrate him into their rotation for the same reason.

Professional VALORANT players give their opinion of Chamber

Nerd Street had the chance to talk to a few players about what their thoughts were on the new hero.

One thing that many have been talking about, and all three pro players mentioned is that he didn’t seem like a sentinel and felt more like a duelist or an initiator. Sentinels are defensive experts. They are able to provide utility and information to their team, as well as hold down an area. Many players didn’t see him as a defensive player, and thought he was more like a fragger.

“I know that agent was supposed to be a sentinel.” Rise’s Ryan “Shanks" Ngo said. “And then I looked at the abilities and I was just really, really confused. I feel like it's not really played as a sentinel. It's more of like an initiator/duelist type of player.”

Although XSET’s Bryce “PureR” Lovell is a fan of the agent himself, he also doesn’t see him replacing any of the sentinels that fans are used to seeing in professional play.

“I don't know if it's going to replace a Cypher or Killjoy, I don’t think. Because it's just a weird sentinel. I don't know, since sentinels traditionally control certain areas of the map, I don't know if he can really do that very easily,” PureR said.

PureR’s teammate Jordan “AYRIN” He agrees, but thinks he will be a unique and versatile character.

“What's really interesting about [Chamber], though, is it’s listed as a sentinel,” AYRIN said. “But you know, with abilities and the way that people are talking and the way I think about it is, it's unique. It's kind of a blend, it kind of has killing abilities, which is like more of a duelist mindset. So it'll be interesting.”

Will Chamber be played in professional VALORANT?

Unfortunately for fans of the sentinel who would like to see him played in the pro VALORANT circuit, he probably won’t be played by professionals anytime soon.

“You can't really replace them for a sentinel or anything like that, I don't think. I don't think people are gonna play it. And you're not, you're like not gonna know how good it is until you actually play it in a match,” Shanks said.

According to PureR, he’s just a better Yoru.

“[He’s] just a better Yoru I think,” PureR said. “I mean, his [ultimate ability] is really strange. But the ultimate and his Q, you have to buy credits for the bullets and it's like a one shot with a sniper and like a two shot with the sheriff, I think. His TP is really good actually, I like the instant TP so you can rotate from mid to B or mid to A. I think they have to be in range of each other. I think it looks good.”

He also looks pretty cool. AYRIN said that Chamber had some pretty cool looks to him, and he looks forward to playing him or having someone on his team play him.

“The new agent looks really cool, it looks like it's just came out of a movie set. … So it'll be interesting and I look forward to playing it myself or having someone on my team play it,” AYRIN said.

Lead image credit: Riot Games