VALORANT: Yay to remain ‘dominant’ despite Chamber nerfs, says Cloud9 coach
Cloud9 VALORANT head coach Matthew “mCE” Elmore said star player Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker would continue to reign supreme despite the recent nerfs to Chamber. Earlier, fans said on social media that Chamber mains would perform worse in 2023.
“The Chamber changes will hurt, but I think he’s going to be just fine,” mCe said. “He’s still going to be a very dominant player, and his potential is incredibly high.”
The coach said people forgot “how good yay was.” MCe referred to yay’s statistics before Chamber joined the professional landscape in 2022. At VCT Stage 3 Masters Berlin, yay recorded the highest average damage, best kills/deaths ratio and most kills per round while playing Jett.
MCe added that yay was more intelligent than some other players in controlling Chamber. Therefore, Cloud9 was positive that yay would not struggle as much as the more “stereotypical” Chamber players.
The coach, however, acknowledged that there would be a change that could affect yay and other players significantly, namely the number of times available to access the agent’s ultimate and receive a free sniper rifle.
The changes have caused players to pick Chamber less as they do not have a strong weapon every few rounds to supplement the Operator. Before the shift, players could win eco rounds “so easily” with Chamber.
Yay has commented on Chamber’s nerf and how it may affect his performance.
“In terms of how that is going to affect my play, to be honest with you, I am kind of happy that he is nerfed,” yay said. “I was kind of in a situation where I was just stuck playing him nonstop for a year. I was getting sick of it.
“There will probably be some direct correlation on my play just because when you are playing something for so long and then suddenly it is completely out of meta and you are forced to shift back.”
The American player is among the top global eSports athletes. He won the OpTic Gaming in 2022 and VCT Stage 1 Masters Reykjavík. He was also in the top three at other international championships Cloud9 attended.
Yay will participate in the Red Bull Home Ground 3 on December 9. It will be his first appearance for Cloud9, which is in Group A, alongside KRÜ Esports, FOKUS and Team Vitality.
Chamber nerfs
Before the recent downgrade, Chamber used to dominate VALORANT. The community had long requested nerfs for the Agent to balance the game. The nerfs finally came with the 5.12 update.
VALORANT developer Riot Games addressed the nerfs via Twitter. The developer said the nerfs would “strike the right balance” between maintaining Chamber’s identity and the game’s health. The changes encompass most abilities of the Agent, which players said to be the most severe downgrades to ever happen to an agent in Valorant.
The most notable change to the Sentinel is his Rendezvous teleport. Instead of having multiple anchors to teleport like in the previous patches, Chamber now only has one. His old ability kept the character safe in early games because he could teleport to a faraway place instantly.
Because the teleport distance is shorter now, the agent is not guaranteed safety when pulling this stunt. Speedy opponents like Jett or Neon can easily catch up with Chamber within seconds. Additionally, it now takes him 0.7s to equip his weapon after teleporting, as opposed to 0.4s before the nerf.
To cushion the blow for this nerf, Riot has increased the anchor radius from 7.5m to 13m. Players can also teleport to higher ground if the anchor is on a different verticality and the character is within the anchor radius.
